Osceola Ditch Hike in Great Basin National Park

The Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive in Great Basin National Park recently opened to the Osceola Ditch, so I took the kids up one day to go hike the trail. I had mentioned the Osceola Ditch in my April Nevadagram post, and I wanted to see it again. The ditch was built from in 1889-1890 and covered 18 miles, from Lehman Creek, around the mountain to Mill Creek, Strawberry Creek, Weaver Creek, and over to Osceola. The ditch had a slight downhill grade to keep the water moving in the desired direction. Wooden flumes were built over rocky sections, and a tunnel was blasted through a hill near Strawberry Creek. The ditch managed to get water to Osceola for gold mining operations, but it didn't last long. Mild, dry winters meant less water for the ditch in 1892, and by 1901 the Osceola Ditch was abandoned. 

Today it's a nice trail from the pull off on the Scenic Drive to Strawberry Creek. The hike is 5.2 miles one-way, but we planned to just go as far as we wanted (or as far as I could get the kids to go). I enticed the kids with the promise of a snowball fight.

We found snow immediately, and the kids were delighted.

I got pelted, but had fun returning some snowballs.

Desert Girl also made a snow angel.

After we hiked 1/3 mile from the trailhead, we met up with the ditch. Most of the trail is easy, but Desert Girl wanted to take the hard way.

If there's an obstacle, she's there.

It's easy to imagine water running along the ditch. There are reports of miners fishing the ditch. The ditch probably helped Bonneville cutthroat trout get from Lehman Creek into Mill Creek. Decades later, Mill Creek served as a source population of Bonneville cutthroat trout for reintroductions into several other creeks.

Desert Boy found a fun rock outcropping along the way.

We took a time out for a grass fight.

I also enjoyed the flowers, like this tiny Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia parvifolia).


Nearby was its frequent companion, slender phlox (Microsteris gracilis).


We kept hiking until we found snow blocking the way. Then the kids spent an awesome 20 minutes playing in the snow. It was at least a couple feet deep and they loved jumping into it and then unburying themselves.

On the way back we admired some of the wooden flume, now just pieces of wood.

It's a great trail to hike. It's one of the few that isn't steep, so that really makes it stand out. The history behind it is also fascinating. If you get far enough, a road parallels (or is on top of) the ditch, making the hiking even easier. Large snowdrifts often persist into early June. I'm thinking I will return to this trail later in the summer and see how it works for a trail run.

Rock the Park Followup

If you missed the Great Basin National Park episode of Rock the Park on ABC, it's now available on Hulu for free (there are a few ads): http://bit.ly/GreatBasinRTP

You might also want to watch the Behind the Scenes footage, which shows what a champ the cave photographer was. He was first into the cave and totally cool about it.


If you watch Rock the Park, what parks are you inspired to visit?

Rock the Park Visits Great Basin National Park

So back in November or December I got a message one morning that I needed to give a wild cave permit to a film crew. I knew that they had been attempting an ascent of Wheeler Peak, but didn't know anything else. When they came to my office, they introduced themselves as Jack Seward and Colton Smith from Rock the Park. I gave them a map of the cave, the key, and instructions about how to proceed. I told them that Little Muddy Cave was about 600 feet long and was a mazy cave with a lot of crawling passages. Before they entered the cave, they would need to go through the concrete block behind the visitor center to make sure they wouldn't get stuck in the tight spot. They had to have at least three people go into the cave for safety. They needed to wear a helmet, headlamp, kneepads, and elbowpads. And if they were willing, I'd like them to install three temperature and humidity dataloggers as part of a climate change project.

They listened to all this with their production crew, and then asked if I would be willing to be on camera and repeat it all. I shrugged.
"I guess so."

I didn't have a park uniform on or time to go home and put one on. They put a microphone on me and we planned to meet at the parking area after the guys went through the block.

I figured it would take them a little time to do that, so wisely brought some reading material. They showed up, and it was a really windy day, so we went to the cave entrance to try and film there. I gave them the key and stumbled through the introduction to the cave. I'm not too smooth on camera!

