Desert Adventures II - The Mojave Desert

This post fills in the gaps in the middle from the previous one, that is what I actually got up to on the field work bit of my trip. Myself, John & Johnnie met up with the 4th member of our intrepid team, Calvin. Calvin was John's Master's advisor back in the day and he has been working on the rocks of the Mojave desert for the last 40 years or so. He was to act as our guide to all things desert related. 

We set off from Vegas on our way towards Needles, California where we were staying. I was in the rugged little 4-wheel-drive Jeep with Calvin. Driving south I got a geological travelogue of every single mountain range and valley we passed. And don't mistake my tone here, it was fabulous to be told the information and stories of the landscape from the  guy with a photographic memory. 

We made good time on the road and we stopped for an early lunch before actually getting our nose to any rocks. We stopped at the Hi Sahara Oasis, a fabulous truck stop along the original Route 66. The first culinary delight of the trip was a falafel pita that, despite not containing any tahini much to Calvin's dismay, was scrumptious.

The Hi Sahara Oasis. A true oasis in the desert this is the only place within 100 miles on the interstate. 

The wind whips up a wee sand storm as a lonely truck stops to refuel.

Next we headed for the rocks. The main focus of my study is to look at the Sweetwater Wash pluton, which is part of the Old Woman-Piute range Mountains. I'll be digging out extremely small minerals of monazite from the granites, shooting some lasers at them and measuring their chemical components. From that I can tell lots about how the formed and when these big lumps of molten rock cooled. 

Anyways we came off the main highways and continued along bumpy desert roads. The roads were actually in pretty good condition despite just being linear trails through the cacti. Doesn't mean my back didn't hurt at the end of it though. We drove for about an hour up Carbonate Gulch, much more preferable a dry stream than Rattlesnake Canyon, despite there not actually being any Carbonate rocks anywhere nearby. Work then consisted of getting out of the cars, having a gander at the rocks and Calvin providing us with wisdom as to where is best to sample. Then John would hit the bejesus out of the granite with his sledgehammer and I would collect. Bag and tag, move onto the next outcrop.

The Old Woman Mountains in the midday sun.

"That is a nice boulder." And actually it is. It's granite with bits of Fenner Gneiss trapped in it.

Part of the Sweetwater Wash Pluton. Johnnie went off for a wander to the
left and found an old mine shaft.

Sunset over the Ship Mountains to the south.
Our wee Jeep in the late afternoon glow.

We made it to Needles and settled into our hotel. Dinner was at Juicy's River Cafe next door, where we would also enjoy our breakfasts the following days. I had a Baja Burger, somehow named so due to the addition of an avocado. Yummy but greasy southern fare. How different my weight would be now had we camped on this trip.

Following day we headed to the beautifully named Painted Rock pluton, a Pride Rock-esque monolith sticking out of the desert. Despite almost getting stuck by persevering down the desert track we made it safely in and we all got a bit snap happy. I especially was enjoying learning about the ecology of the desert from Calvin, and thus documented most of the plants we came across. I did also see some Teddy Bear Cholla and some Joshua Trees but for some reason didn't take any photos...

Cottontop Cactus

Cholla (they hurt)

Why Chollas hurt

(Drunken) Yucca

Ray Flower

Juniper tree that made me crave gin.

There's a stupid amount of cholla photos because they were the most abundant cacti.

Forging on we went to the other side of the Sweetwater Wash pluton and hiked in about an hour to sample on this side. It was pretty cool having Calvin there because he did his Master's mapping these rocks so he knew exactly where everything was and where we were going. We made our way to the "famous" SW-1 site that provided the samples for some of the breakthroughs in accessory mineral geochemistry during the 80's. Having read about it so much in class it was cool to go there. We hiked back to the cars walking down the dry Sweetwater Wash itself and were treated to a lovely sunset that photos don't do justice to. 

Dinner this evening was a "chicken fried steak" at the Wagon Wheel restaurant. I ordered it as I was intrigued as to what it actually was. There was no chicken involved. Just a thin bread crumbed steak with some lovely sauce and some chips. More typical southern fare.

