Daytrip - Floyd Lamb State Park

05/28/2015 - Today the rock-hounds from Henderson’s Heritage Park Senior Facility headed to Floyd Lamb State Park at Tule Springs for their year-end picnic and cookout. Originally, I had intended on taking a hike into the newly established Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, located behind the park, but ran short on time and never made it. Click this link to read about this new national park. Click here for info and pictures taken on today's visit to the park ... Floyd Lamb Park - Trip Notes for 05/28/2015. Here is a link to my original page on Floyd Lamb Park ... Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs.

Daytrip – Mary Jane Falls and Big Falls Hikes

05/14/2015 – Today the rock-hounds from Henderson’s Heritage Park Senior Facility headed to Mt. Charleston to hike the Mary Jane Falls trail. Because I had hiked this trail a couple of times in the past, I decided to go to Big Falls, an offshoot hike from the Mary Jane Falls trail. Here is a link to the hike I made today … Big Falls Hike at Mt. Charleston, as well as a link to my previous visits to Mary Jane Falls … Mary Jane Falls Hike at Mt. Charleston. The view in the picture to the left, taken just a few feet from Big Falls, shows Mary Jane Falls (dark vertical line) on the distant mountain cliff in the center of the picture. (Click to enlarge)

Desert Bighorn Sheep at Valley of Fire

04/23/2015 Trip Notes: After returning from a hike to the Fire Wave via the Kaolin Wash back to Mouse’s Tank Road on the northern end of Rainbow Vista we encountered three bighorn sheep that were grazing just a few hundred feet off the road. Even though there were at least 10 of us that got off the van to take pictures, they hung around just long enough for me to capture these shots (Figs. 01-03) before they scampered (Fig. 04) off into the rock cliffs.

Daytrip to Nipton California in Search of the Lucy Gray Mine

Today’s daytrip took us to Nipton in search of the Lucy Gray Mine. Shortly after arriving we heard a train approaching from the north (Las Vegas) heading south. I grabbed my camera and began taking photos. Click here for pictures and info on the Union Pacific Railroad … The Union Pacific Railroad Crossing at Nipton, California. After unloading the Rhino, we crossed the road and began heading north, following the Union Pacific rail bed. During the course of the next four miles we encountered three instances of desert tortoises crossing the road. Click here for more information and pictures … Desert Tortoise Finding Near Nipton, California. When we reached the railroad signal station, we turned east, passing through an open gate and over a cattle guard. The trail then heads in a northeast direction up an alluvial fan into the hills to the mouth of a large gully, and eventually the old Luch Gray mining camp and the Lucy Gray Mine. Click here for pictures and information about the mine … Lucy Gray Mine. During this process I also put together a page on the Ivanpah solar electric energy plant located just west of Nipton. Click here for pictures and information on this facility … The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Plant.

Desert Tortoise Finding near Nipton, California

04/29/2015 Trip Notes: While on a daytrip to the Lucy Gray Mine, northeast of Nipton, California, Harvey and I came across three instances of Desert Tortoise crossing the road. In all the hiking we have done over the past several years, this is the first time we have come across a live Desert Tortoise in their natural environment. To see three of them in the same day was just amazing. Even though I am aware that tortoises come out of brumation, a semi-hibernation state, in March or April as the weather warms up, I was surprised to find three of them within a two mile distance. The first one we came across (Figs. 01 & 02) was a little shy and we had all we could do to coax it to stick its head out once he became aware of our presence. Our second sighting (Figs. 03 & 04) was a little more active, and actually continued to scramble across the road and into the shade of a creosote bush. One thing I noticed was that all three had loose dirt on the top of their shells. Because it was quite breezy, I determined that they had only recently climbed out of their burrows, else the loose sand on their backs would have been blown away by the wind. Though I didn’t notice until I got back and started editing the day’s pictures, the third tortoise (Fig. 05 & 06) had a unique man-made marking on the rear of its shell. It was only recently I learned, during construction of the nearby Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System  located just a few miles west of this location, that they spent more than $30 million on tortoise protection measures, eventually finding and relocating more than 170 tortoises. My guess is that they may have “marked” the tortoise that they relocated back into the desert for future observation purposes, and if so, this could be one of them and why we found so many in this area. For more info on this endanger species check out my page ... Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii).

Click here to return to the [Lucy Gray Mine Page]