Mojave Desert, CA…

Monday, April 19th 2010

Hello everyone!

This past weekend I visited my friend Aimee(a.k.a. SeptemberSky)and her wonderful daughter, Alondra for her spectacular dance recital at the Boulder City Performance Theatre. Unfortunately I have no photos of the play because there were no cameras allowed
Earlier that day I had spent some time in the front yard looking at the trees and found an echo from 2009.
“A Cicada molting from the previous summer”

The following day was spent at the visiting the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas, which was a very cool place with a great garden section. As we got ready to hit the road, but I we noticed that there was something wrong with my trucks thermostat…lol

This was my first time visiting this place and I immediately noticed the awesome solar power collectors fastened on the roof of the entire parking structure.

The walkway way was very cool, there was a small running stream along some of the path and all sorts of insects & strange plants.

“Here’s one of the strange flowers I found growing in that garden…”

The Springs Preserve is not very big, so we finished up shortly and headed back for dinner at the Olive Garden and the Yogurtland for the munchkin(Alondra). The cups are only one size and I could not believe just how much Frozen Yogurt some people were serving themselves!, I mean I barely filled mine to 1/3 while others were overflowing! @__@

When Monday arrived it was 1pm and time to go, so I hit the road like I usually do taking the 95 south to Searchlight NV, then the 164 through Nipton to jump back in the 15 Fwy. but I got tired of taking the same old route, so I decided that this would be a prime opportunity to do some location scouting for my Mojave Desert documentary“TREASURES OF THE MOJAVE DESERT”. I took the 164 through Nipton, but then detoured south on Ivanpah Rd. which cut through the entire Mojave National Preserve via the Northern Access Point.
“Plenty of water, plenty of time and plenty of highway!”

The new drive was already a breathe of fresh air compared to the often times ‘stresses’ of the 15 Fwy and all the shitty drivers.
No sooner after getting on Ivanpah, I realized that I had to make a split decision as I reached a junction point with a break off to another road. One of my destination points was Kelso Dunes, and I could not stay on Ivanpah to do this, so I made a right onto Morning Star Mine Rd. I continued on this road all the way to Kelso Station.

One of the first great views of this drive was a wall of rock in the form of a mountain that I had often seen in the distance, but never realized just how awesome it was from this closer distance. I learned that these are called the New York Mountains and have an elevation of 7,532 feet, and run in a mostly east-west direction between the Providence Mountains and the McCullough Range approximately five miles into Nevada.

As I continued the drive, I noticed what appeared to be 4 large crows on the side of the highway eating a dead animal, but it wasn’t until I slowed and they started to take flight that I soon realized that those birds were actually 4 Red Tailed Hawks! How amazing it was, but unfortunately they were to shy and I did not have a big enough lens to take a shot. After moving on for a while and passing the Cinder Cone lava fields at Cima, I was well on my way to Kelso.
The Train Station at Kelso is a very bizarre sight, almost like a mid desert oasis, but apparently the place used to be a WWII boom town.

“The Station was very neat and kept up in maintenance. Part of it was a museum with great info and there was even a small cafe inside.” =)

Across the road from the station, the rest of the town lay in ruin, this house for example was weathered so bad, it seemed to compliment the tree…lol

When I explored around a bit I got back in my truck and headed out to Kelso Dunes. It was about 8 miles outside of Kelso.

On the way to the Dunes, I spotted an awesome mountain formation to the East, it was tectonic orogeny at work and the ancient seabed that once covered this entire desert was thousands of feet in the sky! I couldn’t even imagine the amount of fossils that you could find there! =D The name of that range is the Providence Mountains which are massive layers of tilted grey rock that are almost certainly ancient limestone formed during the Paleozoic period. The base elevation of the park is 4300 feet with Providence Mountains reaching to 6608 feet.(Wikipedia Cited)

“Another awesome, yet random geological feature….piled rocks!”

