Lake Mead Trail Run

 I had to go to Lake Mead for a couple days of meetings and decided to stay at the cheapest hotel in the area, the Hacienda. It is part of a casino, which isn't too appealing to me, but it is also in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and there's a trail right next to it. So when I woke up, I headed down to the trail for an early morning trail run. The trail follows an old railroad bed, so it's perfect for not too difficult a run.

 It has nice views of the marina and Lake Mead.

 I also really enjoyed the different vegetation of the Mojave Desert. These creosote bushes are always so lovely!

 This trail includes some train tunnels, making it extra fun. I remembered three from a previous jaunt, but it turned out that there were five (I guess I didn't go far enough before!).

 Signs and benches have been added since my last trip (several years ago), and they are nice additions.
Previously I had seen other people on the trail, but this time I had it to myself. It's a combo bike/hike trail.

The tunnels have been stabilized in a restoration project. I heard bats in the first one and saw birds fly out of a couple of them.

The rock around there is so different from where I live. I really enjoyed all the shades of brown and tan with hints of orange. One of the signs talked about the families that lived nearby during the construction of the Hoover Dam and how miserable it was for them due to a lack of shade.

Pretty flowers--but I don't know what they were!

After the last tunnel I passed through a gate that was marked as Bureau of Reclamation land. The trail went around some buildings and then headed downhill towards the dam. I had reached my turn around time, but I was so curious about what was next that I decided to go just a little farther.

That's when I saw some desert bighorn sheep! They were enjoying the quiet morning until I spooked them, then they crossed the trail in front of me and went up into the rocks on the other side.

I continued a bit farther, hoping to catch a glimpse of the dam. I saw lots of power lines and even part of the new bridge (on the upper right part of the above photo). The trail was descending quickly and I really had to get back to go to work, so I will have to go back another day to take the trail all the way to the dam.

The run back went quickly, although I couldn't resist stopping a couple times to take more photos.

The temperature was in the high 60s/low 70s, so really comfortable.

Finally I reached the spur trail that had led down to the main trail. At the top I went through a different spot into the Hacienda parking lot and found a sign denoting this as a trail and distances (3 1/4 miles to the dam).

I had managed to forget my running shoes, so these are the shoes I did my run in. They worked out well!

So Tempting

While I was in the hardware store this past weekend, I heard cheeping and turned around to find lots of little chicks eating happily.

Chicks?

In the hardware store?

This was something new for me. And I couldn't believe my gut reaction that I wanted to get a couple and take them home. They were only $2 each. They wouldn't cost that much. And they would be such a good learning tool for Desert Girl and Desert Boy. They both love animals. And did I mention how cute they were?

Plus they would help me recover from my appallingly petless childhood (unless you count the goldfish that survived two days--Mom and Dad, I'm still traumatized by that).

Before I reached in and grabbed a couple, I thought a little more.

Q: What would I feed them?

A: Um, grain? I think. Cracked corn? Where the heck do you get cracked corn? Would I have to go scavenge in the fields? Could they just eat the silage the ranch cows eat? Or maybe one of those big bags of chicken feed that they have conveniently nearby would suffice.

Q: Where would I put them?

A: In a box in the house so we could watch them grow and ooh and awe over how cute they are.

Q: But what about when they get bigger?

A: I guess we would need a fence or something. And a place for them to go inside so the big owls don't eat them. And we'd need straw. And then would they lay eggs? Eww, the thought of putting my hand under hens' butts to feel for eggs is kind of gross. And if I wanted eggs, how many chicks would I want? And if we didn't want eggs and instead slaughtered the chickens, who would pluck them? That sounds not very fun to me.

Q: But aren't they so absolutely cute and wouldn't the kids just adore them?

A: Yes!

I asked the clerk how chick sales were going, and he said really well. They had already sold out two of the five crates they had.

Who were all these people buying chicks?

He also said that it was amazing how fast they had grown in just the last week. Well, the whole time I watched them all they did was eat and cheep. All that eating had me a little nervous, as what goes in, must come out.

So my inner voice of reason discouraged me from buying any chicks this year.

But I've already talked to my husband about where we would have chickens if we decided we wanted them.

And other animals.

And he has a plan.

And it won't be long till the kids are in 4-H, and I don't want to the totally incompetent 4-H mom who knows nothing about raising poultry--or goats--or sheep--or pigs.

So maybe next year...

Joy to the World

Here's the last part of Joy to the World sung by the cast of the 2009 Nativity Play. Desert Boy is on the far right in the sheep costume.



You can see some great photos of the performance on Faberlicious.

Desert Destination: Baker Hot Springs, Utah

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.

