Risky Camping

When I saw this tent set up in a wash, I decided that person just wasn't the right material to be a desert survivor, especially because rain was forecast (and it dumped the next afternoon--but I wasn't around to see what happened to the tent). 

It was windy at night, and you might think a wash would provide a little protection from the winds. But the photo above shows two tents--one standing, and one that was knocked over by the wind! 

Here are this month's nominations for the Darwin Awards. Do you have any nominations you'd like to share?

Carnival of the Arid #3

Once a month, bloggers who have posts about the desert can enter their blog posts into Carnival of the Arid. Chris Clarke from Coyote Crossing organizes them and then everyone can read about a variety of desert locations. 

It's a great opportunity to see who else is blogging about the desert, and I've already found another blog that I intend to follow regularly. So check it out!

The Desert Comes Alive

While I was down in the Rainbow Basin last weekend, I had a wonderful time looking for desert wildflowers. Up in the Great Basin Desert at over 5,000 feet I've only seen two flowers so far, but the Mojave Desert is bursting with colors. It is so beautiful! I got up early each morning to see what I could find. I'm not very cognizant of Mojave wildflowers, so I'll do my best to identify them, but if I've missed the mark, please leave a comment!

One of the most frequent flowers was the one above, a bright yellow flower in the Evening Primrose family. It has a delightful name, Suncup (Camissonia brevipes). It can grow up to two feet tall and has lots of yellow flowers on each stem.

Desert holly (Atriplex hymenelytra) is an easily recognizable shrub with its holly-like leaves. These leaves are grey in color, one adaptation for surviving in the hot desert. The grey color helps them reflect more sunlight. I found one patch of desert holly that had tiny red flowers on it. I was so surprised, because it was the first time I had seen the flowers blooming. When they get older they often still stay on the plant, but turn brown and inconspicuous.

The hills of Rainbow Basin made a nice backdrop for some Mojave Yucca (Yucca schidigera). When these flower, they have large bell-shaped cream-colored blossom. This is the most common yucca of the North American deserts. California Indians gathered and roasted the fruits or ate them raw. They extracted fiber from the leaves for weaving blankets, baskets, and ropes.

Right up in the campground were large patches of fiddleneck (Amsinckia sp.), an annual herb in the Borage family that grows in disturbed areas. They have pretty yellow flowers bending along the raceme.

There were a few other people wandering around in the morning. Up on the ridge are the wonderful Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia).

Tucked down in the wash a flash of red caught my attention--Indian paintbrush (Castilleja sp.). The red is absolutely brilliant. One of the cool things about paintbrush is that it is a root parasite. It doesn't have many other desert adaptations, but it can tap into the roots of the shrubs it is growing near in order to get more water for itself.

Some of the washes were really eroded. It would be interesting to be up on the bank watching a flash flood. Some of the boulders in the wash are really large, testifying to the power of the water.

The bright colors of the flowers attract the pollinators, like this bee on this Phacelia (Phacelia sp.). To humans, flowers are beautiful things because they brighten up the landscapes, our gardens, and our homes. To pollinators, the flowers mean food. The sexier the flower, the more likely it is to attract pollinators and survive.

This delicate yellow flower emerged from the rough-looking dirt. I think it may be a desert poppy (Eschscholzia glyyptosperma).

 Here is a desert dandelion (Malacothrix glabrata), and in places huge numbers of them turned the desert floor yellow. Unlike common dandelions (Taraxacum officinale), desert dandelions are native. 

Okay, for those of you saying, "Enough flowers!", here's a bird, a horned lark. It kept flitting from bush to bush along the wash. I'm used to seeing them along the sides of the road in big groups where I live, so I was a little surprised to see one all by itself and up higher in the vegetation.

I also found some ants actively moving things out of their burrow. I guess they are spring cleaning.

Another flower in the Sunflower Family is the desert chicory (Rafnesquia neomexicana). My wonderful guidebook (Desert Wildflowers of North America by Ronald J. Taylor) says that it has milky juice, but I didn't want to break the stem to find out.