Moving along, I saw a posted sign that said 1/4 miles to the Kelso Dunes access road. When I exited, I found that the access road was a 3 mile drive over a hard dirt road to the parking section. They even had a public bathroom out there. =)

Kelso Dunes, also known as the Kelso Dune Field, is the largest field of eolian sand deposits in the Mojave Desert. The region is protected by the Mojave National Preserve and is located near the town of Baker, San Bernardino County, California. The dune field covers 45 square miles (115 km2) and includes migrating dunes, vegetation-stabilized dunes, sand sheets, and sand ramps. The tallest dunes rise up to 650 feet (200 m) above the surrounding terrain. The dunes are composed predominantly of light-colored quartz and feldspar, most likely eroded from the granitics of the San Bernardino Mountains to the southwest. Magnetite and amphibole can also be found, often accumulating at the dune crests. Kelso Dunes represent part of a much larger sand transport system, which includes the nearby Devil’s Playground region. The composition and morphology of the sand grains indicate that most originated from the Mojave River sink near Afton Canyon, which lies to the west of the dunes’ current location. The sand has accumulated at the southeastern end of the Soda Lake-Kelso basin, where the Granite Mountains and Providence Mountains form a barrier to prevailing winds.(Wikipedia Cited)

When I parked, I got out and enjoyed the nice 76ºF weather with a cool breeze. The dunes were much too far for a hike and I was not prepared for a hike that far with all the gear I had. i was out of shape and had no way to carry water efficiently cause I left my Camel Pack at home. Upon further inspection, I realized that these were not true dunes, but rather dunes that covered what seemed to be a small series of hills. There was way to much brush growing at the tops of them to be made of pure sand only. These dunes were very cool to look at, but I loved the dunes at Death Valley’s Stove Pipe Wells much better

“I started my journey again and said goodbye to the Kelso Dunes as I begun my travel to the Chloride Trenches at Amboy, CA.”

“On the way out, I saw slanted slopes of the Providence Mountains once again which would be for the last time that day.”

“The Road ahead revealed some very intriguing rock mounds the size of office buildings in the distance…”

The Rock mounds were part of an even larger collection which are simply known as ‘The Granite Mountains’. They reach an average height of 5,200ft and spread north to south.

“Some wild desert flowers in full bloom in and around the Granite Mountain range.”

This was the last section of the Mojave National Preserve and as I exited the region, I skipped the I-40 all together and continued south to the Chloride Trenches. After about 11 miles worth of driving, I hit a ‘T’ in the road…

Although I was not heading to Joshua Tree National Park this time, I did want to follow the road because it was the right way to the Trenches. There in the distance about 6 miles away was the tiny town of Amboy as well as the Amboy Crater just to the left.
That’s the same location where I blogged A HOT DATE WITH AN EXTINCT VOLCANO…

I pulled over when I got to the small town and took a photo of a very old cop car.

After I made my junction onto Amboy Rd. I continued south for about another 6 miles and noticed the increasing amount of Salt Flats on the sides of the road. It felt like I was at Badwater, Death Valley.

I had finally arrived at the Chloride Trenches and found them to be so amazing and beautiful at the same time!!! The colors were just so surreal for being out in the middle of the Mojave Desert. This was one of the first that I had walked to and taken photos of.

I wanted to get to a better trench that I saw on the other side of the highway, so I did a small walk and found the view of the Salt Flats on this side to be very striking! =D

“When I hiked over a small hill, I found what I was looking for, an intensely green Chloride Trench!!! “Woot!”

” A closer look at the wonderful green color!”

After spending 30 minutes here, I took one last photo of the Salt Flats with a shot of the Amboy Crater in the distance =)

“Playing with my Truck’s fisheye mirror…lol”

So now at the end of the day and I traveled a whopping 111 miles from Searchlight, NV to Chloride Trenches at Amboy, CA. When I left Boulder City, NV it was 1pm and when I finally got home to Victorville, CA. I found that the total trip was roughly 254 miles with a final arrival time of 7:15pm. It was a very long drive, but a very rewarding one indeed. I found great new locations to shoot for my “Treasures of the Mojave” documentary.

Overall, I would have to say that the location scout was a total success and that spontaneity on this level is one of my better attributes…lol.
Well, lets hope that I can have the speed and success in the coming months for this documentary “TREASURES OF THE MOJAVE DESERT”so that I can have a timely release date in late summer of this year! =)

Oh, and by the way,
Here’s a map of my route from Searchlight, NV to the Chloride Trenches at Amboy, CA

Hope you enjoyed the visuals and I’ll catch you all on the next blog my friends!…

“Cheers!”
~Indigo .H

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