This past weekend I had a chance to visit a place I've wanted to go to for a long time: Baker Hot Springs, about 20 miles northwest of Delta, Utah. I had read in the very informative Millard County Tourism Guide about this hot spring, which they called a Mini-Yellowstone. I scoffed. Surely there couldn't be something that cool around. 

But I was wrong. 

As it turned out, I was really impressed with the hot spring for a number of reasons. 

It was hot. Very hot. Scalding hot. 

It smelled like sulfur, a smell that immediately transports me to Yellowstone.

And it was beautiful. 

And best of all...it had soaking pools nearby!

The reason that there is a hot spring in existence is due to the nearby Fumarole Butte, a large volcanic area that's only about 6  million years old. Apparently that is very young by geologic standards, and there is still some active magma not too far below the surface that is heating this water.

From the excellent USGS site that has lots of information about geologic features in Utah: 

Fumarole Butte is a Quaternary basaltic andesite shield volcano. It overlies minor outcrops of Tertiary basalt and rhyolite erupted 6.1 million years ago, contemporaneously with rhyolite of the Keg and Thomas range 10-30 kilometers to the north and west. Fumarole Butte has normal magnetic polarity indicating eruption during the Jaramillor event. The volcanic neck which provides the name Fumarole Butte is at the center of the volcano and rises approximately 30 meters above the gentle slope of the shield. The volcano was inundated briefly by Lake Bonneville, and there are scattered remnants of lacustrine deposits. Benches developed at the Provo level (1,463 meters). Crater Springs (also known as Baker Hot Springs and Abraham Hot Springs), on the eastern margin, produced thermal water (87-90 degrees C) at an estimated discharge rate of about 17 liters per second in the summer of 1967. 

The soaking pools consist of three small pools, each of which can hold about two people stretching out or more if you don't mind sharing. Apparently at one time someone wanted to make a little resort out this way, but I guess it was just too desolate to make a go of it.

Here you can see the pools with Fumarole Butte in the background. When we arrived, a local was there to explain the heating and cooling system for the pools. We were lucky to have him help us, because even though it sounds simple, it would have taken us awhile to figure out. 

The water from the natural hot pool runs down a little creek and is diverted into a channel on the north side of the pools. This water is extremely hot, so hot that if you fell into just that water you would need to take a trip to the hospital. In fact, the local said there can be problems with people coming out to party and drinking too much and falling into this extremely hot water.

Amazingly, there is a cool-water spring that emerges just a little to the west of the hot spring (between the spring and the butte). This cool-water spring is smaller, but it provides enough water that with a little plumbing, the perfect temperature can be achieved in the soaking pools. The local told us that it takes about 20 minutes to cool down a pool that is too hot, but only about 15 seconds to heat it up, so we kept that in mind as we experimented. 

There are short pieces of PVC pipe that can channel the cool water over the hot water ditch and into the soaking pools, and pieces of discarded clothing and towels to act as dams to keep the hot water from entering the soaking pools. 

Surrounding the area is a variety of vegetation and wildlife, including this kingbird. I saw my first kingbird of the season last week and am glad to welcome this noisy species back.

Surrounding the big hot spring is a lot of knee-high vegetation, and the day was just cool enough that the steam rising off the water provided a nice contrast.

In this photo you can see both the steam and the Fumarole Butte in the background. I didn't realize it until I got home and pulled up a Google Earth map that the spring area is much more extensive than can be seen from the parking area.

After an enjoyable soak, I headed up the channel to find the source of the hot water. What I found were several hot springs. One had a lot of algae growing on the top. 

Another was burbling up from a crack in the earth's surface, with an especially strong odor of sulfur.

Another springhead was darker blue. The hotter the water, the darker it is due to the different types of bacteria that live at different temperatures. The cooler water had lots of orange bacteria, but cool is relative--it was still hot enough to burn a person.

And hot enough to kill a sheep. This wool and pile of bones was next to the hot spring channel.

Here's a view of the channel looking south, towards the soaking pools.

There are some salt cedar (Tamarix ramosissima) trees around the area, but they appear to have been treated with the very successful salt cedar leaf beetle (Diorhabda elongata),  which defoliated them. I found one tiny patch of greenery growing back, but it's so nice that the salt cedar haven't grown so thick as to prevent access to the area.

There are a lot of minerals in this hot water, and it appears that they are building some travertine along the hot spring channel. It takes on fascinating forms.

For the most part, the spring was relatively clean, although there was some trash downstream and some beer cans by a firepit that looked like it was from the night before. Occasionally folks clean out the soaking pools, which can get algae-filled and slimy and get a lot of sediment in them. Depending on the last time the pools were cleaned may dictate the conditions--and how much you enjoy your soaking. 