They made a production of gearing up with the kneepads and elbowpads. Then they opened the cave gate and clearly didn't like what they saw. I wasn't sure if they were going to go through with it. But they did. In the clip below, you can see some behind-the-scenes action from the photographer's point of view.

A month or two later I went back to Little Muddy Cave with some friends and my kids. Here they are waiting for me on the gate. You open the gate and climb down a short ladder and then immediately are on your belly for about thirty feet.

Eventually you get to places where you can stand up--if you're a kid!

The cave wasn't at all muddy because it just isn't in winter. But you can see by some of the muddy marks on the walls that the cave has been muddy.

Near the back of the cave there's a challenge chute, where you squeeze down a narrow passage head first. I went and then challenged Desert Boy. He liked it.

You know if it's a squeeze for him, it's small!

I can't wait to see how Jack and Colton's trip into Little Muddy Cave went, along with the rest of their adventures at Great Basin National Park. The Rock the Park episode is playing on ABC Saturday morning, April 16 (times vary). It looks like you can also see it a day or two later on Hulu, and they will probably have a link up on their Facebook page. If you see it, let me know what you think!

p.s. After I met them, I went home and looked up Rock the Park  and started watching it with my family. Season one is available on Netflix. It's fun to see so many different national parks!

March 1, 2016 Baker Creek Snow Survey

 Last week, five of us set out to measure snow at the Baker Creek snow course sites. Three sites, from 8,200 to 9,500 feet elevation, have been measured since 1942 at the end of February and end of March to determine how much snow and water content is on the mountain. This long-term data set is one of the longest for the area. Some of the snow course sites have been replaced with Snotel sites, automated sites. A few years ago, a Snotel site was installed near the Wheeler Peak campground. The Wheeler Peak snotel shows hourly weather data, including temperature and precipitation. That site is a few miles away and at a different elevation than the Baker Creek sites, so the snow courses are continued.

We started at seven in the morning checking our gear and doing a safety briefing. Then we headed up the mountain and started skiing on just a few inches of snow on the upper Baker Creek road. We reached the first snow survey site, a bit above the Baker Lake trailhead, before nine in the morning. At each site, the snow depth is measured with a special snow tube. The snow tube is then weighed to determine the snow water content equivalent. This is repeated four more times and the average value used.

It's about a thousand foot elevation gain and a mile and a half to the second site. We found some places along the trail where the snow had melted.

Fortunately the snow looked plenty deep at the second site.

We were happy to find the snow almost three feet deep and with a water content double that of last year.

I used the calculator function on my phone to help do the calculations. We have to have density within five percent for all five measurements or we have to redo them. The whole program has been worked out to be quite field friendly.

I can't remember what got us all smiling at this moment, but overall it was a great day, with very nice weather. Plus it's hard to beat being outside!

We ate lunch a bit further on and then continued up to the third site.

The untracked snow ahead of us.

We crossed a small spring to reach the third site.

I'm going to have to go back in summer to see how this tree looks in comparison to the sign! The third snow course site is about half way to Baker Lake.

The snow was over three and a half feet deep here, with good water content. It turned out to be an almost average amount, which is a nice change from last year's much drier results.

Brooke is holding one part of the measuring tape. The measurements are taken at prescribed locations along a transect.

After we finished, it was time to head back down the trail. This can be a lot of fun, but also a bit scary, with trees, rocks, and steep sections to navigate. We all wore skins on our skis for both uphill and downhill to have a little more control.

I thought this aspen trunk was so interesting looking.

We all made it down safely, in about two hours from the top site. Despite a few falls, everyone was in good shape.

We sent the data we had collected to the Nevada NRCS office, and they used it to make the March 1 Water Supply Outlook. You can find it and more information on the NRCS website.

Death Valley's 2016 SuperBloom

 Last weekend, while jogging with my husband, an idea came to me: Why not go to Death Valley today? I had been seeing multiple posts about the fantastic wildflowers, products of October flooding. One friend who works in Death Valley said it's the best she's seen since she's been there, which is about fifteen years. I didn't have anything too pressing at work, it was only about six hours away, and I had the energy and desire. So I asked my husband if he would mind if I went. He said fine, and thanks to friends Nomi and Jenny, the kids were taken care of after school.

