Eastern Mojave Vegetation Tom Schweich
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Eastern Mojave Vegetation | Field Notes (Continued) |
| Tom Schweich |
Topics in this Article: 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2008 Tour de Swertia albomarginata Mono Lake, August 2008 2009 Contents Literature Cited | When I first read the field
notes of Annie Alexander and Louise Kellogg, I was fascinated by the descriptions they wrote about the places they went and the plants and animals they found there. By publishing my field notes on the Internet I hope to follow a little bit in their tradition.
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| 2004
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| My 2004 Trip To Spain
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From Thursday, February 12 to Tuesday February 23, 2004, we traveled to Spain, where I collected a few weeds and made a short trip to the Sierra Bermeja to see the Pinsapo (Pinus pinsapo Boiss.).
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| Thursday February 12th |
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Our flight took off from San Francisco a few minutes late due to the large crowd on the plane. Not much to say about the flight, except that we arrived in Philadelphia a few minutes early.
| | Locations: Sevilla.
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We walked over to the international terminal to wait for our flight to Madrid. The plane was a few minutes late arriving from Cancun, so we left a few minutes late for Madrid. The plane to Madrid is also full.
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There was one poor young man who had lost his passport at Philadelphia. No one could find it, but they made repeated announcements of a lost passport in the airport. Someone must have found it because he was last on the plane, with his passport, to a rousing cheer from the group with whom he was traveling.
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| Friday February 13th |
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Our flight arrived at about 945 AM, about 15 minutes late. It took a few minutes to get off the plane. The lines at Passport Control were pretty long, and it took 15-20 minutes to get our passports stamped. No hurry, though, as it was another 10-15 minutes before our luggage arrived. At the airport, we took a taxi to the Atocha railroad station, arriving about 10 minutes after 1100 AM. It was a good thing we had reservations on the Noon AVE, as we would not have made the 1100 AM train.
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The platform for our train to Seville was not announced yet, so we waited a few minutes until 1130 AM when our train was announced.
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The train attendants saw us coming with our baggage and asked to check our luggage. We agreed, and found it easier than loading the baggage on our car ourselves. Our seats were in the left side of the train, two seats facing each other. I was able to stay awake only about the first half hour, then my wife and I traded seats so she could sit facing forward and see the scenery, while I rode backward with my head slumped over, sleeping. I vaguely remember stopping in Cordoba, and then we were in Sevilla.
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my daughter met us at the train station. She came on the bus from her school. We had juice while we waited for son in law. When son in law arrived, my daughter drove us home in the car, while son in law stayed in Sevilla to teach his class.
| | Locations: Bormujos.
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At home in Bormujos we met Kiko the cat, and visited a bit. my wife and my daughter started going through all the things that my wife had brought in her second suitcase: lots of baby clothes, diapers, etc. As I was starting to fade fast just sitting on the couch, I decided to take a walk. I walked all around the development containing my daughter and son in law's house, over to the hospital, down to the University, up to the MAS supermarket, and then home again. This took about a half hour, and helped wake me up a bit.
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In the evening after my daughter went to get son in law, we decided to get Chinese food, so my daughter, son in law and I walked over to the Chinese restaurant, and ordered some food. The House Special Soup was a bit of a combination Egg Drop and Hot and Sour soup, there was Chow Mein, Sweet and Sour Chicken and vegetables. No fortune cookies. There were also some traditional Spanish foods on the menu. The food was good, but not seasoned as much as we would expect from Chinese food.
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| Saturday February 14th. | Other Articles: Field Notes: Plaza de España | This
morning we got up about 930 AM. After breakfast we drove into the "Center" (downtown Seville) and met son in law's parents, Julio and Maria Jesus. We walked through Parque Maria Luisa and then part of the Plaza de España. At the Plaza de Espana, there are tile displays for each of the provinces of Spain. We stopped and took this photo at the tile display for Pontevedra. son in law’s mother is from Pontevedra. The tiles depict a scene from the history of the city. Unfortunately, I did not write down the event in history.
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At a terrace restaurant at the edge of the park, we had a coffee. From there we walked through the Barrio Santa Cruz to Plaza Alfalfa, where we met Pamen and Julio and their two children: Marta and Julio (sometimes called "Julito" or little Julio).
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Lunch at Habanita
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We had lunch at Habanita, a Cuban restaurant in Alfalfa. We had various things to start, including Bleu Cheese croquettes and Spinach croquettes. I had the lamb meat balls on cous-cous. It was pretty good, but I was a bit surprised by cumin seasoning instead of garlic. Maria Jesus had a combination plate, from which I tried the fried Yucca. Not much flavor, and a bit fibrous, but not bad. Unfortunately, they did not have salmorejo today, which was a bit of a disappointment.
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Lunch at Habanita
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When the waitress first came to our table, Pamen asked for some food for the children. Some meat and french fries were brought out to the table very quickly. The children then got to eat quickly, while the adults had drinks, then appetizers, and finally their meal.
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I noticed another party in the restaurant did the same thing. After eating, it was OK for the children to get up and visit their grandparents, and other adults around the table. I thought that was a good approach, as I think in the US, we expect the kids to wait patiently until the adult meal was served before the kids could eat. At large family meals, it is often the same; first, the kids are fed, then the adults eat while the kids play.
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On the walk back to the car, we stopped for a few minutes at a new store called OpenCor, which had a little bit of everything. A little more stuff than a 7-11, maybe more variety, and no gas, but otherwise similar on the concept. son in law's parents and Julio and Pamen came up to my daughter and son in law's house. This was the first time that Julio and Maria Jesus had seen the house.
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Kiko the cat was an instant hit with Marta and "Julito" and they played with and chased Kiko the entire time, both inside and out. The adults visited and talked, in both English and Spanish. son in law's brother, Julio, speaks very good English, and Pamen speaks more than I thought. Some time ago Pamen gave my daughter and son in law a painting of oranges, orange blossoms in an orange tree that she had painted from the family's country house in San Javier. my daughter and son in law have hung the painting above their fireplace on a living room wall, which is also the exact color as the oranges.
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After visiting Julio and Maria Jesus went back to the military residence in Sevilla where they are staying, and Pamen, Julio, Marta and Julito drove home to the Navy base at Rota.
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We went to the supermarket near the other end of Bormujos, as there was not much food in the house. Parking for the supermarket is in the basement and you ride an elevator that lets you off at the checkout counters. For ground turkey, you pick out some turkey you like and the butcher grinds it on the spot. Most of the fruits and vegetables are prepackaged and pre-priced. Otherwise, it wasn't much different that what we have.
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For dinner, we were pretty informal, my daughter had leftover Chinese food, I had some left over Chinese soup, an apple and some cheese. I think my wife had an orange, and son in law had some of the soup and a sandwich.
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Tomorrow (Sunday) I think Julio and Maria Jesus are coming over for a while. Otherwise, I don't think there is much on the agenda.
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| Sunday February 15 |
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This morning we drove into Sevilla to see Nika and Carlos and their new baby Miguel. They are buying a house in Tarifa, to be closer to Carlos’ business of making and selling surfboards and related equipment, and will probably move there this summer.
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Nacho and Tom work on the fence.
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Back at the house son in law and I worked to remove some of the chain link fence at the back of the yard. The neighbors behind son in law and my daughter are having a garden shed constructed that backs up to the fence. Since most construction is done in brick with cement plaster coating, the back side facing the yard was rough brick and mortar. We needed to remove the chain link fencing so that the workmen can finish the side facing the yard.
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Then, my daughter and my wife talked while son in law took a nap, and I went out collecting weeds in the neighborhood. One thing I collected was definitely a Solanum, another in the Hydrophyllaceae, probably a Phacelia, one that looks like the Evening Primrose Family (Onagraceae) and a couple more, one that looked like an Astragalus from a distance, but definitely wasn't one close up. I don't have a plant press so I put the plants between sheets of newspaper, then put some bricks on top of them and then added a sack half-full with cement to press the plants. We'll see how it works.
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324 | This
one looks like a very miniature version of Clarkia unguiculata.
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Phacelia (?) growing in a vacant lot, Bormujos (Sevilla), Spain
325 | This
one looks like a Phacelia. |
| Literature Cited: 326 |
Cerinthe major L. I found this plant in the vacant lots within Ciudad Universtario, Bormujos, and in lesser numbers in the old olive grove west of Hospital San Juan de Dios del Aljarafe. It has alternate clasping leaves, and purplish flowers with a slight purple blush on leaves near the flowers. | Typically the species is described as having yellow flowers (Polunin and Smythies, 1973). However, the plants in Bormujos had purplish flowers. There is a cultivar typically called C. major 'Purpurescens' that is commonly found on the Internet, or possibly a variety C. major var. purpurescens Boiss. which is described as having purple flowers, bracts and foliage (Polunin and Huxley, 1966). IPNI (http://www.ipni.org/) does not list var. purpurescens as being published and therefore it may be that 'Purpurescens' is simply a cultivar. The plants I collected in Bormujos do not fit neatly into the species or into cultivar 'Purpurescens' as it looks to be intermediate between the two or perhaps something different.
