Moments in Dirt and Ink

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) I passed right by Grimes Point on the way out to see the annular eclipse , which quite definitively closes my circle through Nevada that started with the Pony Express and other ruins . (There's an introduction at the Lassen overlook , but that's in California, so that doesn't count.) I wanted to stop this time because there are petroglyphs. These aren't just any petroglyphs, either. Estimated to be at least 8000 years old, they're some of the oldest in the state. There are some that are probably at least 10,500, perhaps 14,000, years old, so they're not the oldest. One of a few information signs at the highly developed Grimes Point Trailhead which includes toilets, covered picnic tables, paved road access, and more information signs. My plan for the visit was to take a turn around the interpretive trail that visits some of the petroglyphs in the area, then head up the Observation Point Trail. There were some...

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) I stopped by the Mineral County Library in Hawthorne to do a few things on the web. The stop lasted a bit longer than expected because they have jigsaw puzzles out for working. I managed to head out in good time to find a camp site in the light and getting to the top of the top of Lucky Boy Pass took less time than expected as the road was recently graded. What to do with 40 minutes of light? The world was clearly directing me to go find the "Below Corey" geocache . I decided to let it push me along that way since it would mean I at least stepped foot into the forest. Along this road, it is essentially Bureau of Land Management on the north side of the road and National Forest on the south side. Besides, I do like a lonely cache and this one hadn't been visited in 6 years! This is doubly surprising since nearby ones have had much more recent visits. Lucky Boy Pass Road so recently polished...

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) The bit of geocaching at the mining areas on the way up to Mable Mountain seemed quite successful, so I set out to find a couple more before stopping by the library in Hawthorne and then finding a new camp with easy access to Corey Peak. They were actually on the menu for the day I drove in, but the faint roads that lead to them proved so hard to see that I went right past before knowing it. With a lot more care, I got stopped in the right places on the way out. Since absolutely no one would care if I parked at the side of the road, I decided against challenging off road parking spots and didn't repeat throwing the car into a sand trap. First up, Lazy Man . I approached it from a hill that had been cut, but not for a road. Buildings and other structures and tailings from the Lazy Man Mine, worked around the 1930s?, lie below. The mine spreads out all around the hill. I headed down the hill, trackless on the south side, to hav...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) I got a late start because, well, it's cold out there. I don't particularly want to deal with the part of the day that's below 20°F, quite frankly. A south facing slope and warming sun can fix it right up in a little time. It's bad enough when water freezes, but when the pancake batter or even the eggs freeze, it is really annoying. When I did start out, it was still too early for a raptor that I kept disturbing as I headed toward yesterday's missed Earthcache . My target, the line of white cut into the desert slope in the distance, more toward the bottom than the top. A disturbed raptor, probably a northern harrier, takes flight from the sagebrush. I disturbed quite a lot of sage sparrows, too. The little flocks would flutter and swoosh and become dark spots on one turn and flashing white spots on other turns. I decided it was time to try to capture a flock with the camera as I walked across the less impressive l...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) "The Crater" proclaims the map as if, although there may be others around, there's certainly none of this stature. I left my camp just north of (or maybe within) the Silver Peak caldera and headed for it. First I stopped at Coyote Spring (a small swampy area beside the road surrounded by parched land) and the Silver Peak cemetery , then north to The Crater. I found parking along the side of the highway as it loomed at the edge. It looks like there's an even more commonly used area slightly north of The Crater. I aimed to go around it as I had with Lunar Crater and Easy Chair Crater . The road to Silver Peak with some other dark bumps out in Clayton Valley. The Crater rising from Clayton Valley. USGS shows some track roads on The Crater. The one on the south side goes to a "cinder pit". There's an Earthcache for it that happens to mention some trail, too, with a warning against trying those roads no ma...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) One of the larger cinder cones in the volcano field around Lunar Crater is Easy Chair Crater. There is a thin, but smooth enough, road off the scenic backcountry byway past Lunar Crater at the first (from the north) cow water, then keep left at the Y. There is a small dirt lot and a sign for Observation Point Trail. It's a short route from the parking area to the low point of the crater. Lunar Lake and the nearby buttes of the Pancake Range from the edge of the parking area. The trail to the edge of Easy Chair Crater. My plan was simple: head up to the observation point and then around the edge of the crater. The high point is marked on Peakbagger as "Easy Chair Butte", so I figured I'd tag that when nearby. The crater is particularly asymmetric and the high point is off the edge of it. There is an Earthcache that suggests it is possible this crater grew out of the side of an older one to make it so lopsided, but the...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) I traveled the Extraterrestrial Highway (NV-375) looking longingly at the several good roads extending north past varied and beautiful mountain ranges. All missed on this trip. It's much more interesting than the area to the south, which is off limits testing grounds and supposedly includes "Area 51". Circling around on US-6 and then following an actual sign for my destination, I arrived late in the afternoon at a small volcano field full of little craters and the odd lava flow. Among all these little cinder cones is one oddity: Lunar Crater, a maar crater. Lots of cinder cones in the distance. While the nearby craters are formed from pressures deep within the earth finding a weak spot to spew new rocks, which then collect in the vicinity, the maar crater forms when water suddenly encounters hot magma and the resulting water vapor provides the explosive energy to blast away the rocks already there. The maar crater called...