STOP 4: A HECTORITE MINE UPHILL FROM STOP 3 -- THE MINE AND SOME PHOTOS OF THE SURROUNDINGS ON THE DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK BOUNDARY
The road from the well at Stop Three goes west a little ways and then turns south and stops here (a lesser road continues west, but those who have been on it warn that there is a better way to spend a day):
Obviously I have climbed a little to take the above photo. In fact, I have climbed onto the limestone cap of a hill made of the same volcanic rock that shows red in the photo. The white stuff? Hectorite: a specialty clay used in making make-up and for medicine pills.
Up close, it looks like this:
And even closer, it looks like this:
And totally close up it looks like this (note the yellow-brown deposits left by water moving down fractures in this hard clay):
Where did this material come from? This mine (currently inactive):
OK, so I already revealed I did a little climb. From the hill I climbed, these were some of the views. First we look to the south at a faulted section of the Funeral Range:
Next we look a little bit more to the west at the same Funerals:
We keep turning toward the north in small steps (this one from a lower level, but it shows the gravel wash that I have mistaken for a road from a distance. Nice place to build a house, I think: early sunsets in Summer!):
I am now getting tired of these baby steps, so let's look more northward:
Turning a bit more northward we see Bare Mountain, below which lies the town of Beatty (not visible, but pictured elsewhere on this site), and the right of the picture is Red Cone, youngest volcanic cone in the area at about 75,000 years. In the foreground is the sandy terrain where Amargosa River meanders have made their way at various times past:
Even further northward, one of the flanks of Yucca Mountain sits just behind and to the left of Red Cone. (A view back in this direction from Yucca Mountain, with Red Cone in it, and some views on and off Yucca Mountain, are pictured elsewhere on this site):
As we make a larger turn to the right we begin to look east-northeast and see the Amargosa River traced by vegetation in the foreground, the Ash Meadows greenery (see last year's Field Trip) in the center of the picture, and part of the Spring Range (several pages on the Spring Range on this site):
A final turn has us looking at the red mountain that holds the Hectorite deposit. Hectorite is a degraded volcanic rock, rock that has reacted with groundwater at an elevated temperature:
All good things come to an end, so we drove on home to Las Vegas. Along the way we saw some vertical limestones just east of U.S. Highway 95 (there are those pesky windshield bugs again, sorry):
and on the way south to Las Vegas we saw this view of Mummy Mountain (second highest peak on the Spring Range) with its snow:
And as the cartoon character says: "That's All Folks!" -- Until next year's Devils Hole Workshop field trip, of course.
Go back to Nevares Springs, Stop # 1
Go back to road from Stop 1 to Stop 2
Go back to Stop 2: National Park Service Travertine Wells
Go back to the first page that shows the road from Stop 2 to Stop 3 (California 190)
Go back to the page that shows more of the road from Stop 2 to Stop 3 (California 190)
Go back to Stop 3: Inyo County well #1
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