Desert Destination: Wheeler and Jeff Davis Peaks

Towering over the Great Basin Desert is Wheeler Peak at 13,063 feet, the peak slightly right of center in the above photo. The trailhead begins at about 10,000 feet, with a well-marked trail weaving through groves of aspen, sub-alpine meadows, patches of Engelmann spruce and limber pine, erratic groupings of stunted trees called krummholtz, and finally large amounts of big boulders called talus. The 3,000 foot hike up the mountain is not easy, but someone in relatively good shape can make it in half a day. I've climbed Wheeler Peak several times, but I've never climbed its sister peak, Jeff Davis, on the left side of the above photo. Jeff Davis has no trail to it, is about 12,770 feet high, and it's been on my to do list for a few years. So today's destination involves these two peaks in one massive hike.

So the plan was to climb Wheeler Peak, and then go across the ridge to Jeff Davis. Sounds simple, right? We started up Wheeler at a nice steady pace. The spectacular views of the valleys on either side, other mountain ranges, and flowers like this Parry's primrose (Primula parryi) kept our minds off the steadily decreasing oxygen.

About half way up the trail becomes a little harder to find as it enters a talus field. The trail ascends the steep ridge right up to the top of the peak. Some rain moved in, and because we had gotten a late start, we were passed by people who had already summited and now were on their way back down with big smiles on their faces.

It was amazing how many tiny wildflowers were nestled among the rocks. This is an alpine paintbrush (Castilleja nana). Close to most of the flowers were an array of pollinators, including flies, bees, and butterflies. We also saw some birds like rosy-finches and rock wrens.

After about three hours we made it to the top and were rewarded with this view looking south. The South Snake Range has many peaks over 11,000 feet. The snow covered area in the foreground is part of a glacial cirque, with a rock glacier at the bottom of it. A rock glacier is basically a piece of ice that has a layer of crumbled rock over it that acts as an insulating blanket, protecting the ice from warm temperatures and solar radiation.

A really spectacular view of a rock glacier came after we had a snack and started over on the ridge to Jeff Davis. This rock glacier is quite long and near the end of it a grove of bristlecone pines can be found. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you may be able to see a couple pools of turquoise water about halfway down the rock glacier. I've never seen them before, and am very curious about why they are there and how they formed.

Here's a photo of the cliff side face of Wheeler Peak. The rock is very loose Prospect Mountain Quartzite, a metamorphic rock. Incredibly, some people have climbed this face, despite the huge amount of crumbly rock. There's a good reason that a rock glacier exists below--plenty of rock is added by the mountain each year.

Here's a view of one of my hiking partners working her way up Jeff Davis, with Wheeler Peak in the background. The ridge between the two was longer than I had expected, and I started getting a bad headache. That's a classic sign of elevation sickness (or as one person put it, altitude poisoning). I had never really had elevation sickness before, and I wasn't liking it. The best thing to do is go down, but one side was a cliff face; behind us was Wheeler Peak, even higher; and to the other side was a steep talus slope that led to a long hike out. So we kept heading ahead to Jeff Davis Peak.

I wasn't enjoying the view that much because I felt icky, but I managed to snap a couple photos, and I'm glad I did, because the scenery was spectacular and I can enjoy it now. Clouds and a sporadic light rain kept the temperatures wonderful, and we lucked out and didn't have much wind. When we got to the top of Jeff Davis I laid down and took a quick nap and that made me feel a little better and ready to start down.

This was the way down, over 2,000 foot descent on talus. That green patch at the bottom is trees, but the trees are so far away you can't even make out individual ones. I got dizzy looking at the whole slope, so I just focused on where to put my feet. And foot by foot, we made our way down.

As the oxygen thickened I felt better and even took time to stop and admire this blue columbine (Aquilegia scopulorum), with some daisies (Erigeron species) in the background. At one point on the talus we could hear water moving underneath, but we couldn't see any. 

After about 10 hours of hiking we finally made it back to the vehicle. We all decided that we never again wanted to descend Jeff Davis down the steep talus slope, it was too steep and unsteady. But overall it was a beautiful hike, and a good warmup to another 10 hour hike a couple days later that included four mountain peaks. I'll save that story for another day!

Desert Destination: A Marshmallow Cave

Over the weekend I went on a fun adventure to a cave. Full disclaimer: I love caves. I go in a cave whenever I can. Usually the caves involve lots of mud and/or lots of crawling. To my great surprise, this cave didn't involve either.

That little hole way up on the mountainside is Goshute Cave, but it's more fun to call it Marshmallow Cave because much of the interior is filled with giant white mammilaries that look like marshmallows! You'll see in a minute.

The trip was sponsored by the Northern Nevada Grotto. Grottoes are caving clubs, and they're located all over the country. They are part of the National Speleological Society, which has lots of great information about caves. One of the best parts about the Northern Nevada Grotto is that it has no dues. And it meets online. So all in all, it's a rather convenient organization to be a part of. The downside is that to actually see other members, you have to turn off the TV, get off the couch, and go somewhere. It worked out that I could go on this trip at the last minute because my wonderful hubby agreed to come along and watch Desert Boy. Desert Boy doesn't love caves, at least not yet, and my hubby can't get very excited about crawling so he didn't mind skipping the cave. 

