Northern Lights in Snake Valley!

 

This isn't something I was expecting to see in Snake Valley! The Great Basin area is relatively far south, so how in the world are we seeing northern lights? 

Well, thanks to a solar maximum this year and several large CME's - coronal mass ejections -aimed towards the earth, we're being bombarded by solar stuff (I'm 100% sure that's the technical term) that makes for awesome skies, even in more southerly locales. We're located along the 39th parallel (the Equator is 0 and North Pole is +90), so that puts us more towards the south than the north (let me remember that come winter, lol).  But with all the activity, northern lights appeared in May (which I missed due to traveling), and now they're back in October!

My friend Jenny and I had gone out two nights to try and see them over the weekend, but one night was a bust and the other night they were so dim that I didn't even post any of my photos. But on Monday night, 10/7/2024, she texted me to get my eyes outside. I boogied out, bring the whole family, and we were amazed! We could see some color with just our eyes (those naked eyes we're always hearing about!). And with a longer exposure, the colors really popped!

The kids responsibly went to bed a little after 8 pm, but I wanted to see more, so I jumped in the car and started driving around. Except the color had faded quite a bit. It was still a nice glow.

The pond was so serene with the glow over it.

Welcome to Baker, Nevada. It's extra colorful now!

I headed to the Baker Archeological Site, because I thought it would be extra cool to think about the Fremont people here hundreds of years ago maybe experiencing this same phenomenon. What would they have thought?

The color wasn't super bright, but it was beautiful. 

I was getting tired, so I decided to pack it up. But as I was walking back to the car, I noticed the colors strengthening. Hooray! Here's the path to the aurora!

And I'm on it. Check out those pillars! And cloud reflections. It was so magical.

I went back to the main site and enjoyed an amazing light show. Why do people post so many aurora photos? 

Because it changes so fast! 

And it is just so amazing being there, even when you can't see quite this much color, you definitely see that the sky is tinted.

I'll just conclude by saying Welcome to Nevada. We have more color now!

p.s. I think I have a new hobby now, these colors are just so amazing!

Hampton Creek Road Reopened!

I heard that the Hampton Creek road had been repaired in August, about 10 years after the Hampton Creek Fire and subsequent floods that washed the road out. I couldn't wait to go check it out. We went on a Sunday afternoon that was surprisingly cloudy. 

The road goes right through the dry Hampton Creek creekbed. It's dry right now, but won't be come springtime, so we'll see how it looks then!

The newly constructed road crosses a couple small springs. 

The road was nice and wide, but be aware that it is quite rocky!

Near the end of the road you can see a nice tall ponderosa pine and some mining structures from the old garnet mine.

We parked at the obvious trailhead parking and started up the trail. Soon we found lots of rocks with tiny little red garnets in them. You can also find garnets on their own in some of the alluvium.

As we continued up the trail, I got so excited to see a baby ponderosa pine!

The landscape looks so different. The skeletons of pinyon pine dot the landscape, but rabbitbrush seems to be the dominant plant now. It's easy to look way up canyon. I was glad for the clouds to block the sun.

The dog remained blissfully oblivious to a herd of elk on a far-off ridge.

Another baby ponderosa pine! It will be fun to see how these grow.

We hiked up a bit and then turned around. The trail at the beginning is awesome. How is that possible?

It's possible because a trail crew is working on it!


We stopped and talked to them a bit. They're from Friends of Nevada Wilderness and they've done a couple hitches already working on the trail and this is their last one for the year. But they'll be back the next two years to continue work on this trail and others in the North Snake Range as part of a Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA) project to repair roads and trails in the area. This makes me so happy, I love hiking in this mountain range!

So if you have the opportunity, you can go check out Hampton Creek now all the way to the trailhead (without hiking in an hour). It's great to be back!

More posts about Hampton Creek over the years:

 September 2008 trip report

More about the garnet mine-2008

2014 Hampton Fire

August 2014 visit, after the fire

May 2016 visit

Exploring Burned Hampton Creek