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Borago officinalis L. in Bormujos (Sevilla), Spain
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Borago Officinalis L. |
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Fedia cornucopiae (L.) Gaertner in Bormujos (Sevilla), Spain
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Fedia cornucopiae (L.) Gaertner in Bormujos (Sevilla), Spain
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In the evening we had dinner with son in law's parents. There was lots of talk about names for the baby, and other domestic things. I had honey roast lamb that tasted good, but was either too much or too late, as we finished dinner at 1130 PM, and I had a slight bit of discomfort through the night.
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| Monday February 16th. my daughter's birthday. |
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This morning the workmen are finishing the back of the neighbor's shed. They use mortar to finish the brickwork, and they added some bricks to keep the water from getting in between the little pump house and the neighbor's garden shed.
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daughter's birthday dinner.
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my wife and my daughter made a lemon pie to celebrate my daughter's birthday. Then they started making the spaghetti using the Lawrey's spaghetti sauce mix that we brought with us.
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Card from barbershop.
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I went out to the barber shop "Peliqueria de Caballero" and got my hair cut. Requested "dos millimetros sobre todo" and the barber did pretty well. Looks just like a haircut in the US.
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I also stopped at a paper shop and bought a Spanish birthday card for my daughter. The words look like they are appropriate; I hope they turn out to be so.
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This afternoon, after siesta, we went out to look for at plants in nurseries. We went to one nursery in Gines, the town just across the freeway. It took a little while to find because the map showed a bridge across the freeway that we had not noticed before. It was just a one-lane country bridge, and not made for lots of traffic. Then the nursery was down a long driveway. They did not have too much stock and said that their first shipment was expected at the end of this week. They did have the Eureka lemons, like the dwarf lemon tree that my wife is growing on our back deck.
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From there we went to Bollullos because son in law thought there was a nursery there. Bollullos is a little farther west (away from Sevilla), and a little farther south of the highway to Huelva. There was a nursery there, "Vivero Los Azahares," (www.los-azahares.com), but it is closed on Mondays. So we drove through Bollullos and into Umbrete to a garden and farm equipment store. There son in law got an estimate for a lawn sprinkler system. The estimates are still given in Pesetas in addition to Euros. Maybe that is to help people understand how much things cost.
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On our return to the house, we got some dinner, and then watched the news on TV.
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| Tuesday, February 17th. |
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This morning we got up a little earlier as we are going into Sevilla with my daughter. After breakfast we walked over to the bus stop, where we caught the bus to Sevilla from Bormujos. It's more like a commuter bus than a city bus, with upholstered forward-facing seats. You can buy a ticket that gives 10 rides into or out of the city with a transfer in the city. Unfortunately, the only place to buy the tickets is in the city. All three of us were able to ride on my daughter's one ticket. Just before crossing the river into Sevilla, we got off and transferred to another bus that ran through Triana and Los Remedios before crossing the river into the city. We got off this bus as soon as we crossed the river, and then walked through one end of the Parque Maria Luisa to the street where my daughter works, Calle Felipe II (Felipe Segunda).
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We visited her school, TEFL International, which it shares with the English Institute, and met Chris, one of the teachers, then went a short way up the street to buy bus tickets in a Tobacco shop. I think it was about 10€ for the Bormujos-Sevilla bus ticket, and 3.80€ for 10-ride ticket for use just within Sevilla.
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We left my daughter to work, then walked down the street to a book store. I was hoping to find Polunin's "Flowers of South-West Europe." They didn't have it. They did have a Flowers of Europe by Polunin in Spanish, but the identification key was in Spanish, and I did not think I could follow the key. They also had aerial photographs of Andalucia, and of the National Parks of Andalucia. Anyway, we did not get any thing at the bookstore.
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Back on the street, we caught the number 30 bus that runs into the city center at Plaza Nueva. We walked up to Sierpes (as in "serpent" as it is a twisting shopping street), and got a Cafe con Leche. Then we did a little bit of shopping before arriving at El Corte Ingles (Spain's big department store). We bought some red thread to match my daughter's red curtains, and asked about sewing machines (maquinas de coser). my wife wants to have a sewing machine available when she is here in the summer. The sewing machines were in a different building, and the clerk tried to show me on the map where it was. As we were leaving the store, we saw another map showing where the other building was ... down the street, thru the alley, jog left, another narrow street, jog right, thru the plaza ... etc. No streets, of course, are straight, and some are only a block long.
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Tom holds the sewing machine in Plaza Nueva.
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Anyway we found the other El Corte Ingles building, and the sewing machines upstairs. They had a basic model with a few features that my wife wanted. When we asked to buy it, they brought out a different model. It was close; it was model 1416 when we had picked out model 1406. We had some discussion in Spanish. The thing is that early in the year all the stores have sales (rebajas), and they are very predictable, but not necessarily clearance sales. For the sewing machine model we picked out was last year's model and therefore not on sale, but the model the salesman brought out was a new model on sale (nuevo modelo en rebaja). He even took the new 1416 model out of the box to show us feature by feature that it was the same as the 1406 model. So we bought it. The salesman made a very clever carrying handle out of tape, and we set forth thru the narrow city streets with sewing machine in hand.
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Back at Plaza Nueva, we sat and watched people for a while, then boarded the 33 bus. Less than 15 minutes later we got off at C/ Felipe II, the street of my daughter's school. son in law came from work a few minutes later, and we drove to Bormujos for lunch. After a short siesta, son in law is preparing for the class he teaches tonight. While I write this, my daughter is training my wife to operate the washing machine. Not sure what we're doing this afternoon; perhaps walking to the fruit store in downtown Bormujos. my daughter is also showing my wife how to operate the stroller that son in law bought when he was in the US for his recent class.
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Interior of the Library in Bormujos
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The library in Bormujos … | | 
Buying strawberries at the market.
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Buying Strawberries … | |
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my daughter went into Sevilla for her yoga class. |
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| Wednesday February 18th |
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This morning my daughter is staying home for a little vacation. my wife and my daughter are cooking, bran muffins this time. They sent me to the supermarket to buy a few things. One of the things I had to get was lowfat milk. Unfortunately, I was going by the color of the cap on the milk jug rather than reading the labels. The milk from Asturias has a blue cap on the low fat milk. But the other brand of milk has a blue cap on the whole milk. Well, I bought milk with a blue cap, but it was the wrong brand, so I bought whole milk instead of low fat milk. In Spain, they irradiate the milk, so it doesn't have to be refrigerated until it is opened. Next on my list were eggs; that was pretty easy. Last was dried apricots ("orejones albaricoques"). Fortunately, my daughter had written this down, and I did not have to say it to the clerk I asked. He said a long speech, but I got the "fruteria" part so I assumed they were with the fresh fruit. And they were, just off to one side a little bit. my wife also wanted some buttermilk, but my daughter had no idea what that might be.
| | Locations: Bormujos.
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After delivering the groceries, I set forth for a walk around town. I covered most of it, and sent the photos yesterday. The city hall is on the main street of town in about the middle.
| | Locations: Bormujos.
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Below it is the older town with the narrow streets and the church.
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Hacienda Belen, Bormujos Olive Plant.
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Towards the west end of the old town is Hacienda Belen, where they used to bring the olives for pressing and preserving. Outside the hacienda are three old ollas, that were used to store olive oil after pressing.
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House on C/ Pablo Cosso Calero, the main street of Bormujos.
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building is quite run down now, but it seems to be in use for some purpose. Most of the houses in town were one or two stories. The roofs were flat, and many houses had stairs giving access to the roof, where there was often a clothesline. Many of the houses were decorated with tile around the doors and windows.
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Hardware Store in Bormujos
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At the hardware store, we bought son in law a pair of diagonal wire cutters for the next time he needs to work on the fence.
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At one house that I liked, the woman was washing the step, so I was waiting to take a photo by looking at the photos of houses for sale in the window of a real estate office. A very earnest young man came out to greet me and help me find me dream house, but eventually we decided that I was truly only looking and not planning to buy.
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In the afternoon, we did some more shopping for landscaping supplies and plants. We went to a "polvero" (a dust place) in Gines to ask about bringing in some decent dirt to support a small lawn. son in law calculated he needs 4.25 cubic meters. You have to call the day before you want it and they dump it in the street, which means son in law will also need a wheel barrow and a shovel.
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Vivero "La Menara"
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Just up the street from the "polvero" was the "Vivero La Menara" or nursery. This was a very good one, with both fresh and mature stock. They had several species of what we would call "locust trees," but none that I would identify as the Robinia pseudo-acacia that we plant in the US. One tree was listed as a “Catalpa” but not otherwise identified as to species. I was interested in the Catalpa because the Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) that I see in the Eastern Mojave may be in the same genus depending upon what is meant by “Catalpa.” I think also that the tree stock in the nurseries is much more mature that those a US nursery sells, perhaps 7-8 years, and heavily pruned, whereas I think US nurseries mostly sell younger trees that have not been pruned.
