For #MountainMonday here is colorful Mount Perry, a peak in the northern Black Mountains of Death Valley National Park.
The hike to Mount Perry's summit starts at Dante's View and is pretty much "uphill both ways", with a distance of 8.5 miles. From Dante's View one first loses about 800 feet in elevation — and then has to gain it back. And the same on the way back out of course. 🤪
I've got some neat-o rock pix from near Death Valley. (Rock thread!)
These are from a pass will outside the park, between Chicago basin and Pahrump, NV. But this rock unit occurs in a remote part of Death Valley, too.
These particular rocks were float, not attached to bedrock.
This rock is part of a very old (>500 MYA) pre-Cambrian unit. It is pretty well silicified and has fractures filled in with more resistant minerals. They stand proud after erosion of wraker stuff.
Here is an image of pyramid-like star dunes in the western part of Mesquite Dunes in Death Valley during a windstorm. These are accessible from the Mesquite Dunes parking area. It is usually pretty crowded.
But we are going to check out the far eastern area of Mesquite Dunes. There is a small parking area over there that is rarely visited. You can wander into the dunes and interdunes and find some especially interesting features....
Here is a detail of some of that salt deposit where the lake "went away".
(Can't use term "receded", because the lake might be bigger now. Maybe "moved away"?)
Wind was moving image left to image right. It swooped around the topographic obstacle. There is also a neat lumpiness repeating bump pattern as well. And on top of all this are the fine hairs of salt. Zoom in to image center for detail.
I think that this is an evaporative salt effloresecnce carved by wind.
Paddleboard Tatooine. Some of Star Wars was filmed in Death Valley, so couldn’t resist. Way too windy to try wearing the helmet out on the water, though! #StarWars#DeathValley#SUP
Paddleboard Death Valley! Lake Manly has been reborn, drawing kayakers, tourists & me with my paddleboard. Just in time for super high winds. I put in just past Badwater. I had to remove my big main fin to keep from dragging. And eventually … open water! I couldn’t stand for long, as it was so windy plus I kept dragging if I tried. Went for about a mile - fantastic! #deathvalley#lakemanly#sup
Salt crust forming along Lake Manly, Badwater Basin, Death Valley.
The salts were originally dissolved in the super-saturated Lake Manly.
As the lake slowly dries up it precipitates some crystals, but also leaves behind saturated wet sand. As it dries, capillary action pulls the water up into the evaporation zone at surface. It precipitates salts and leaves behind these platy crusts. (Later, these will make nice crystallization nuclei.)
The night sky above Death Valley’s desert floor is so dark it was given the highest “gold tier” designation from the esteemed DarkSky International, a tier reserved for the darkest locations across the globe. To share its starry views, the park hosts an annual Death Valley Dark Sky Festival. This year, the free celebration runs from March 1 to March 3.
Since I was recently discussing this here's a sailing rock on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley Nat Pk (10/25/2016). For decades nobody knew how these rocks moved until one was filmed moving. Water pools in a low spot on the playa & freezes. When it warms, & the ice breaks up, wind driven sheets of ice pile up behind the rocks pushing them across the playa. Details here > https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0105948 HT: @MrRealSurf
In 2018, I finally made it out to the Racetrack in Death Valley National Park to see the #famous “sailing stones.” I first remember reading about the bizarre phenomenon as a kid and it immediately went on my bucket list, so it was great to finally make it there.