And finally, one more pretty flower, not quite opened up. I'm not sure what it is, but I figured that just because I didn't have the exact name for it, I shouldn't discriminate and delete the photo. After all, sometimes just enjoying the beauty of the flower for being a flower is enough!

Desert Destination: Owl Creek Campground--Speleo-Ed 2009

Every Monday I feature a Desert Destination.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Speleo-Ed, a weekend seminar highlighting cave education. It was held at Rainbow Basin north of Barstow, California. I arrived late Friday night and couldn't really see much of the Owl Canyon campground, but the next morning I got up before sunrise and climbed up some of the surrounding hills. The large tan tent was the gathering place for the 100 attendees.

Saturday morning we spent inside the tent, listening to a variety of interesting talks. Everyone brought there own folding chair. The tent made it dark enough so we could use powerpoint. Being cavers, we felt very comfortable inside the dark environment.

The screen was a quilt tied up to a makeshift rafter. It was a wonderfully rustic setting.

After lunch there were several field trips. I chose to go on the geology one, which was a popular one. We stopped to listen about the Barstow syncline. The syncline is the folding of the earth into a basin (as opposed to an anticline, where a dome is formed). There's a rather good entry on geology of the Rainbow Basin here if you're interested.

The syncline is a spectacular geologic feature and so easy to see. Many field geology classes come out to study it and measure the angles of the dip. (I think that's the correct terminology--I'm working on beefing up my geologic knowledge, but right now it's rather scanty.)

This geologic feature caught my eye. You can see if it from the same overlook as the syncline, just turn around 180 degrees. 

It's obvious why Rainbow Basin got its name. The different colors are apparently due to iron. When the iron is oxidized, it makes reddish colors and when it is reduced, it makes greenish colors.

We started hiking up one of the washes to explore more in the Rainbow Basin.

There were lots of interesting rock formations, and the clouds even became rather interesting to watch.

As we headed up one gully, it got narrower and narrower, and we had to go in single file. Our group stretched on and on...

The gully walls got steeper and steeper. It definitely would not be a good place to be during a flash flood.

And then, up ahead, we saw the gully go into a dark hole. Oooh. We were all cavers, so we were very excited. 

This is called a soil pipe cave, and is basically formed by water washing away the sediments and eroding the rather soft limestones, dolomites, and conglomerates. There are little mud and dirt formations in parts of the cave, and bat droppings on the floor.

The cave was short, but it was long enough we had to turn on our headlamps.

The entrance on the uphill side was quite a bit smaller, requiring stoop walking and a little climb. We went further up the gully until a tall dry waterfall stopped up. Then we turned around and got to go through the cave again. Hurray! We did some more hiking and went to another cave, this one even requiring crawling. 

When we got back to the campground in the late afternoon, there was another talk. This one was about paleontology and was put on by Bob Reynolds of LSA & Associates and Bob Hilburn of Mojave River Valley Museum. They showed us bones and casts from some of the interesting creatures that have been found in the  area. 

The Barstow formation is called "highly fossiliferous," meaning that there are lots of fossils in it. In this area, a permit is required to collect fossils from BLM lands. Many different animals are preserved in this area, which was a combination of lakes and rivers and uplands. Many lived during the Barstovian North America Stage, during the Miocene about 13.6 to 16.3 million years before the present. I couldn't find a good website about the fossils, but this dissertation abstract gives a little more info about ages and some of the megafauna found.

We took a walk down a nearby wash, where one of the paleontologist pointed out the fossilized track of a camel. It's on the wall of the wash, because it was made before the rock had been tilted upward. I would have never noticed it if it hadn't been pointed out to me.

Here's a closeup of the fossil. The fossil is in relief, meaning that instead of the track being depressed like a recent track in mud, the fossil is raised. You can sort of make out the toes of the camel.

That night we had a yummy dinner, a fun night hike (except for the people who went to the business meeting), and relaxing talks around campfires. The wind was strong and I didn't stay up too late. (I live on a ranch, anything past 9 p.m. is late for me!!)