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Thinking about trees in Vivero "La Menara"
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think son in law and my daughter are settling on a Granado (pomegranate), a peach (melocoton) tree and a lemon tree. Since they don't have a lot of space, it would make sense to select trees that also gave fruit back. We also drove back to the nursery in Bollullos "Vivero Los Azahares," and took a look there. This nursery did not have so many trees, but it did have a good selection of smaller shrubs. Here, I learned that vines are called "rampantes" somewhat like the English adjective "rampant," meaning growing or extending unchecked. They had some very nice Trumpet Vines, in the genus Bignonia, also related to the Catalpa and the Desert Willow.
| | Locations: Bormujos.
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We came back to Bormujos, and went to the library to get a book about trees. I think son in law was looking for information about how big trees got, what they looked like, how to care for them, etc. The library did not have a book about trees, but he did get a book about garden planning. While son in law looked for them, I perused the travel section, and found that there are many small books about places to go or things to do in Andalucia; books that we don't have access to in the US.
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For dinner, we finished off the spaghetti from my daughter's birthday dinner
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| Thursday February 19th. | 
The Cathedral Tower with Giralda.
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This morning we got up a little early and rode the bus into Sevilla with my daughter. After arriving near her work, my daughter and my wife had breakfast (toast with oil and pureed tomato), while I had a coffee. We parted company, and my wife and I took a number 33 bus closer to the center of town, and then walked into Barrio Santa Cruz. We entered at Calle Agua where the town water supply was carried in the walls of the city. Then we wandered our way through the barrio -- the former Jewish ghetto of Sevilla -- coming out once at the Cathedral because I wanted to take a photograph of the Giralda at the top of the Cathedral tower. When I gave my talk about "Outdoors in Southern Spain" at UC, someone spoke up and pointed out that the tower of the Ferry Building in San Francisco was modeled after the Giralda Tower in Sevilla. It was first the tower of the mosque in Sevilla, but now is the tower for the Cathedral.
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Other Articles: Field Notes: April 16, 2003
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We ducked back into the barrio and found ourselves coming out at the intersection from whence we watched the Paso de San Bernardo enter the inner city during last year's Semana Santa.
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Courtyard in Barrio de Santa Cruz
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After the paso went by last year we hurried thru the barrio, sort of in the direction of my daughter's house, and I remembered looking through a grille and seeing a wonderful courtyard garden. So we plunged back into the depths of the barrio and, by luck, went straight to the place. Looking at it at length this time, it now seems to be courtyard for a hotel, or a short-term residence. Still very nice and worth a photo.
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We wandered a bit and came out near the street where my daughter and son in law used to live, Escuelas Pias, and the walked down to Plaza Ponce de Leon, where we got a Coke and rested a few minutes.
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We went back up to the main street that follows the old city walls (so we were just outside the old city), and caught the No. 1 bus that took us to the street where my daughter works.
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son in law joined us for lunch, and we walked to a neighborhood bar for lunch. "Lunch" starts about 230 PM in the afternoon and goes until about 400 PM. It still seems a little strange to go to a bar for lunch. I mean, a BAR is a not-very-good place where not-very-good people hang out. But in Spain this is not so. This was a family bar, the father mostly ran the bar and did the out-front work, the mother mostly did the cooking and a little of the serving. Their older son, who looked to be about 13 helped out with the serving, and also made the coffees we had. The younger son, about 7 or 8, helped with carrying the cardboard boxes out. He also had taken over the chalkboard, intended to announce the menu of the day, to draw pictures on, by the time we left. We started with a salad of lettuce, tomato, onion (like yellow onion), and tuna, covered with oil and vinegar, and salted a bit. son in law started with a potato stew with clams. Then, my daughter and son in law had tuna that looked like it was braised with some onion, served with french fires, my wife had "espinacas" which is spinach cooked with garbanzos. I had chicken, like a boneless chicken breast, breaded and fried, that also came with a few french fries. Then we drove home.
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It's now about 630 PM in Spain. While at home, it would be dinner time, in Spain it is pretty much mid-afternoon. son in law has gone to the bank, and my wife and my daughter are hemming the upstairs curtains.
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Tomorrow we are leaving for Jubrique. The next and probably last e-mail would be Sunday night or Monday morning, after we return from Jubrique, but before we go to Madrid for the flight home.
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| Friday February 20th. |
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Today we drove to Jubrique. son in law came home from work a little bit early, while my daughter and I went to get a rental car. We took the bus to Mairena, the next town to the south, and then walked about 20 minutes to the car rental place. It seems to be associated with National and Alamo, and goes by the Spanish name of ATESA, an acronym. After packing the car son in law sat in front to help guide me out of the city. Our highway, A-376 to Utrera, was on the other or east side of Sevilla from Bormujos. There is a major highway that goes around Sevilla so it is not necessary to go through the center.
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Our drive to Ronda was uneventful but rainy. Starting in the plains of the Guadalquivir Valley, first there is an undulating terrain, then low rooling hills, then foothills, and then the low mountain ranges of the sub-Betic system. We stopped in Ronda, parking under the town square. It was raining lightly so we walked around town and across the main bridge that joins the two halves of the town, then back to the Parador to get a coffee.
| | Locations: Ronda.
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We shopped in the main shopping street and then returned to our car, and headed south.
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We took a small road to Benoajan, past Cueva de la Pileta that we have previously visited, and turned off at Jimena de la Libar. This is the town in which Chris, one of the teachers at my daughter's school, has a finca or small ranch. The road went back up to the ridge top where we drove along a way until time to turn off to Jubrique. The road descends into the valley, crosses the Rio Genal, and then begins climbing up to the next ridge. About half way up is Jubrique.
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Locations: Jubrique.
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We met the owner of our Casa Rural at her store "Todo Desde 1000 300 etc," generally called the "Dollar Store." She rode with us down the road a way then back up another little winding road leading to Jubrique Alta, or the high part of the town. Our little house is about half way up in the town, and no more than 250 feet from to Dollar Store on the main road.
| | Locations: Jubrique.
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It has a combination living room, dining room, and kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom. But ... typical of houses in Andalucia, it has no heat. There is a fireplace and wood can be purchased for 9€ a sack, but definitely no heat.
| | Locations: Jubrique.
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After struggling for a while, son in law got a small fire going in the fireplace. We went to dinner in a small bar-restaurante called Meson La Pozuelo. There is also a small hotel in town, but we did not go there.
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For dinner we all had the soup, Sopa de Picadillo, which means "soup of the little things." Ours had ham and hard-boiled egg and a little rice in a good-tasting, if not a bit salty broth. There was one mint leaf floating in the soup that added a subtle hint of mint. For the second course we all had something different. I had Solomillo de cerdo iberica a la brasa, i.e., grilled loin of Spanish black pig, that was quite tasty. son in law had the ternera or beef in a pimiento sauce. my wife had chorizo and eggs with potatos and my daughter had a small omelet.
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Back at our casa rural, we turned in for the day, because it was warmer in bed than not.
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| Saturday February 21st. | Locations: Jubrique. | This
morning the rain stopped about 1100 AM. After a breakfast of food we had brought from Sevilla, we set for for Puerto de Peñas Blancas (Pass of the White Boulders) and Paraje Natural de Los Reales de Sierra Bermeja (Natural Area of Royal Peak of the Brown Mountains). There were two things that interested me about this natural area.
| | Locations: Jimera de Libar. Jubrique. Sierra Bermeja.
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First, the rock of which the mountain ridge is made is peridotite. Peridotite is rock from the mantle of the earth. Occasionally strong tectonic movements will push peridotite to the surface. Sierra Bermeja is one place. Cuesta Ridge near San Luis Obispo, California, is another. Peridotite has relatively more iron and magnesium and less calcium, potassium, and phosphorus than rocks typically found as the surface of the earth. Since the rocks have an unusual chemistry, so the soil will have an unusual chemistry in that it has very little potassium and phosphorus that many plants need to grow. One would expect, then, that there might be some unusual plants growing in the Sierra Bermeja. Well, there might have been, but with the wind and the rain, I did not go traipsing around the forest looking for them.
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| Locations: Puerto de Peñas Blancas.
