Tuesday

Daytrip - Exploring the McCullough Range

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Back on 11 November, Harvey Smith and I decided to explore the hills of the Northern McCullough Range. Our mode of transportation for the day was Harvey's 4WD Polaris Ranger. This area is huge and encompasses more than 45 thousand acres. Its peaks and ridges are rocky and rough, with heights spanning from 2,000 feet at the eastern base of the range to 5,092 feet at Black Mountain. Infrequent visitor use and the need for route finding skills provide great opportunities for solitude and four wheel exploring. Click the following link for pictures and a brief description of the days activities ... Exploring the McCullough Range.

Sunday

Daytrip - Seven Magic Mountains

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On November 1st Harvey and I took a ride out to the town of Goodsprings and Sandy Valley to investigate the access road leading to the top of Mount Potosi. For several reasons, we found out that we would not be able to attempt this trip in the near future. On the way home we went thru Jean and visited the Seven Magic Mountains located in the Ivanpah Valley between Jean and Las Vegas. Click here for pictures and to read about this outdoor land-based art installation ... Seven Magic Mountains.

Wednesday

Blue Point Spring

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This page last updated on 01/05/2018
(Fig. 01)
Location Blue Point Spring is located east of Las Vegas on the north side of Lake Mead near Echo Bay. The easiest way to get there from downtown Las Vegas is to drive north on Interstate-15 for about 2 miles to Lake Mead Blvd. Exit the Interstate, turn right onto Lake Mead Blvd, and drive east out of town, over the mountains, and down to the lake. About 1.8 miles past the Lake Mead entrance station, turn left at the T-intersection onto Northshore Road, and drive east for about 45 minutes to the paved Blue Point Spring parking area, which is on the left (northwest) side of the road a few minutes north of the Rogers Spring site. The parking area and palm trees can be seen from the road.

Description:  Blue Point Spring is a natural warm spring within Lake Mead National Recreation Area. In the past there have been soaking opportunities at this spring; however, the spring and the creek below it are all now overgrown. Blue Point emerges from the ground at a temperature in the upper 80s. A use-trail leads along the creek to the spring (Fig. 02), as does an old road, and there are a few short use-trails around the palms, but the area is not developed for hiking. It is possible to follow the foliage and walk just under a half-mile to the side of a mountain (Fig 03), the source of the spring, where you can see it bubbling up through silken sand. The source of Blue Point's water is still uncertain, but some think that it travels in underground aquifers from the mountains near Ely, Nevada, located 250 miles to the north. In 1903, farmers near the town of St. Thomas—presently a ghost town with its own unique story—began to construct irrigation canals from Blue Point and Rogers Spring. They used shovels, homemade tools, and a horse team to scrape and dig the canals, but they soon found that the water from the spring only traveled a short distance before soaking into the packed canal dirt. They lined the canals with homemade clay, which also failed. The men borrowed money and spent several months to layer the canals with cement. Ultimately, the entire project failed. Today, the green riparian vegetation in this sparsely-vegetated section of the Mojave Desert attracts desert birds year-round and migrants during spring and fall.

(Fig. 02)
(Fig. 03)
12/08/2017 Trip Notes: After eating our picnic lunch I wandered into the heavily overgrown area of tall reeds surrounding a clump of palm trees. I eventually found a small area where the waters from the spring found their way to the surface (Fig. 04). It was amazing how quickly the water was flowing through this area (Fig. 05). After walking out 3/4 of the way to the end we did find another small spot where the water reached the surface. Other than these two, the whole distance of the canal contains no visible water. On a subsequent visit, Bob visited this area again with some friends and this time hiked all the way to the end of the trail and found where the water from the spring was "bubbling up" in the sand (Fig. 06).

(Fig. 04)
(Fig. 05)
(Fig. 06) Bob's picture

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Exploring the McCullough Range

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This page last updated on 11/20/2017
(Fig. 01)
(Fig. 02)
Area Description: The map above shows the area of the North McCullough Range that we explored. This area is huge and encompasses more than 45 thousand acres. This area of the north-south trending range is comprised of ancient metamorphic rock. Upon closer inspection, you will see that the peaks and ridges are rocky and rough, with heights spaning from 2,000 feet at the eastern base of the range to 5,092 feet at Black Mountain (refer to Fig. 02). The peaks are volcanic in origin, rounded to flat-topped, and have a steep eastern escarpment and a gradual western slope. In addition the North McCullough Wilderness Area is within the newly designated Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area which allows further protection and enhancement. There is a wide, deeply cut bajada on the east side of the mountains. The lower slopes are comprised of gently tilted alluvial deposits of unsorted sand, gravel, and cobbles.  Infrequent visitor use and the need for route finding skills provide great opportunities for solitude and four wheel exploring. The landscape ranges from approximately 3,000 to 7,000 feet in elevation and displays a thriving Mojave Desert filled with creosote bush, Mojave yucca, banana yucca, buckhorn cholla, catclaw acacia, apache plume, blackbrush and Joshua trees. As we explored the area shaded in yellow on the map in Fig. 02, we encountered several jackrabbits and one coyote.

11/11/2017 Trip Notes: Today Harvey Smith and I decided to explore the hills of the Northern McCullough Range. Our mode of transportation for the day was Harvey's 4WD Polaris Ranger (Fig. 03). Our starting point was from the backyard of some friends behind the Mission Hills development, upper right corner of (Fig. 02). Only a short distance from the start, encountered the view in (Fig. 01) above. As we reached the first ridge we looked down into the large bajada that borders the east side of the McCullough Range. As you can see, there are power lines in almost every picture. There are no less than 8 separate power lines that cross the entire area, some wooden old, some steel new ones (Figs. 05, 06 & 07). I assume that most of them originate at the Boulder Dam and wind their way into the Las Vegas valley. (con't below)
                                          
(Fig. 03)
(Fig. 04)
(Fig. 05)
(Fig. 06)
(Fig. 07)
Trip Notes Continued:  Once we reached the large bajada, looking due south, we could see off in the distance the panels of the large solar sites (center of Fig. 08) that border Route 95 south. (Refer to the map in Fig. 02). As we continued west towards the mountains and the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area we made several attempts to get over the mountains for a view of Las Vegas. Unfortunately, both roads we tried to follow ended up as washes (Fig. 09) that dead-ended (Fig. 10). At one point we ended up at a place looking up at the back side of the array of TV and radio towers that can be seen from Henderson. I captured this picture with my 720-zoom lens (Fig. 11). (Refer to the map in Fig. 02) At one point we did reach a ridge that provided a view of the west side of Henderson (Fig.12). After more than two hours we headed back to our starting point (Fig. 13). As we approached the area of Mission Hills, it provided us a view of  Black Butte in the background, located on the northeast end of Las Vegas (Fig. 14). As you can see from these pictures, it was a sunny day that was in the mid 70's. Just another beautiful day to be out in the quiet wilderness, away from the sounds of the city of Las Vegas.

(Fig. 08)
(Fig. 09)
(Fig. 10)
(Fig. 11)
(Fig. 12)
(Fig. 13)
(Fig. 14)