Here's a view from the trail up to the cave. (It was a steep trail, so I had to do something while I was gasping for air.) You can see the Great Basin desert stretching out into the smoke-filled hazy horizon. The California wildfires are definitely having an impact on much more than California.
Here's the rock scramble below the entrance. Actually the entrance is a smaller hole to the left of the big, gaping one, but you can't see it until you're up there.
In case I didn't know where I was. Rooms throughout the cave had been named, apparently by a group back in 1912.
Here are those marshmallows I was talking about! These are mammillaries, which formed under water. Although they look sort of soft, they are hard calcite.
In some places the mammilaries have been eroded away, showing rings. These indicate that the mammilaries formed one layer of calcite at a time.
Another white, intriguing formation was the folia, layer upon layer of honeycomb looking calcite.
This is a closeup of the folia, where you can see that the layers aren't quite parallel. One suggestion as to their formation is that bubbles created the slightly sloping edges.
The main cave passage descended steeply, and we had to slide down some sections.
The proper caving gear of helmet, headlamps, sturdy clothing and boots, and kneepads, made the caving trip much more enjoyable and safe.
These aragonite crystals were tucked away in a little alcove. It is amazing to see such a delicate-looking formation and marvel how it has survived for thousands of years.
Here is a cave shield, a fairly rare speleothem. Its color contrasted with the wall behind it, suggesting that the water percolating into the cave to form the shield is picking up minerals along the way.
We climbed into an upper passage to go down a tight little hole called The Toilet Bowl. It is so small that your whole body completely fills the hole, and you can't see where you're going.
Eventually even your head disappears, and you are flushed into another part of the cave. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
These colorful draperies were part of the attraction of the cave. I was impressed with the diversity of formations and the large walking passages. The entire group seemed to enjoy the cave trip.
After reading this post, you're either ready to head down into the nearest hole or you're saying that cavers are a weird group of people, for who in their right mind would want to descend into the bowels of the earth? If you're in that second group, this photo helps explain why it's great to go into a cave. When you see a weird formation like this helictite, which grew upward and curving in spite of gravity, you realize that caves are one of the last frontiers, where we don't understand exactly how they formed and don't know what their bounds are. It might just be possible that you're sitting on top of a cave right now! 

Don't Try This

If you've been following this blog, you know that you should not go hiking with my brother. This video will show you why. Uncle Andrew hiked in the summer heat down the Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point at the Grand Canyon. 

He had previously done a down to the river and back to the rim trip, so had "been there done that." (And it wasn't even too hard for him.) So this time around he wanted to show people what the trail was like. Instead of taking a video camera, he took a photo every 4 or 5 steps down the 6-mile long trail, which ends at a beautiful scenic area overlooking the river. 

For you purists who say that the Grand Canyon isn't in one of the four North American deserts, you're right, the rim is in the Colorado Plateau. But watch the vegetation change and become more desert-like as Uncle Andrew descends 3,000 feet from the rim into 115 degrees Fahrenheit in about 3 minutes. It might make you a little dizzy, but at least you can stay cool.


So where should Uncle Andrew go hiking next and would you like to go with him?

Desert Destination: Zion National Park

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.

Located at the junction of the Mojave Desert, Great Basin Desert, and Colorado Plateau, Zion National Park preserves over 200 square miles of exceptional terrain. Nearly everywhere you go, the views are stupendous.

Last week, Desert Boy and I headed to Zion to meet up with Uncle Andrew and his friends. It was hot, so we decided that the best afternoon hike would be in the Virgin River.

The river was flowing 43 cubic feet per second (cfs), and there had been no recent storms, so the water was clear and usually about knee high. But in some places the water was shallower, and in others deeper.

We hiked upstream with some of the other 2.5 million visitors that Zion receives each year. Some of the footwear was quite interesting--and some people chose to wear no footwear at all--ouch!

After a couple hours we reached the junction with Orderville Canyon. That canyon was narrower and the water warmer, so we headed up it. It had some interesting obstacles to negotiate.

Desert Boy didn't mind getting his toes wet.
And he delighted in playing in the water and sand.

Eventually we got to a place where we could go no further. So we enjoyed the view and headed back downstream.
The crowds had thinned out and we had a few moments where we felt alone in the impressive canyon.

The entire hike took about 5 or 6 hours, including many stops. It was a tiring but fun hike. Most importantly, we all came back alive.

Back Home

Desert Boy and I just returned from a lovely adventure, which will be featured in next Monday's Desert Destination. But to give you a teaser, it involved all the elements needed for a successful trip:

Getting Dirty

Playing in Water

Hiking until Utterly Exhausted

Desert Destination: A Snow Patch High in the Mountains

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.
In the heat of the summer, with the desert sun baking the valleys, it's time to take to the mountains. We went hiking with the cousins and were lucky to find this patch of snow. 

We couldn't resist playing in it...

And before long it became a contest to see who could slide the furthest. Riding double was the winner.