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As for the second reason to go to Los Reales, there is an unusual tree there. It is the Pinsapo. It is actually a fir, Abies pinsapo.
| | Locations: Puerto de Peñas Blancas. | The
Pinsapo was not described until 1837 by the Swiss botanist Boissier. The tree is thought to be a relict from the warmer, wetter mid_tertiary (10-20 million years) and is found in only three places in Spanish mountains that receive much more than an average rainfall. The other two places are the Parque Nacional de Grazalema, and the Parque Nacional de los Nieves, both of which are nearby and considered also to be in the mountain ranges of Ronda (Serrania de Ronda).
| | 
Pinsapo (Abies pinsapo Boiss.) in the Sierra Bermeja
| The
question would be, though, whether the Pinsapo is found on Los Reales because of the peridotite of which the mountain range is composed. That would make an interesting comparison to Cuesta Ridge because of the large stand of Sargent Cypress (Cupressus sargentii), also a very unusual tree, that occurs there: in poor soil from mantle rocks, on a mountain top, near an ocean or sea.
| | 
Close-up of needles on Pinsapo.
|
The comparison may or may not break down because the Pinsapo also grows in Parque Nacional de Grazalema. Here the host rocks are limestones and the soil is a base rather than acid, though high in calcium and low in iron and magnesium. On the other hand, potassium and phosphorus may be depleted, even though the pH will be at the other end of the pH scale. I don’t have any information about the geology of Parque Nacional de los Nieves.
| | Locations: Puerto de Peñas Blancas. | At
the pass called Puerto de Peñas Blancas we could see under the clouds to Estepona and the Mediterranean.
| | 
Refugio Agustin Lozano
|
The sign at the pass indicated a refugio 4.5 km down the little road into the park. We drove in and found refugio with the bathrooms unlocked. When we opened the door to the refugio, we were surprised to find someone inside with a fire going in the fireplace. They were two caretakers who said the almost did come and open the refugio because the weather was so bad. We had a cafe con leche, except my daughter who had a hot chocolate.
| |
|
Afterwards son in law read the sign outside learning that the Pinsapo pine is a small tree, somewhat Christmas tree-like, which contributes to its poaching from the parks.
| |
|
We found some small trees that looked like a short-needled fir. I took a couple of photos and we left in the wind and the rain.
| |
|
Back at Puerto de Peñas Blancas, the consensus was that a return to Jubrique would be quite premature, as there is truly nothing to do there. So we turned the other way, down the hill into Estepona. It is mostly a Mediterranean resort city and held no fascination for us.
| | 
The beach at San Luis de Sabinillas with the Sierra Bermeja in the background.
| Down
the coast to the southwest, we stopped in a little town called San Luis de Sabinillas. There were a few restaurants open on the beach, and we picked one that had seafood.
| | 
Lunch at the Seafood Restaurant
|
We all started with Ensalada mixta: lettuce, onion, julienne carrots and beets, cord, tomato, a little tuna, and olives. Then I had prawns (gambas). I was expecting maybe 6 or 8 like we get in the States, but the plate had 16 gambas. my daughter had "lenguado: that we think was Dover Sole, grilled with garlic. son in law had "sepia" or cuttlefish. my wife had hake, called "merluza" in Spain, breaded and deep-fried. The hake is very good, but very mild and sometimes needs a little more flavor. When we had merluza in Santiago, they used a bit of paprika for flavor.
| | 
Fishermen placing their nets.
|
While we ate we watched the fishermen launch their small boats and set their nets before coming back to shore. They run the keel of the boats up on boards to pull them across the sand. What we didn't learn is how long they leave the nets before they are pulled back in.
| | 
View of the Sierra Bermeja from the A-377 between San Luis de Sabinillas and Casares.
|
Taking a short walk on the beach, we could look back and see that the clouds had cleared over Los Reales. So we were there just a few hours too early for the storm to clear. | Looking at the Sierra Bermeja, we could also see how they got their name, "Brown Mountains," because the peridotite of which they are made weathers to a light brown. |
|
my wife found some nice shells on the beach, and I found some pebbles of peridotite.
| | Literature Cited: Locations: Casares. | The
highway to Gaucin from San Luis de Sabinillas, A-377, passes within a few kilometers west of Casares. I had read in Travel-Spain newsgroup (http://www.gomadrid.com/travelspain-faq.html) that Casares was a very nice place to visit and stay. I did not realize that Casares was so close to the Mediterranean.
|
|
Locations: Gaucin.
|
After passing by Casares, the next town in view was Gaucin across the Rio Genal. Down again on the highway, across the river, and then back up the other side to Gaucin perched on the ridge. We stopped at a market for some food for snacks and tomorrow's breakfast. Then we drove thru the narrow streets looking for sights to see, a mistake! Back at the highway, we turned north on A 369, riding the ridge between the Rio Genal on the east, and Rio Guadiaro on the west, to Algatocin.
| | Locations: Jubrique. | The
drive up the ridge to Algatocin affording some nice views of Jubrique, Genalguacil, and the Sierra Bermeja. At Algatocin, we turned off A 369, on our road that descended to the Rio Genal and then climbed back up the ridge to Jubrique.
| |
|
| Sunday February 22nd. |
Locations: Jubrique.
|
This morning we left Jubrique after breakfast, and drove to Jimera de Libar, where Chris and Sue have their “finca” or small ranch.
| | Locations: Jubrique.
|
The road from Jubrique to Algatocin descends to the Rio Genal. As the road begins its climb to Algatocin, we found Cork Oaks (Quercus suber), from which the cork had been removed recently. There was also a yard where the cork was apparently stored before processing.
| | Locations: Jimera de Libar. | The
plan was to meet Chris and Sue at the fountain near the entrance to Jimera. Adjacent to the fountain was a small building with a trough of water inside. I believe this building was a place to wash clothes. While we were waiting, two men drove a small flock of sheep up the main road, through the edge of town, and then up into the hills to graze.
| |
|
When Chris and Sue arrived we had introductions all around, and then walked to the finca.
| |
Locations: Jimera de Libar.
|
From the base of the town we walked up the highway, away from town, to a small path that then led to the access road to the finca. The road stayed on the contour of the hill as we walked a short way to the ranch. The lot is about 9000 m2. When Chris and Sue bought this was about the minimal size parcel to build a house. Since then the area has been up-zoned to a minimum lot size of 25,000 m2.
| | Locations: Jimera de Libar. | The
basic structure of the house is finished and now the house is ready for tiling, windows, etc. As the house is built on a slope down from the access road, the main floor is the upper, with kitchen, living room, and terrace above. Below are the bedrooms.
| |
|
We also walked a short way around the property, looking at Chris olive trees, the spring, and into the house itself. I looked at the rocks a bit, and they looked like an impure limestone with minor amounts of shale and some quartz veins. I would guess this is a marine shelf deposit and should have no unusual chemistry for soil development. However, the consistency of the soil approached what we would call “gumbo” as it stuck to our shoes in inch-think layers.
| |
|
The neighbors all seem to keep the soil beneath the olive trees plowed, which I would think would lead to soil depletion. I wondered whether planting of legumes such as alfalfa or clover under the olives might be a good idea. On the other hand, Chris was relating that much of the clean-up was related to discouraging pests, especially the olive fly. Many of the trees have former water bottles hanging from them. A small hole is made in the bottle, just the exact size of the olive fly, and “phosphate water” several inches deep is added to the bottle. Apparently, the olive trees are also sprayed from the air. If one does not want their fields sprayed to retain “organic” status, it is necessary to plant red flags at the corners of one’s property.
| |
|
Under one of the olive trees I found a small orchid. This was a bit of a surprise, as I would have thought such plants extirpated by the twice-yearly plowing.
| |
|
Chris and Sue are interested in becoming an organic farm, and selling their olives as “organic.” They also would like to receive their own oil back from the mill, as opposed to receiving their share of olives pressed in common. At the time the nearest organic press is in Ubrique, quite a bit farther that Ronda, where last year’s olive crop was taken.
| |
|
We joined Chris and Sue at their rented house in Jimera for a spot of tea and a sampling of the olives they grow on their land, and then left for Sevilla. It was a fairly easy drive from Jimera to Sevilla. The road was a bit narrow, and the going slow, in the area of Montejaque. South of Utrera we drove for a few minutes through a downpour, like the unstable air we sometimes have in the Bay Area.
| |
|
| Monday, February 23rd. | 
Waiting for the bus in the rain.
|
This morning we are on the Ave from Sevilla to Madrid. We arose early, and after packing, walked in the rain to the bus stop in Bormujos.
| |
|
The Bormujos-Sevilla bus route ends at Plaza de Armas, from where we took a taxi to Estacion Santa Justa. There is no baggage check to Madrid from Sevilla, so we loaded our baggage ourselves into the “maletera” of the coach.
| |
|
| Sunday, April 18,2004 | Other Articles: CA Hwy 25: Paicines
|
Sunday morning I left Alameda, and headed south on I-880 and US Highway 101 to the turnoff to Hollister at CA Highway 25. Passing through Hollister on CA Highway 25, I passed through Tres Piños to Paicines. This is apparently one place where the San Andreas Fault is tearing apart the foundations of a winery building. I did find this perched reservoir interesting.
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Other Articles: CA Hwy 25: 67100
|
From Paicines south the highway follows a long straight valley formed by the fault.
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|
The small hills and ridges in the valley are likely pressure ridges resulting from movement along the fault.
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|
I stopped at Pinnacles National Monument for a little while and hiked up to the reservoir, than around the rim trail.
| | 
Collinisia at Pinnacles National Monument
| In
the canyons, I saw a Collinsia and a Brodeia ixiodes in bloom as well as what I think is Nemophila.
| |
Climbers at Pinnacles National Monument.
|
Pinnacles is a popular climbing location, and nearly every climbable rock has a climber on it.