I had packed quickly and meant to leave early afternoon Sunday, but was having so much fun with friends on a bike ride that I didn't leave until 4:30 p.m. That worked out fine, I saw a beautiful moonrise near Ely, listed to a great audiobook, Duplicity, and before I knew it was in Beatty, Nevada. I decided to go a little further so I could get to the flowers even faster the next morning.

That turned out to be a great decision. The upper elevations didn't have many flowers, but were beautiful (see photo above). But as I descended along the Beatty cut-off road, there was a cacophony of flowers.

Because I had a very loose itinerary, I just stopped where ever I wanted, climbed various hills, and snapped lots of photos. I bent low and smelled the flowers--delicious! Although the yellow Desert Gold (Gereae canescens) flowers dominated, there were many others, at least 12 species along this road.

I wasn't the only one stopping. It seemed when one vehicle pulled over, others would stop too. It reminded me of the "bear jams" we used to see in Yellowstone. I was now experiencing "flower jams." Fortunately, the shoulders of Death Valley roads are graded so it's very easy to pull all the way off the road. The mountains in the background are hazy because it was extremely windy, blowing the sand from the dunes near Stovepipe Wells down the valley.

I stopped at Furnace Creek for a while, including a $16.95 hamburger at the cafe that was totally worth it, one of the best I've ever eaten. Then I headed further south, where the report was that the flowers were excellent. When I got to Badwater, the lowest spot in Northern America at -292 feet elevation, I didn't expect to see any flowers. But on the edge of the road, overlooking the salt flat, flowers bloomed, creating an amazing juxtaposition.

I took some time to look at some of them in more detail, like this Gravel Ghost (Atrichoseris platyphylla), which seems to float in air above the gravel due to the camouflaged nature of its stem.

And these purple flowers made beautiful patterns.

The Desert Gold made fields of gold.

Some of these fields extended over entire alluvial fans. Which, when you think about it, is so remarkable. There is practically no soil on these alluvial fans. These flowers are growing out of the gravel. And in just a few weeks (or less, depending on weather conditions), the alluvial fans will be back to their normal grey and brown colors.

I tried to find a different way to get a photo. After all, how many fields of flowers did I need to take? (I did take over a thousand photos on this two-day trip!) The afternoon light was just stunning.

I kept heading south, in a race against the setting sun. The dark colored mountains contrasted with the yellow flowers. I started thinking of them as "hairy hillsides."

The road kept going and going. By now, most people had turned around, as the flash floods had closed the highway ahead. But I decided to go ahead and take the load less traveled. (Relatively speaking. There are some really less traveled roads in the Death Valley area!)

I arrived at Ashford Mill Site, where I tried to get some shots of the rising moon (not so successful) and of the moonlit ruins and flowers under Orion and Canis Major (a little better).


This looked like a great place to be in the morning, and when two SUVs full of photographers joined me the next morning, I knew I was right. A few clouds provided a very nice sunrise.

The full moon was setting as the first light hit the tops of Telescope Peak and the other mountains. It was dreamy.

And then there was a little reality check. A Stealth bomber flew overhead with an accompanying jet. They made a few laps up and down the valley.

Fortunately I found I could easily be distracted by the flowers. Here are a few (sorry, I don't know the names of them all! I wish I did):

pretty white flower in the Sunflower family

 Desert Five Spot (Erimalche rotundifolia)

Cute little composite

Cryptantha (Borage Family)

The afternoon and morning light are definitely the best for photography. After my second morning photographing flowers, I went for a bike ride, hike in a canyon, and a swim at Furnace Creek ($5 to get a pool pass for the day!). Then it was time to head home. The trip was quick, but totally refreshed me. Seeing the beautiful flowers growing in such a desolate place revealed more of the beauties of our planet and made me feel so alive.

If you'd like to know more, the DesertUSA has a Death Valley Wildflower Report has more info on what's blooming now.