Going to bed early meant I got up early and had time the next morning to hike around and explore more before the Sunday field trip (which will be featured next Monday). I loved looking at all the different washes and gullies and rock formations next to the campground. 

The Owl Canyon campground is called primitive, but it has limited drinking water, picnic tables, fire grilles, outhouses, and swingsets and playground equipment! It is a super place for kids. And it only costs $6 a night to camp.

On my wanderings, I went up one gully and encountered this little rock waterfall with two holes near the base of it. Yep, those are cave entrances! I was by myself so I didn't go in, but I did check out the entrances and saw that some human garbage had washed in, and I couldn't see the end of the cave. I guess I'll just have to go back. Want to go with me?

Stained Glass Windows in Visitor Center

For the second year of the artist-in residence program at Great Basin National Park, artist Kay Malouff was selected. She is a professional stained glass artist, and she offered to do a stained glass mosaic for the slanted window in the new visitor center.

Every scene includes many components of the park, from Lexington Arch, to cave formations, lizards, wildflowers, bats, and mountain scenes.

In the panel above she depicts golden aspen leaves, a bristlecone pine, the glacial moraine, and more. Every time I look at the windows I notice something new.

Towering in the sky is Wheeler Peak, with the foothills below, where a deer stands and a Kachina figure pictograph graces a rock surface.

Morning is the best time to catch the light through the stained glass window, as it faces east.

The stained glass windows certainly brighten up the visitor center and makes it a much more appealing place.

If you're an artist and interested in the program, here's more information:
The Darwin Lambert Artist-Writer in Residence offers visual and performing artists, composers, and writers the opportunity to live and work in Great Basin National Park. The selected resident stays in a small cabin in the park for a 2 to 4 weeks residency, starting in late September or early October. Besides the cabin, no other stipend is offered. Residents must donate one original piece of their work to the park’s permanent museum collection. Residents are also required to present one public program in which they describe their work in relation to the park and its natural and cultural resources. The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2009. Selection for the 2009 residency will be announced during the first two weeks of June, 2009.

For more information on the Artist-Writer in Residence program, visit www.nps.gov/grba/supportyourpark/artistinresidence.htm. Interested artists and writers may also reach the residency coordinator, Roberta Moore, at 775-234-7331 for more information.

New Exhibits in Great Basin Visitor Center

In 2006, a new visitor center opened at Great Basin National Park, down in the town of Baker. The old visitor center, up at Lehman Caves, is still open, but focuses on caves, while the new one looks at the entire Great Basin region. It took time and money to get the exhibits, but they've finally arrived and are really neat.

The visitor center is the building on the right, and the resource center, which includes a classroom, lab, office space, and a small library, on the left. Jeff Davis Peak, part of Great Basin National Park, is in the background.

One of the first things you see when you enter the exhibit area is this life-like bristlecone pine tree. It looks very much like the old-growth bristlecone pines found up near the Wheeler cirque and rock glacier at over 10,000 feet high. These trees are known to live over 4,000 years, but only in harsh conditions. In addition, only a small part of the tree is alive, like the exhibit shows.

There's a wall with cultural exhibits, looking at how the Fremont and Shoshone cultures lived. There is also this sheep camp exhibit, complete with the border collie lying underneath it. Kids love looking at the dog.

Another wall has exhibits about the different life zones that are found from the valley floor all the way up to the mountain tops.

Desert Boy was fascinated with the stream exhibit, which was down at his level and had fish. He can say "fish," which probably was part of the reason he liked it so much. I have to admit, having a small child made me look at exhibits in a totally different way. 

This rattlesnake made a few people jump. It stayed put, though.

There were some cutaways that showed what lives in the ground, which in the desert is quite a lot. The sagebrush vole is one of the creatures that hides from the temperature extremes in a burrow.

Here are some gigantic ants that look a little creepy.

Each exhibit has birds included with it. There's so much more to see, but I figure if I show it all, then you won't have an excuse to go and see it for yourself! To find out when the Great Basin Visitor Center is open, call 775-234-7331.

And if you have a little one, ask where the toy drawer is. They have puppets of all different sizes that don't even mind someone riding them.