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| Other Articles: CA Hwy 25: 88900 Locations: Peachtree Valley.
|
Leaving Pinnacles, I continued south on Highway 25 through Bitterwater and then into Peach Tree Valley.
|
| Other Articles: CA Hwy 25: at CA Hwy 198 | CA
Highway 25 ends at California Highway 198, the road from King City to Coalinga.
| |
Other Articles: Indian Valley Road: 10000 Field Notes: 17-Apr-05
|
However, I continued on Peach Tree Road, south until it became Indian Valley Road.
|
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Other Articles: Indian Valley
Road: 40000
|
Here the painted yellow fish hanging in the Oak tree surprised me. I presume a local rancher is also a fisherman, and has hung this whimsical fish in the tree.
| | Other Articles: Indian Valley Road: 65000 Field Notes: 17-Apr-05 at Indian Valley | This
photo of lower Indian Valley shows the stream bed far exceeds the capacity of the stream, and that the hills are already starting to turn brown.
|
|
|
Indian Valley road ends at San Miguel, where I entered US Highway 101 and traveled on to Atascadero.
| |
|
| Monday, April 19,2004 |
|
On Monday morning, I left Atascadero fairly early, diving north on US Highway 101 and then east on CA Highway 46.
| | 
Jack Ranch Café and James Dean Memorial at Cholame, CA.
|
Stopped briefly at the Jack Ranch Café in Cholame, for a photo of the café and the James Dean memorial. Here I learned that the actual crash site is a half mile east on CA Highway 46, and 200 yards to the west, in the middle of a farm field. The intersection was realigned when the highway was repaved and renumbered back in 1973. The old intersection and the last 8 miles of the highway that Dean traveled are on land belonging to the State Water Department, and The Jack Ranch, and permission must be obtained to walk or drive the short stretch of old highway.
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|
From Cholame, drove to I-5 then across CA Highway 58 into Bakersfield. Made a couple of stops here. One was my usual stop for gas and last minute groceries at the Albertson’s. Some time this morning I realized that I had no stove. So I stopped at Walmart and bought a Coleman propane stove.
| |
|
Moving on through Tehachapi Pass, the Highway 58 bypass of Mojave is now open. I guess it was a good thing, but driving through Mojave was a kind of break in the monotony, and now is replaced by more monotony. Stopped at the Boron rest stop for lunch.
| | Other Articles: U. S. Interstate 40: at Ludlow Locations: Ludlow. | Flew
right through Barstow, stopping in Ludlow for gas. Here I took the photo of the forelorn Ludlow Café, only to learn later that this is not the “original” Ludlow Café, which seems to be down the road a bit.
|
| Other Articles: U. S. Highway
66: between Bagdad and Siberia
|
From Ludlow, I stayed on the old Route 66, mostly looking for the locations of Bagdad and Siberia, while watching for trains.
| | Other Articles: U. S. Highway 66: Amboy Locations: Amboy.
|
In Amboy, it appeared that the café and gas station was closed at the moment, so I went on.
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| Other Articles: U. S. Highway
66: 20500 | I’ve
had several people write to me asking about the “Shoe Tree.” It turns out to be a Palo Verde, festooned with shoes between Amboy and Chambless.
| | Other Articles: U. S. Highway 66: at Essex Locations: Essex.
|
Looking for something photogenic in Essex was a lost cause, so I settled upon the Post Office. From Essex, I turned north up Essex Road, across US I-40 and into Mojave National Preserve, where I camped at Mid Hills Campground.
|
| Locations: Mid Hills Campground. |
| |
|
| Tuesday, April 20, 2004 |
|
The junction of Kingston Road and Excelsior Road is 12.6 miles north of Valley Wells.
| |
|
Stopped on Kingston Road at 13.0 miles north of Valley Wells, UTM 11S 0615064 3942014, at elevation 1080 meters.
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Other plants at this location include Yucca brevifolia, Pencil Cholla, Salvia dorrii, Krameria erecta, and Ambrosia eriocentra in the wash.
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Desert Pincushion (Chaenactis fremontii) near the Mesquite Mountains.
330 |
Chaenactis fremonti(?) |
| 
Calycoseris wrightii near the Mesquite Mountains
331 |
Calycoseris wrightii (?) |
|
332 |
Eriogonum | |
333 |
Hymenoclea salsola | |
334 |
Larrea tridentata | |
335 |
Lycium cooperi | |
336 |
Chorizanthe sp. | |
337 |
Galleta | |
338 |
Composite | |
339 |
Unknown (may be labeled #0338) |
|
340 |
Eriophyllum | | 
Collection No. 340.2, Eriophyllum wallacei, woolly easterbonnets.
340.2 |
Eriophyllum wallacei (A. Gray) A. Gray. Woolly easterbonnets, in Creosote Bush scrub, south of the Winters Pass Hills, 13 mi (20.9 km) north of Valley Wells, 5.2 mi (8.4 km) south-southwest of Winters Pass.
|
| Literature Cited: Other Articles: Kingston Road: at Winters Pass Hills Locations: Winters Pass Hills. |
This field trip was one of my first trips to the Mesquite Mountains to collect plants. When I know that I will visit a new area, I often try to review all the literature about the area, especially including the geology in addition to botany, vegetation etc.
| In Corsetti and Kaufman (2003), I read that some tubular structures could be found in the Noonday Dolomite of the Winters Pass Hills. The Winters Pass Hills are the Southernmost outcrop of the Noonday and Johnnie Formations they studied. The hill shown in the photograph is the southernmost of the Winters Pass Hills. It is also right beside the road. So, I decided to walk up to the outcrops to see if I could find the tubes. Somehow, though, I got in my head that the tubes were supposed to be scolithos. While I could see many tubular features in the rocks, none of them looked like the photographs of scolithos I have seen elsewhere. So these original field notes stated that there were supposed to be scolithos here but that I did not find them. About a year and a half later, Frank Corsetti saw my field notes and wrote to me to say that the tubes in the Noonday are not scolithos. I went back and read his paper and, sure enough, the paper is quite clear when it says there are tubular structures in the Noonday and it does not say they are scolithos. Therefore, in retrospect, I had probably found the structures I was looking for, but did not recognize them, because I thought I was looking for something else. I'm not sure how I got scolithos in my head. But, you can sure send yourself off on a wild goose chase sometimes. On the way back to the car, however, I did find a large colony of Langloisia from which I made a collection.
| Other Articles: Kingston Road:
at Winters Pass Hills
| On
the way up to the outcrop, I saw some fine specimens in bloom. One was a Mojave Prickly Pear (Opuntia erinacea) and the other was Parish's Larkspur (Delphinium parishii).
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| Other Articles: Kingston Road: at Winters Pass Hills Locations: Winters Pass. |
From my vantage point on the low Winters Pass Hills, I got a better sense of Winters Pass being a low, broad pass separating the North and South Mesquite Mountains.
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|
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At 16 miles, entering Winters Pass Hills. The vegetation hasn't changed much. A few Apricot Mallow were seen. UTM location: 11S 0616600 3946658, elevation by GPS is 1085 m.
| | Other Articles: Kingston Road: at Winters Pass Hills Field Notes: 20 Apr 05 Looking for Langloisia 20050424246 341 |
Langloisia setosissima ssp. punctata (Cov.) S. Timbrook
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Other Articles: Kingston Road: 49900 50000 Locations: Mesquite Mountains.
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Winters Pass. |
|
342 |
Mojave Aster | |
343 |
Amsinckia | |
344 | Lupine
| |
345 |
Chorizanthe ridiga | |
346 |
Mucronea | |
347 |
Hydro- or Borag- | |
348 |
Composite | |
349 |
Filaree | |
|
Rock outcrop north of road. |
| 
Foxtail cactus (Mammilaria tetrancistra) on limestone outcrop in Mesquite Mountains.
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Undetermined species found in limestone outcrop on east side of Mesquite Mountains.
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Unknown plant in crack of limestone outcrop -- Nama dichotomum ???
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Undetermined species found in limestone outcrop on east side of Mesquite Mountains.
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Unknown plant in crack of limestone outcrop -- Boraginaceae? Cryptantha?
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Other Articles: Kingston Road:
34000
|
From the top of the limestone outcrop, I had a good view of Mesquite Lake and Mesquite Valley.
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Ivy-Leaved Ground Cherry (Physalis hederifolia) on limestone outcrop, east side of Mesquite Mountains.
|
| |
350 |
Asteraceae | |
351 |
Nicotiana | |
352 |
Indigo Bush | |
|
Approximately mid-canyon on the east side, UTM: 11S 618600 3953000, elevation: 1020 meters. There is a fence line crossing the canyon. I went up on the south side of the road to a small rock shelter.
| | 
Growth habit of Mortonia utahensis.
353 |
Mortonia utahensis |
|
354 |
Thistle | |
355 |
Phacelia | |
356 |
Lycium | | Literature Cited: Other Articles: Field Notes: Coll. No. 362 geranylhydroquinone 357 |
|
| 
Collection No. 358, Salvia dorrii, Purple Sage
358 |
Salvia dorrii |
| 
Collection No. 359, Salazaria mexicana, Mexican bladder sade
359 |
Salazaria mexicana |
|
Literature Cited: Other Articles: Kessler Springs Road: at Veterans Cross
|
Driving by "The Cross" on Kessler Springs Road, I noticed that a box has been placed over it. | When I later drove by, Sunday, May 22, 2004, the box had been removed. Meanwhile, on June 8, 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the cross likely violated the establishment clause. Attempts to transfer the property to private owners have not rendered the case moot because it may take several years to complete the property transfer.
|
|
After a fine dinner of pistacios, carrots, cucumber, and Blue Heron Ale, I walked a bit around the campground looking for plants in bloom. I think (again) this was a good year for some plants.
| | 
Phlox stansburyi in the Mid Hills Campground.
|
Phlox stansburyi is common, growing out of the Basin Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata).