Painted Rock pluton. The massiveness of the desert
was particularly evident from here

Piute mountain sediments, the same ones that are in the Grand Canyon, but here older Cambrian rocks are thrust on top of them.

We kept finding little presents all over the road. We then found the culprit, likely a member of the Lazy Daisy Ranch nearby.

The sunset over the Old Woman Mountains.

Our last day involved one more sample collection, this time from the North Piute pluton. A quick drive towards the Great White contact and a quick whack at the rocks. After that John was keen to drive north into the Mojave National Preserve for some extraordinary scenery and a wide variety of geological features. The Granite Mountains were spectacular in their 100% outcrop. The Kelso Sand dunes formed as the winds blow down from the mountains. And then the Kelso depot, now a ghost town but it used to be an important stop on the railroad and telegraph station.

The Great White contact. North PIute granite below in contact with the
Fenner Gneiss at the roof of the pluton.

Me halfway up the Kelso Dunes, 45 sq. miles of migrating aeolian sand deposits, the highest point being 650 ft. We were aiming for the top but walking it at 12 noon wasn't the best way to achieve this goal.

Kelso Depot. Very different to the Scottish town of Kelso.

Lunch at the Mad Greek Cafe in Baker was a huge yummy lamb souvlaki. I did have my reservations though when I saw a load of birds angrily flapping around outside, reminding me of the Greek legend of Prometheus who got his eyes pecked out by birds...Anyways we continued to drive north and it started to look more like a proper arid desert. Vegetation became sparse and dried up lakes became the norm. Huge alluvial fans coming off the mountains made it look more like the photos of Death Valley that I had studied during my undergrad. We weren't actually that far away from Death Valley.

We arrived at our destination, the China Ranch Date Farm. Located on the Old Spanish Trail it has produced dates since around the 1920's, importing date trees from Iraq and growing them using the sparse water that is found deep beneath the 100's of metres of lake sediments. We had date milkshakes, which to be honest had no taste of dates but lovely nonetheless, and I purchased some Date Bread for the Pot Luck Xmas dinner I was attending 9 hours after I landed back in St John's.

The Kingston Peak formation that we studied for a
mapping project as 4th years in St Andrews.

42 Flag in a proper looking desert.

The China Ranch Date Farm with lots of lovely little bits of memorabilia.

Dates growing on the trees covered in some very colourful cloth.

We saw a coyote atop the sediments. We think he was waiting for the farm to knock off for the night to treat himself to some dates.

One more stop on our whirlwind tour of the Mojave. Just past the wee town of Shoshone John took me to a wonderful road outcrop where the MUN field school goes in the Spring. Reminiscent of the Multicoloured Rock Stop in the Scottish Highlands, it's another beautiful set of rocks to sketch in the notebook.

The sun set and now we had an epic drive back to Needles. Driving through some dense Joshua tree forests we discovered that they look rather alien and creepy at night. We stopped briefly to look up and admire the stars. I've never been anywhere where you appreciate the fact that the stars are arranged in the belt of the Milky Way. Having been listening to talk of the Mayan Apocalypse on the radio, I suddenly felt very very small.

The fabulous desert experience was topped by a trip to Valenzuela's. This tiny Mexican restaurant is a favourite of Calvin and John's and Calvin was very disappointed that he had left before we went there. Set in a residential area this small building still had an external outhouse-style toilet for the customers. The food was incredible and the hospitality fantastic. I was particularly impressed by the home-made taco shells, something I hadn't come across before. I fought to finish my food, as I didn't want to waste such a beautiful meal.

A volcaniclastic wonderland, beautiful in the late afternoon light.

Another gorgeous sunset.

And there I ended my second Californian adventure. Beautiful sights that I may never see again. Lots of photographs that attempted to capture the incredible views although few of them depict what I'll have in my memories. A wonderful week full of scenery, food and geology. What more could you want?