Moments in Dirt and Ink

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( Click here for the locaiton .) On my way through, I stopped in Silver Peak. The cemetery is very cute with each site picked out in rocks. Someone seems to have added a huge number of wooden crosses to it recently, perhaps to distract from how many of the plots have been left without a name. The cemetery at Silver Peak. Although not marked with names, some are singled out by visitors. Some are given great detail of the outline of their living. The cemetery, Silver Peak, and the lithium mine from the top. Some details higher in the cemetery. *photo album* ©2023,2024 Valerie Norton Written 9 Feb 2024

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) My plan for the day was an out and back to Silver Peak, a little over 3.5 miles distant for the crow. For myself as a land bound creature, it would involve some winding and negotiation of slopes. There are numerous ascents on Peakbagger , mostly involving long 4x4 drives to or near a radio tower south of the peak and a half mile walk up to the top. Some decide it's a bit rough or snowy and they might as well get a whole mile walk in. One sans-4x4 headed up a road a bit to the west that gets up pretty high. I decided on one a little less to the west that doesn't go so far, leaving more than half of the route cross country. But how hard could that cross country be? After a short walk on the good road, there's this pair of tracks heading south. The terrain ahead, but I'm going off to the right. Silver Peak is way in the back and a little further. The road climbs a bit higher than I needed it to, but it's gentle. It ge...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) My initial plans for a western approach to the high point of Rhyolite Ridge may have been foiled (perhaps by my own timidity), but I could still find a way up on the east side to bag this 1000 foot prominence peak. The west side sure looks a lot easier. There is a track on Peakbagger indicating it didn't require any class 5.3 moves or anything, so I set out to make the attempt in spite of all the clearly visible cliffs. Rhyolite Ridge from the east side. Boundary Peak (and higher Montgomery next to it) through the gap. Taller, but not very prominent. The route up is far to the north on little used roads and my little car still has only two drive wheels and 6 inches of clearance, so there would be a bit of walking before the real climbing began. From camp, the roads going my way are inconveniently placed, so I just set out across the scrub. Not a hard hike with a patch of cholla along the way. I got to a rough road and followed it ...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) Corral, it says. Cave Spring, it says. Ruins, it says. There's a couple prospects and a building marked too. Okay map, I thought, we can stop there and see what all the fuss is about. That's quite a few little marks. Cabin, corral, and Rhyolite Ridge. I did find myself deciding that the way up Rhyolite Ridge was up the valley north of the road and pick one of the later minor ridges to the top. The only trouble is the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project. (Sponsors of Radio Goldfield , oldies western and a whole lot more. Strongly Appalachian sounding when I first stumbled on it, playing "Christmas songs for folks who don't like Christmas songs" later, and highly recommended.) There's a bit of activity south of the road including "no unauthorized entry" signs and seemed like even more activity north of the road. No exclusive signs, but still worrying. So I discarded actually doing my plan for the Rhyoli...

Tonopah Field Office BLM Location: Fish Lake Valley Hot Well It's really quite nice camped near Emigrant Pass. It wasn't too far below freezing at night and a bit of early morning sun could bring the temperature up quickly. And this morning, I finished brushing my teeth and turned around to find this bunch looking uncertainly at me. A collection of pronghorn with different ideas on which way to run. They milled a bit, took off up the wash shortly, milled about some more, took off down the hill, stopped and milled again. They even vanished and came back. Good thing for them I wasn't really anything to worry about. There they go, up the wash. No, maybe the other way. Returned again from off over the hill. The pronghorn were my first visitors. My tire marks out on the road were only marred by my own footprints. As pleasant as it was, I was ready for the next thing. I pondered returning the way I came rather than brave the rest of this iffy road over the t...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) Now it's time to go after Emigrant Peak. The plan would be much the same as the previous day: head out on some low track getting in some canyons, head back on some high track getting in the views. The weather folks were promising a bit of sunshine, but the skies weren't obliging. For the start, I headed north on a different road than the one I drove in on. It would take me to a spring if I made the correct turns onto some older roads. The red rocks to the north are not quite so red in the light overcast. Two turns to get to an eroded road and the spring water sinking back into the graveled earth. The Brewer's sparrows are numerous around the water and they've found some of the really dark rocks.

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) Stopping in the Tonopah Field Office, I found it a lot less tourist directed than Bristlecone (Ely) or Caliente had been. The woman directing the office traffic said she wishes Battle Mountain (their district) had a nice recreation guide like that one from Ely. There isn't. You can find a brochure about a few people buried in the cemetery next to the Clown Hotel, though. She did find someone who could tell me a little about the roads. As long as there hadn't been any big rains recently (no... I think?) the road over Emigrant Pass might be good enough. The road past Coyote Springs would be excellent. There are no developed trails in the area. I started with iffy hoping for a big circle. Emigrant Pass is just one of the many so named because it happened to have an emigrant trail over it. This one happens to be in the Silver Peak Range. If I don't mind the several areas of gravel rubbing the underside of my car, it's good east of...

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...