Too bad we couldn't bring the snow patch back down with us. At least we can look at the photos and imagine how cool snow feels, especially when you go a little too fast down that snow slope and get snow down your shirt.

Stay cool!

The Four North American Deserts

In an earlier post, I briefly mentioned the four North American deserts. Now I'll describe them in a bit more detail.

Sagebrush in the Great Basin Desert

Great Basin Desert

The Great Basin Desert is the biggest North American desert, covering most of the state of Nevada and extending into the states of Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and California. It is the only North American desert considered to be a cold desert, which is largely a function of its high elevation, with most basins above 4,000 feet in elevation, and mountaintops over 13,000 feet. Average annual precipitation is 6 to 12 inches. The term Great Basin originates from the fact that the water that falls in the Great Basin does not drain out to the ocean, but stays within the basin. It's really a bunch of basins separated by mountain ranges, but somehow trying to say that succinctly isn't easy.

The primary plant in the Great Basin Desert is sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), a fragrant green-gray shrub that grows up to several feet high. Several species of sagebrush grow in the desert. Other common plants are winterfat, greasewood, rabbitbrush, and saltbush. Salt Lake City, Utah and Reno, Nevada are in the Great Basin Desert.

Lechuguilla in the Chihuahuan Desert

Chihuahuan Desert

The Chihuahuan Desert is the spiny desert, with lots of sharp plants. It is found primarily in Mexico, but a small portion creeps across the border and into New Mexico and Texas. It's the coolest of the hot deserts, with elevations ranging from 1,200 to 6,000 feet, and it receives up to 10 inches of precipitation annually.

While creosote bush and ocotillo are common, the distinctive plant in this desert is the lechuguilla (Agave lechuguilla). It's a member of the Agave family and has razor sharp spines. Other spiky plants are other agaves, yuccas, sotols, thorny mesquites, and a variety of cacti. El Paso, Texas and Carlsbad and Roswell, New Mexico are within the Chihuahuan Desert.

Saguaro cactus in the Sonoran Desert

Sonoran Desert

The Sonoran Desert is the neat cactus desert, with the characteristic saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) holding up its arms. In addition to this charismatic character, the Sonoran desert has the greatest species diversity of all North American deserts, despite being the hottest of the four deserts. 

Precipitation ranges from less than 2 inches to more than 12 inches. The desert creeps into southern Arizona and California, but the majority of it is found in Mexico. Phoenix and Tuscon, Arizona are part of the Sonoran Desert.

Joshua tree in the Mojave Desert

Mojave Desert

The Mojave is the smallest of the four North American deserts, but what it lacks in size it makes up in character. This is the desert with the Dr. Seuss-like Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia).

The Mojave Desert is found between the Sonoran and Great Basin deserts in California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. It is a transition area between the two deserts, ranging in elevation from 2,000 to 4,000 feet on average, although it also includes Death Valley which descends below sea level and Mt. Charleston at over 11,000 feet. This is the driest of the four deserts, with 2 to 5 inches of annual precipitation. Las Vegas, Nevada and Palmdale, California, St. George, Utah, and Lake Havasu City, Arizona are in the Mojave Desert.

So in summary:

Largest Desert: Great Basin (or Chihuhuan based on some maps)

Smallest Desert: Mojave

Hottest Desert: Sonoran

Driest Desert: Mojave

Best Desert: You decide

A great resource for learning more about these deserts and the plants that live in them is Ronald J. Taylor's Desert Wildflowers of North America. And now Desert Boy, Henry, and I are going to head outside to go enjoy another desert adventure.

Desert Destination: White Sands

When you hear the word desert, what images come to mind? Perhaps sand dunes? I often think of sand dunes, even though we don't have any near our house. But there are some big ones about two hours away (because lots of neat stuff is about two hours away!). Today we'll venture farther away, to White Sands National Monument, located in the northern part of the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico.

I've visited lots of sand dunes over the years. Sand dunes frequently form in deserts when there is loose sand, high winds that often blow the sand in one prevailing direction, and a mountain range to force the wind up, upon which it drops the sand particles and creates the sand dunes. White Sands is unique in that the dunes are made of white gypsum sand, and covering 275 square miles they are the world's largest gypsum dune field.

White Sands at sunrise

Contrary to popular belief, many critters live on or near sand dunes. But life isn't easy when you have sand suddenly being blown on top of you or blown away from your roots. Some of the plants have adapted by elongating stems and growing upwards more than a foot a year, like the soaptree yucca (Yucca elata), or anchoring their roots on a dune so that after the dune moves on, they can continue to grow on a pedestal of sand. Some of the animals that live at White Sands have adapted by becoming whiter, so they blend in better with the gypsum sand. One example is the bleached earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata ruthveni).

Several picnicking areas are found in the park, but don't plan to picnic for lunch during the middle of summer. During the sunlight hours, the white sand reflects the heat and you literally get baked from above and below. The best times to go are very early or very late in the day. We planned our trip to coincide with the full moon so we could enjoy a moonlit hike.

White Sands is a harsh but fascinating environment. The constantly shifting dunes and designs in the sands make for great exploring and photography. If you'd like more information, visit http://www.nps.gov/whsa.