Saturday,
Nov 4th was grocery day in Pahrump, NV. Jeff had found
the Pahrump Valley Museum so we stopped for a tour. A very nice
museum with a very good overview of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear
Depository. Also, a train room which was in progress with more work
before the display could be opened. We got a preview as train buffs.
After
lunch and grocery shopping we returned to Furnace Creek.
Our
next big hike was to “Big Bird Canyon”. It is about a 1.5 mile
hike up a wash into a canyon with large fossil footprints of a big 3
toed bird. I was last in this canyon in 2010. We spent more time
looking for other footprints and believe we found more than previous
visits. We walked further up the canyon looking for some rock
alignments we had found years ago. Unfortunately, time did not
improve my memory as to their where abouts. We decided that a further
1 or 2 mile hike would be required to find them but next year, not
today. As it was we had about a 0.8 mile hike back to the vehicles
after we reached the highway.
3 toed fossil bird footprints.
We
again were looking for grave sites but this time it was up Echo
Canyon to the town site of Schwab. I thought I had been to Schwab but
had only been to the Inyo mine. We could only drive to with 1.3 miles
of Schwab as the park service has blocked the road. So hike we did.
We found the grave sites because of a photo our friend Tom had on his
iPad. There could be more grave sites based on depressions in the
ground which may be collapsed graves. Hard to know for sure.
Grave site at Schwab.
The
National Park Service opened up the Keene Wonder mine site which had
been closed for 9.5 years die to suspected arsenic in the ground and
mine tailings. They also re-enforced some of the mine structures.
There was a grand opening which we did not attend due to limited
parking, instead we waited a day to explore the site.
Keen Wonder mine with towers in the background.
Having
this site open means there are several canyons and mines which can
now be explored. We decided to check out the Johnny Cyty mine which
is about a mile from the Keen Wonder. Along the way we crossed
several small streams which are the output of springs. These springs
provided water for the mines but all are highly sulfated in fact so
much so that we could not stay near the source for long because of
the smell.
Johnny Cyty's cabin.
Johnny Cyty's mine.
The
remainder of the trip had us participating in lectures and programs
put on by the Death Valley 49ers. All were really interesting.
I need to talk about the Desert Ballon Recovery Crew or DBRC. We started collecting mylar ballons last year and contined doing it this year. We found a total of 31 this year, 9 in one day. Mylar ballons are hazardous to electrical wires and animals. Jeff has created a Facebook page to show our colections. Check it out.
Mylar ballons on our camp cloths line.
