Up, Say good morning to the Panamint Mountains,
Breakfast, Bus…
We started the day at Golden Canyon Trail – a canyon with several slot canyons off to the side.
The next stop was Gower Gulch where we examined the innards of the geological formation informally known as “fanglomerate” – a unique conglomerate rock found in alluvial fans:
Next we crossed the road to Venifact Ridge. A ventifact is a particular pattern of rock shaping created by blowing sand. This particular ridge is known for its great variety of samples of this pattern.
For lunch we retired to the 19th hole at the resort.
Then we headed off to the Harmony Borax Works to talk about this most famous of Death Valley’s mining products.
Included in this activity was a presentation by four of the most famous characters in the history of borax mining: Aaron Winters, his wife Rosie, William Tell Coleman, and Francis Marian “Borax” Smith. Prominent in this skit were the roles of Aaron Winters (played by Cheryl) and Rosie (played by yours truly). We were all decked out in period costume. As far as I know there are (thankfully) no photos of our performance.
After the applause died down we returned to the resort to rest on our laurels (me) and adjourn to the patio with a good book (Cheryl). At one point I was awakened by a squeak from the patio as Cheryl was startled by the resident Road Runner passing by within inches of her chair.
Refreshed, we headed to dinner – which was served at the Pahrump winery (about an hour away). Along the way Darrell entertained us with videos of the Badwater Ultramarathon – a 135 mile race starting at Badwater Basin (279 feet below sea level) and ending at Whitney Portal (the trailhead to Mount Whitney – elevation 8360 feet). The race is run in mid-July to take advantage of the most extreme weather conditions possible.
Replete with an excellent dinner accompanied by truly unexceptional wine we returned to pack and ready ourselves for the morrow.
Tomorrow we leave this little slice of paradise and return to civilization.
But for now we sleep.
TTFN,
R
Ah the pictures are awesome!
C – The land here is basically “chaos geology” – Nevada has the most mountain ranges in the US which means this area has all different kinds of faults over and around each other layer, alluvial fans, wind & water carved erosion and volcanic flows all churned up and mixed up so much that geologist just shake their heads.
C – We’ve been seeing this Road Runner every day hanging around, but he walked by so close to me, it quite startled me!