"...but the desert has her beauty, too..."
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VulcanismOn the way to Death Valley, we drove through an area of geologically recent lava flows, less than 800 years old, I'm told. Not only can the rock strata be seen from the road, but that cone shaped hill over there is actually somewhat active, it is growing at a slow rate, so I suppose this is the lava pressure relief in the area and could become a volcano some day in the future.
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Fossil FallsNot far off the road, is what is now called Fossil Falls. It was once a lava flow which was later uncovered by a stream of water flowing off the surrounding hills. Terry will have to tell you his story of finding this place while out hiking before it was on the map and before it had a name. There are open chimneys and bubbles everywhere. You can see by the shape that the solid stone was once flowing like water, bubbling and churning. (Click to enlarge pictures in a separate window.) |
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Driving in to Saline ValleyOn the way in, there are vast hilly landscapes with Joshua trees growing as far as the eye can see. The old Salt Tram was built in simpler times by simpler people to transport salt and Borax carved out of its ancient resting place. They built these simple towers and simple steel cables several miles long, and hauled the salt along the valley, up into the sky, over the mountains to the other side. |
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There's Borax in them thar hillsThis lake was red today for some strange reason, you'll see the next day that it became watery white. |