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Paintbrush in the Mid Hills Campground
|
The Paintbrushes were out. |
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Locoweed in the Mid Hills Campground
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There were a couple of huge Astragalus. |
| 
Pretty little Phacelia in the Mid Hills Campground.
| This
pretty little Phacelia, growing under the Pinyons, was fairly common, but never growing in any large masses.
| | 
California Evening Primrose in Mid Hills Campground
| The
California Evening Primrose (Oenothera californica ssp. avita) was just beginning to bloom.
| |
|
| Wednesday, April 21, 2004 |
|
| Thursday, April 22, 2004 |
|
This morning it is cool and breezy again. I left Las Vegas and drove past Goodsprings, and through Sandy to the Mesquite Mountains. There I stopped at the first canyon on the left. This is a limestone canyon, and from the road looks to be somewhat small. The UTM location is 11S 0619370 3954207. The elevation at the mouth of the canyon is 950 m. I walked up the canyon and was surprised to find my self on a bench well up above the floor of the canyon. Walking up this way, I saw many Delphinium and Allionia.
| | 
Collection No. 360, Delphinium parishii var. parishii, Parish's larkspur.
360 |
Delphinium parishii |
| 
Whole Scan of Collection No. 361, Allionia incarnata L.
361 |
Allonia incarnata L. |
| Literature Cited: Other Articles: Field Notes: Coll No. 357 geranylhydroquinone 362 |
Phacelia crenulata Torrey var. crenulata |
| 
Collection No. 363, Mirabilis laevis var. villosa
363 |
Mirabilis bigelovii [= M. laevis var. villosa] TAS 19-Feb-05
|
| 
Scan of buds in Camissonia brevipes ssp. brevipes
364 |
Camissonia brevipes (A. Gray) Raven ssp. brevipes
|
|
365 |
Krameria erecta | |
Scan of a portion of Collection No. 366.
366 |
Unknown | |
367 |
Penstemon palmeri | | 
Whole Scan of Collection No. 368 Pectocarya platycarpa
368 |
Pectocarya platycarpa (Munz & I. M. Johnst.) Munz & I. M. Johnst. Broad-Fruited Combseed.
|
|
369 |
Plantago | |
370 |
Kra lan | |
|
Atriplex sp. | |
372 |
Arenaria macradenia |
|
373 |
Salvia mohavensis vegetative matter only, plant not blooming yet.
| | Other Articles: Kingston Road:
38000 |
Photograph taken April 23, 2004. | On the south side of the road, climbing up to some dip-slope limestone outcrops, I saw 4-5 Calochortus flexuosus. |
Other Articles: Kingston Road:
43000
|
I walked up to the quartzite outcrop on the south side of the road. On the way back to the car, I collected these two different Atriplexes. Location was 11S 3953350 618750, elevation: 1000 m.
| |
374 |
Grayia spinosa (Hook.) Moq. |
|
375 |
Grayia spinosa (Hook.) Moq. |
|
|
Just below the fence on the south side of the road at 11S 3953250 618500, elevation 1000 m.
| |
376 |
Salvia dorrii | |
377 |
Castelleja chromosa(?) |
|
378 |
Sphaeralcea ambigua |
|
379 |
Palafoxes sp. | |
|
Above the fence line, with Mortonia. |
|
380 |
Cryptantha ? | |
|
In the side canyon on the cherry stem road, 11S 3952403 617237, elevation 1140 m.
| |
381 |
Phoradendron on Acacia greggii |
|
382 |
Nama | |
383 |
Mimulus | |
384 |
Unknown | |
385 |
Eriogonum | |
|
| Friday, May 21, 2004 |
|
Nine and one-half hours from Alameda to Mid Hills including a grocery store and lunch stop in Bakersfield.
| |
|
| Saturday, May 22, 2004 | 
Calochortus kennedyi on the north face of Wild Horse Mesa.
| This
morning was cool and breezy. We set off down Wild horse Canyon and turned in the road to the north face of Wild Horse Mesa. Took my wife, Charlene and Jake up to my plots. Along the way we saw many Calochortus kennedyi in bloom. There were also numerous Swertia albomarginata rosettes, much lower than I remember seeing them before, just where the slope wash from the limestone comes down the old road. We saw one plant with many buds and just one flower open, and another plant with many buds. In my plot, there were 53 new rosettes. This number was very much a surprise. I had thought there might have been 10 or 15 new plants, not 53 plants.
|
| 
Symphoricarpus longiflorus at Lobo Point.
| We
drove into Lobo Point for lunch. The Fragrant Snowberry (Symphoricarpos longiflorus) was in bloom.
| | 
Jake contemplates the meaning of life from "Re-Birth Rock."
|
After lunch we drove out to Wild Horse Canyon Road and down Wild Horse Canyon. After a couple of miles we pulled over, and then walked the half mile or so to Ceremonial Site.
|
| Other Articles: Wild Horse Canyon Road: Spur road to Banshee Canyon Locations: Hole-in-the-Wall.
|
Jake and I climbed down through Banshee Canyon and back up on the rings.
|
|
|
Back up Black Canyon Road to Mid Hills campground. |
|
|
| Sunday, May 23, 2004 | 
Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) in the Mid Hills
|
Visited the Mid Hills RAWS (Remote Automated Weather Station). |
|
|
Drove through Jean to Goodsprings. |
|
|
Tried to drive up on Potosi Mountain, but found a gate closing the road.
| | Other Articles: Eastern Mojave Geology: 185000 Locations: Aztec Tank. |
Drove instead to Aztec Tank. I was expecting more of a tank or “tinaja” but this was not so.
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|
|
Then drove into Las Vegas, staying the night at the Holiday Inn Express.
| |
|
| Monday, May 24, 2004 | Other Articles: NV Highway 160: 27000 Locations: Pahrump.
|
Today, we left Las Vegas and returned to NV Highway 160, over Mountain Springs Pass into Pahrump Valley.
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| Other Articles: NV Hwy 372: 40000 Locations: Pahrump.
|
Drove through Pahrump, finding it much larger than we expected. Pahrump has experienced some explosive growth recently, to the point of threatening existence of the brothels.
|
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Other Articles: NV Hwy 372: 39000 Locations: Resting Spring Range.
|
From Pahrump, we turned west on NV Highway 372 headed for Califronia and CA Highway 378.
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| Other Articles: CA Hwy 178: in Chicago Valley in Chicago Valley Locations: Chicago Valley. |
Through Chicago Valley. |
| Other Articles: CA Hwy 178: 64000 64100 Locations: Shoshone.
|
Over the pass into the Amargosa Valley from whence we could see Shoshone.
|
| Other Articles: California Highway 127: 12200 12210 Locations: Funeral Mountains.
|
From Shoshone north, through Death Valley Junction across the Nevada border to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Reserve.
|
| Other Articles: NV Hwy 373: Ash Meadows Locations: Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. |
Stopped at the office. |
| Locations: Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
|
Followed the Crystal Spring boardwalk to Crystal Spring. |
|
|
Had lunch | | Locations: Devil's Hole.
|
Drove to Devils Hole. |
| Locations: Devil's Hole.
|
Short walk into the area, around the left or south side is a small boardwalk that lets you see down into Devil’s Hole.
| | Locations: Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
|
Drove to Point of Rocks Spring. Short walk to the spring. Picnic table under the mesquite.
|
| Locations: Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
|
Many bright blue pupfish in Point of Rocks Spring. |
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Left Ash Meadows NWR, and drove to Beatty, turning left to visit Rhyolite.
| | Other Articles: Nevada Highway 374: 20000 Locations: Rhyolite. | At
Rhyolite, stopped at the bottle house. |
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Drove up to the depot, | |
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Then returned to Beatty where we stopped for the day at the Motel 6.
| |
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| Tuesday, May 25, 2004 | 
Cottontail Ranch brothel at Lida Junction.
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Drive from Beatty today north on US Highway 95, to the junction with Nevada Highway 268 turning left and west at the Cottontail Ranch.
| | Other Articles: Nevada Highway 266: 54000 Locations: Magruder Mountain. |
View of Magruder Mountain and Palmetto Mountain from the east. This photograph was taken from near the intersection of Nevada Highway 266 and Nevada Highway 774, the road to Gold Point. Magruder Mountain in the right center. The range in right center are the Palmetto Mountains. Lida is in the valley between Magruder Mountain and the Palmetto Mountains.
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Other Articles: Nevada Highway 266: at Lida Locations: Lida.
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Stopped a few minutes in Lida. It looks like about half dozen houses are occupied. There is a larger, new house up on the hill to the north of town.
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Other Articles: Nevada Highway 266: at Lida Locations: Lida.
