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Please click here to go to - Part One
The Most Beautiful Place In Nevada
We again topped off with gas in Hawthorne at the Chevron station. The price had increased to $5.29. We still received a $0.20 "Safeway Gas Rewards" discount but our hope of staying under five bucks a gallon on the trip was now busted. I had a suggestion, since we were buying expensive gasoline we should go to the most beautiful place in Nevada.
We have explored and camped in the Volcanic Hills three previous times. It is a landscape we could devote a lifetime to explore.
Our "Solitudius Maximus" camp was set up mid afternoon.
The temps were warm here - in the mid seventies, and far above normal. But, it was indeed quite pleasant to be in short sleeves. We were both anxious to reacquaint ourselves with this marvelous landscape. We wandered on foot, the best, most intimate way to travel.
With my limited understanding of geology, this area looks like a collection of multiple, different colored volcanic ash falls.
We were camped at the mouth of a large basin. Our truck is just left of center in the photo below.
The Lady picked a drainage to ascend.
We topped out on a ridge and the Lady picked a drainage to descend.
We first encountered a 20 foot high dry fall to down climb.
The 30 footer, just down from the first one, was another matter and we turned around.
Back up on the ridge tops, the Lady picked another drainage to drop into. It worked well.
Looking back at the notch we came out of - the colors were magical.
Back at camp we showered and ate dinner so we were ready to take in the light show from the last rays of sunset.
As light faded we wandered down the canyon to the broad spring meadow below our camp.
We slept with the windows open. Quiet engulfed us.
Sunrise across this landscape is dramatic and not to be missed. The snow capped peaks in the distance are the northern end of the White Mountains - Montgomery Peak in California, and next to it, the lower in elevation Boundary Peak, Nevada's highest point.
It was now Thursday. Tuesday when we left home, since it never hurts check, the Lady found that Tub One at Benton was open for Thursday night. Our plan was to wander most the day here before making the drive over to stay the night at Benton. A bit of a spoiler and tease. Staying at Benton Thursday night was, by far, the low point of this trip. Spending most of the day here in the Volcanic Hills was one of the many highpoints of the trip.
We put our boots on, got our packs ready to spend several hours making a wide circle around this spectacular basin.
Words become meaningless in describing this world class landscape we had all to ourselves. Here is our circle of the basin.
We also found interesting geological details on our hike. The first night here Julie picked up a small rock in the wash next to our truck. It caught her eye because it was so different from all the volcanics. It had distinct colorful layering and looked like sedimentary rock. Where did it come from? About .75 mile up from camp we came upon this outcropping, the only occurrence we found. It was the source of the rock Julie had picked up.
In one of the draws we climbed up Julie discovered this rock.
And up on one of the ridges we came upon these pieces of poor quality obsidian. Someone in the past had broken it open to see what was inside.
It was mid afternoon when we returned to our camp.
We dropped the top of the camper, checked twice that we had left no trace (except for footprints) and made the fairly short drive over into California for our one night stay at Benton. I will cover that sad story in the upcoming chapter.
Please click here for - Part Three.
Hurry and publish part 3, you left us with a cliffhanger! Also thanks for the report of that area near e Volcanic Hills, we will have to visit.
ReplyDeletePart three is posted and we hope you enjoy!
DeleteThanks for your Nevada travels. I want to see those Volcanic Hills. Mike
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