Hopefully people who visit this cool hot spring area respect it--otherwise it won't be worth visiting. 

Pick up a Millard County Tourism Guide and you'll find some photos, a description, and maps of Millard County that will help you get to the hot springs. The basic directions are get on the Brush-Wellman Road, go about 11 or 12 miles west of the power plant, and turn on a good gravel road that is before the huge volcanic plateau (Fumarole Butte). Head north just over seven miles, and the springs are on the east side of the road.

Desert Destination: Crystal Ball Cave

Located in the west desert of Utah is Crystal Ball Cave, so named because the interior is filled with calcite crystals called nailhead spar. It's a little-known wonder well worth a visit.

For part of the Millikin University Spring Break 2009 trip, we headed out to Crystal Ball Cave.

The trip starts at the end of the driveway framed by hundred-year old Lombardy poplars. Jerald and Marlene Bates lead tours through Crystal Ball Cave, so if you want to go you need to call in advance (435-693-3145). The cave is on BLM land, but they have the mining rights so manage the cave.

After meeting Jerald, you follow him to the parking area for the cave and immediately realize he has a good sense of humor. He's lived out at Gandy for his entire life, and it was an uncle that found the cave in 1956. The uncle dragged young Jerald with him to help explore it. Jerald wasn't too enthusiastic due to previous unproductive trips, but this hole in the ground turned out to be different from the rest.

To reach the entrance of the cave requires a short hike. Jerald realizes when the group needs a break and points out plants and other things of interest.

At the cave entrance, he gives more background and tells everyone not to touch cave formations. Then it's time to go in. Jerald unlocks the door, and everyone walks into the dark cave.

A bunch of stalactites are near the entrance. There are no lights in the cave, so everyone needs to bring one.

I thought this weathered formation looked very interesting.

Patches of cave popcorn decorate some cave ceilings and walls.

Most of the cave formations are calcite, but some gypsum is also found in the cave.

Jerald was good at explaining the different types of formations in the cave, as well as the history of it.

This tall stalagmite was taller than everyone on the tour.

The trail goes next to this primitive ladder, leading up to an upper chamber. Jerald said he wouldn't go up it today.

The tour route is on the cave floor, next to more formations. Everywhere you look there's something interesting to see.

Although Crystal Ball Cave is only about 45 miles from Lehman Cave, it looks totally different. After the cave was dissolved away by carbonic acid, the cave filled several times with water supersaturated with calcium carbonate. The calcium carbonate precipitated out in a crystalline form, called nailhead spar. These crystals cover most of the surfaces in Crystal Ball Cave (hence the name of the cave). Walking into the cave is sort of like walking into a huge geode.

 
Over time, many of the crystals have been covered with sand and dirt, so they're not shiny, but they are large.

Ceilings, walls, and floors all have the nailhead spar coating. 

Sometimes it's more translucent and glows when you put a flashlight next to it.

Further into the cave are interesting formations called cave cones or raft cones. They are the remains of calcite rafts, thin layers of calcite on top of the water. When water dripped onto the calcite rafts, the rafts broke apart and formed into these mounds.

Besides the amazing cave, another appeal of the cave tour is Jerald's quick wit and funny jokes.

He enjoys showing people the cave.

Further into the cave the ceiling drops and requires some stoop-walking. 

Then the cave opens up again and you see what looks like moonmilk decorating the cave ceiling. Moonmilk looks sort of like white cheese that has oozed out of the carbonate rock. It may form due to chemical or bacterial causes. 

Near the exit is a very large rock that has some beautiful crystals exposed. There are a variety of colors.
A close up of the crystals reveals even more beauty.

Besides the geologic wonders, Crystal Ball Cave is a treasure trove of biologic wonders. A paleontological survey of the cave revealed bones from numerous animals. Some are no longer found at this low an elevation (like bighorn sheep), while others are now extinct. These animals lived in the cave vicinity tens of thousands of years ago, when the climate was much different. Roughly 15,000 years ago, the arm of a huge lake, Lake Bonneville, filled the bottom of the valley, and trees extended down near the lake margins. In this landscape, large-headed llamas, camels, small horses, helmeted muskox, American sabercat, and more roamed. 

Crystal Ball Cave is the first location that a new, extinct species of skunk (Brachyprotoma brevimala) has been described.

The cave tour exits from a different place than the entrance, and then it's time to walk back to the vehicles, looking out at the vastly different valley than was there not all that long ago. It would be interesting to come back in 15,000 years and see what it looks like then.