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Later, having returned home and doing some research on the Internet, I learned that the town site of Lida comprises 124 lots all owned by Jack Vogt, a local cattle rancher. The ranch is for sale, with an offering price of $20,000,000.00. Included in the property are the historic town sites of Lida, Pigeon Spring, and Palmetto, as well as 2,882 acres and ten mining claims.
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In 2001, Jack Vogt was also involved in a dispute with the BLM about grazing fees, which he apparently stopped paying in 1995. This would be about the time from which several letters indicate that Vogt was the Chairman of the Esmeralda County Public Lands Commission. While the numbers in the newspapers are inconsistent, in late July 2001 the BLM rounded up about 130 head of cattle from Vogt’s ranch and threatened to sell them at auction. In the meantime, either 49 or 73 were shown to have been sold to another rancher, one Julian Smith. Smith was not a party to the grazing fee dispute, and therefore the cattle were released to him. At the auction for Vogt’s remaining impounded cattle, there was a verbal protest that, “They’re stolen cattle,” and there were no bids. The ultimate fate of the cattle was not indicated in the news reports.
| | Other Articles: Nevada Highway
266: at Lida Summit
|
From Lida we continued west over Lida Summit, turning off the main road onto a little dirt that leads south. We stopped at a little clearing at the ecotone between the Pinyon forest, and a patch of Sagebrush.
| | 
Ecotone between Pinyon forest and Sagebrush
|
10:26 AM: 11S 447705 4141735 altitude 2178 m. |
| 
Undet Camissonia near Lida Summit, Collection #386.
386 |
Camissonia | |
387 |
Lupinus | |
388 |
Allium, three seen, two collected, multiple bulbs and bulblets. I collected the primary bulbs and re-buried the bulblets.
| |
389 |
Gilia, small and multi-colored. |
|
390 |
Cryptantha (?), yellow, long floral tube , saw these later at lower elevation, the flowers are not open yet.
| |
391 |
Little white Gilia | |
392 |
Mimulus, very small, magenta with yellow throats. |
|
393 |
Phacelia | |
394 |
Something in the Apiaceae. |
|
395 |
Cryptantha. | |
396 |
Eriogonum, only the innermost small white flowers were open. |
|
397 |
Popcorn flower, hairy. | |
398 |
Popcorn flower, different from 397, not hairy, calyx lime green.
| | Other Articles: Nevada Highway
266: 37000 |
Moved in the road a little further, on the west-facing nose of a small ridge, the Pinyons and the Sagebrush are more mixed at this location. 11S 0447368 4141329 2179 m
| |
399 |
White phlox | |
400 |
Astragalus, growing from inside an Artemisia. |
|
401 |
Ephedra, female. | |
402 |
Phacelia | |
403 |
Asteraceae, woody perennial. |
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Other Articles: Palmetto Wash Road: at Pigeon Spring Mill Locations: Pigeon Spring Mill.
|
As the rain began to fall, we drove down, and west, until we came to the road to Tule Spring. Just across the valley is an old mill. On some of the ghost town web sites this is listed as the Pigeon Spring Mill. We pulled in there to eat lunch and wait out the rain. Location on the GPS receiver is 11S 441059N 4141816E, elevation 1951 m
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| Other Articles: Palmetto Wash
Road: at Nancy Walker
Grave
|
Just beside the car was a grave, with the inscription, “Nancy Walker, 1884 – 1906.” Someone has been caring for this grave as the headstone is definitely much newer than 1906, and various objects have been placed on the grave. | When the rain stopped, I collected a bit. |
404 |
Brassica, on the flat where we parked. |
|
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On the slope above the flat where we parked. |
|
405 |
Eriogonum, woody perennial |
|
406 |
Penstemon, only one seen, although we would later see this plant many more times, see for example, 414.
| |
407 |
Astragalus, large plant growing by itself. |
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We drove up the canyon to spring with two large cottonwoods. By GPS, the location is 11S 440976 4141327, elevation 1958 m. I believe this to have been Pigeon Spring.
| |
408 |
Brassicaceae, in disturbed soil, also saw this plant on the highway from Cottontail Ranch to Lida.
| | Other Articles: Palmetto Wash Road: 13000 Locations: Pigeon Spring, Mine 2 km South.
|
Drove up the canyon a little more until I saw something yellow in a damp stream bed, near a mine, at location by GPS is 11S 441420 4140198, elevation 1992 m
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|
409 |
Camomile | |
410 |
Geranium (?) | |
411 |
Galium, hill slope under Pinyons. |
|
412 |
Streptanthus, on hill slope |
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413 | Ribes
| |
414 |
Penstemon, in wash. | |
415 |
Phacelia, in shade and debris of Pinyon |
|
416 |
Cryptantha, large yellow | |
417 |
Streptanthus | |
|
We turned around and drove over Lida Summit to US Highway 95. |
| Other Articles: U. S. Highway 95: south of Goldfield Locations: Goldfield. |
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| Other Articles: U. S. Highway 95: south of Goldfield Locations: Goldfield. |
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| Other Articles: U. S. Highway 95: at Goldfield Locations: Goldfield. | We
stopped at Goldfield to look around, where I took several photographs of historic buildings.
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Total time to drive from Pigeon Springs at the west end of Magruder Mountain to Tonopah was about an hour and a half, including a 15 minute stop in Goldfield.
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In Tonopah we stayed at the Hi-Desert Best Western Inn, and had dinner at El Marques Mexican Restaurant.
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| Wednesday, May 26, 2004 |
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We left Tonopah after having the continental breakfast at the Hi-Desert Best Western Inn and getting gas and ice at the Giggle Springs gas stations.
| | Other Articles: U. S. Highway 95: west of Tonopah Locations: White Mountains. White Mountains. | From
Tonopah, US Highway 95 goes west. As we rounded a corner we got a good view of the White Mountains in the distance.
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Other Articles: Glossary: monocline Nevada Highway 265: near the Monocline near The Crater
|
From US Highway 95, we drove south on Nevada Highway 265. “The Crater,” shown on many maps is a cinder cone right beside the highway. | To the northeast of The Crater are some lava-capped sediments that appear on the map as "The Monocline."
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Literature Cited: Other Articles: Nevada Highway 265: near Blair Locations: Mineral Ridge.
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| Other Articles: Nevada Highway 265: Silver Peak Locations: Silver Peak. | The
town of Silver Peak is a living ghost town. There is a mineral extraction plant in operation, operated by Chemetall Foote
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| Other Articles: Nevada Highway 265: Silver Peak Locations: Silver Peak. |
Chemetall Foote Corporation traces its origins to Dr. A.E. Foote who founded the Foote Mineral Company in 1876 as a purveyor of rare minerals. In the 1960's Foote pioneered the production of Lithium carbonate from brine with the opening of the Silver Peak, NV plant. Foote also produces Lithium carbonate at the Salar de Atacama located in the desert of northern Chile. Today, the Silver Peak and SCL-Chile plants (operated by wholly owned subsidiary Sociedad Chilena de Litio) combine to produce in excess of 45 million pounds per year of Lithium carbonate. In addition to Lithium carbonate, Silver Peak is one of the world's leading producers of Lithium hydroxide.
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| Other Articles: Coyote Road: 65000 80000 Locations: Red Mountain. Location Anchor: "NVSilverPkRng" not found in tblLocations
|
From Silver Peak, we drove west on the good but very steep Coyote Pass Road, to Coyote Pass.
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| Other Articles: Coyote Road: Coyote Summit Locations: Clayton Valley Dunes. |
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| Other Articles: Coyote Road: Coyote Summit Locations: Coyote Summit. |
There is a small road heading south where we stopped to look at plants on the ridge top. The locations here, by GPS, is 11S 433436 4181184, elevation: 2257 m.
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|
418 |
Astragalus | |
419 |
Astragalus, different from 418. |
|
420 | Draba
| |
421 |
Cryptantha | |
422 |
Castelleja, red in color, but these seem somewhat short in stature, collected from five different plants, but all were growing from inside an Artemisia tridentata.
| |
423 | grass
| |
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We traveled west one mile west of Coyote Pass and stopped again to look at plants, at location: 11S 432769N 4182568E, elevation: 2169 m.
| |
424 |
Sphaeralcea | |
425 |
Oryzopsis | |
|
Heading further down the canyon, at a narrow spot, there was a spring on the north side of the road. 11S 428004 4183617 1977 m
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426 |
Mimulus | |
427 |
Yellow Hydrophyllaceae (?) |
| Other Articles: Coyote Road:
41000
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Still further down the canyon, we stopped to collect the Argemone at 11S 423254N 4186272E.
| |
428 |
Argemone | |
429 |
Oenothera | | 
Collection No. 430, Langloisia setosissima var. setosissima
430 |
Langloisia |
| 
Collection No. 431, Salvia dorrii ssp. dorrii
431 |
Salvia dorrii ssp. dorrii (?) |
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Other Articles: Coyote Road: at Cave Spring Locations: Cave Spring. Location Anchor: "NVSilverPkRng" not found in tblLocations
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At the mouth of the canyon, we stopped at a corral and line shack for lunch.
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Literature Cited: Other Articles: Coyote Road: 37000 Locations: Rhyolite Ridge.
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| Other Articles: Coyote Road: 36000 Locations: White Mountains.
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The drive from here to “The Crossing” was uneventful. The Crossing itself is an elevated portion of the road, crossing a small stream. We did not stop at The Crossing, but it seemed that the stream was flowing to the northeast. The topography in this area is a little confused, with an approximate high point at The Crossing with lower elevations to the northeast and southwest.
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| Literature Cited: Other Articles: Coyote Road: Fish Lake Hot Well Locations: Fish Lake Hot Well. |
| Fish Lake Hot WellJust past (west of) The Crossing is a hot spring. It was surrounded by many signs warning about dire consequences that might result if the vandalism and harassment of the wildlife continues. | Other Articles: Coyote Road: 15000 Locations: Piper Peak. Location Anchor: "NVSilverPkRng" not found in tblLocations
|
|
| Literature Cited: Locations: The Sump. | From
The Crossing we continued west to Nevada 264, turning north to its junction with Nevada 773. Just past that junction we turned right (southeast) on a small road to “The Sump.” The road is easy except for a 4-foot drop into the wash. The drive up the wash is an easy mile and a half, where the road ends against the upturned lake beds. | Frank DeCourten in The Broken Land: Adventures in Great Basin Geology, waxes poetic about a night spent at the Sump with his students. It's a place of clear skies and majestic views in addition to the many fossils in the mid-Cenozoic graveyard.
| Other Articles: NV Hwy 773: The Sump Locations: The Sump.
|
We walked around a bit. The basin looked like it could have formed in the axis of a syncline, but the south limb was sometimes hard to visualize. There was also some strike-slip faulting parallel to the axis of the syncline that was filled with a very dark green fault gouge.
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| Other Articles: NV Hwy 264: at north end of Fish Lake Valley Locations: Fish Lake Valley. |
From The Sump we returned to the highways and then headed northwest on NV Highway 264. We jogged west on US Highway 6, and then north on Nevada Highway 380.
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I stopped for a photo at Belleville, which for a time was a mill town for Candelaria, only to learn later that I had confused Belleville with Belmont.
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Further on NV Highway 380, we returned again to US Highway 95, where after passing through Mina and Luning, until we came to Hawthorne, where we stopped for the night.
| |
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| Mineral County, Nevada
| Literature Cited: Locations: Hawthorne.
|
"As Aurora declined, and Hawthorne grew, the county seat of Esmeralda County was moved to Hawthorne and a court house built. In 1900 the Southern Pacific Railroad, purchased the Carson and Colorado, realigning the road bed for a more direct route from Thorne toward the rich mines at Tonopah and Goldfield, bypassing Hawthorne.
| |
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The economic slump in Hawthorne resulted in the county seat being moved to Goldfield in southern Esmeralda County. During 1905-1907, mining booms at Lucky Boy, Rawhide, and Dutch Creek brought prosperity back to Hawthorne and a demand for the return of the county seat. Senator Fred Balzar, a native of Hawthorne, proposed dividing Esmeralda, creating "Mineral County in 1911 from the western half of Esmeralda: Balzar later became governor of Nevada.
| |
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"Mineral County is appropriately named as gold, silver, copper, mercury, iron, borax, limestone, gypsum, and uranium have been discovered in the county over the years.
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"The population of Hawthorne increased to 680 soon after the federal government established the Naval Ammunition Depot on 400 sq. miles surrounding Hawthorne, circa 1927-1929. Hawthorne grew at an astounding rate as the N.A.D. expanded to meet demands of World War II. Civilians, military personnel, and townspeople mushroomed the population to 14,000 by 1944. The federal government built the community of Babbitt, to accommodate the civilian civil service workers, and two-story barracks buildings to house 2,000 sailors. Both areas have been demolished or relocated.
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"The past is reflected in the museum. Most of our special collections are donations from present or former residents of our towns of Hawthorne, Luning, and Mina."
| |
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| Thursday, May 27, 2004 | Other Articles: U. S. Highway 95: 33600 south of Walker Lake. Locations: Walker Lake. | We
left Hawthorne early in the morning, stopping at several places alone Walker Lake to take photographs.
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As we passed by Schurz, it looks like a nice town. |
| Other Articles: U. S. Highway Alternate 95: 75000 Locations: Yerington. |
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South of Yerington, I took these photographs showing the full irrigation ditch next to the East Walker River. This is the fork of the river that comes down from Bridgeport.
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| Saturday July 31, 2004 | Other Articles: U. S. Highway 50: 15500 Locations: Lake Tahoe.
|
Drove from Alameda over US Hwy 50, to Myers, arriving there in about 3 ½ hours.
|
| Other Articles: California Highway 89: 82500 Locations: Hope Valley. | From
Myers I drove south on CA Hwy 89 over Luther Pass into Hope Valley.
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After a slight jog on CA Hwy 88 to the east, I turned south again on CA Hwy 89.
| |
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Through Markleville to the junction with CA Hwy 4, I followed CA Hwy 89 east toward Monitor Pass.
| |
|
I stopped briefly at Heenan Lake. This is where the DFG keeps the brood-stock for for Lahontan Cutthroat trout. Barb-less fishing is allowed for a brief period in the Fall. There are no facilities at Heenan Lake, and you must walk a short way to the lake from the parking lot.
| | 
Sagehen Flat and Heenan Lake, looking south.
| From
Heenan Lake I continued a short way east on Hwy 89 to Leviathan Mine Road. Turning off here I continued 11.8 km over a small pass and down a canyon to the locked gate at the Leviathan Mine.
| | Locations: Leviathan Mine.
|
Leviathan Mine Road skirts the mine to the east, climbing up to a ridge and then dropping back down into the canyon on the north side of the mine. I didn’t go all the way, stopping to take photos where there was a good view of the mine, and then returning the way I came.
| |
|
I turned northwest on a road marked Morningstar Road bound for Haypress Flat. However, back at home, the DeLorme TopoUSA shows this as Loop Road.
| | 
Lunch stop on Loop Road (Morningstar Road) near Monitor Pass.
| I
continued on Loop Road 3.0 km to a small pass, where I stopped for lunch. While eating lunch, I noticed several small flowers, and collected at 11S 266601 4286646, elevation 2453 m.
| |
432 |
Malvaceae | |
433 |
Arenaria | |
|
From here I returned on Loop Road 2 km to a small meadow, with some cows. The location was 11S 268319 4286090, 2320 m.
| |
434 |
Carrot Family. After pulling several stems, I got a little curious as to what was underneath. It tooka bit of digging to cut the roots and pull a plug of soil out, and then separate the root of this plant from roots of the other meadow plants.
| |
|
I returned to the car, continued back to Leviathan Road, then turn back southbound for CA Hwy 89.
| |
|
On the western exposed slope, were some buckwheats. At other locations, these were past their peak bloom and I did not collect them. Here, however, they were at their peak. Tomorrow, I will see many of these along to road over Ebbets Pass.
| |
435 |
Eriogonum, with Purshia, Artemisia, Cercocarpus, and Pinyon. |
|
436 |
Monardella(?) | | Other Articles: California Highway 89: Just West of Monitor Pass Locations: Monitor Pass.
|
From here I returned to CA Hwy 89 and continued east to Monitor Pass.
|
|
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Here I turned north on a small road just west of Big Springs Road. There were many, many Paintbrush growing from the Big Sagebrush. Crossed the valley, including a crossing of the dry Mountaineer Creek, and continued on Big Springs Road to a small saddle. Determined that I did not want to continue in this direction, so I turned around and stopped at Big Spring.
| |
|
Stopped at Big Spring, which is a pipe with water flowing out of it, all under a pile of trash, such as some old bed springs. 11S 273777 4285719, elevation 2385 m.
| |
437 |
Mallow, near spring. | |
438 |
Yellow Rosaceae, Geum(?) | |
|
From here I continued a small way northwest along the road. It looks as though one could circumnavigate Leviathan Peak by staying on this road.
| |
|
However, I spied a small road following Mountaineer Creek and followed it. This road does not show on the DeLorme TopoUSA. Down this road a short way was a horse camp. And the road looked pretty good, like it might follow Mountaineer Creek for quite a way.
| | Other Articles: California
Highway 89: 88900 |
After a short break, I began to return to CA Hwy 89. However, about a quarter-mile before reaching CA Hwy 89, I stopped to collect the paintbrush, at 11S 274295 4284984, elevation 2403 m. Everywhere in this little valley has a little tinge of read from the paintbrush. The dominant vegetation is sagebrush and an iris. I also saw an Arenaria, but saw none in bloom.
| |
439 |
Castilleja. | |
Other Articles: California Highway 89: View Point of Slinkard Valley Locations: Sweetwater Mountains.
|
Stopped at the usual overlook for a nice view of Slinkard Valley.
|
| Other Articles: California Highway 89: View Point of Slinkard Valley at US Hwy 395 |
Turned north on US Hwy 395 from CA Hwy 89. |
|
|
Spent the night at the Topaz Lake Inn and Casino. |
| |
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| Date and time this article was prepared: 6/28/2009 8:20:09 AM |
