Geeky trip March 2023

[MojaveGeek]

So let's see, we are up to 15 March now.   Beardilocks posted some very good photos of three rock alignments.  I had their location in PLSS format;    PLSS is a coordinate system developed a long time ago to survey public land (that's that the PL stand for) and although I had seen it before, I had to play around a bit before I could figure out just where this site is, and turn it into ordinary waypoints in lat/lon (actually I use UTM but never mind).  It's a  walk up washes, some easier than others, and a nice bit of desert pavement.  Part of the motivation was that even if the rocks were a dud, the views as we walked up would be pretty, and they were.



So then we get to the suspect area, which is a bunch of desert pavement covering quite a few acres, fan out, and start looking.   They were not immediately obvious and I was a bit worried that maybe my calculations had been off, but a good search does not start right where you think you will find (because then you wander aimlessly in expanding circles) but rather at one end of an area of interest, and soon enough we found the first of three sets



Of course once you know what you're looking for, the others jump at you visually in fairly short order.





But these are not the sort of things you're going to notice if you just happen to be wandering by.  So many questions, then.   How did these get into the record?  Yes, we know of the site survey but how did the author know?  I can't believe they did a grid search of the valley floor.  Prospectors likely saw them, but they did not have great maps and mapping tools and likely would not have cared.  At one corner of the site is a wooden sign, with the main signpost long gone, but there is a little aluminum stamped tag on the post reciting the same PLSS coordinates (just in case you don't know where you are when you arrive?).    

The weather was quite windy and there was a shower with hail, and some strong wind - there was an amazing dust cloud which blew through ahead of one of the storm cells that hit is a bit later.  Put on rain jacket and pants, and 20 minutes later we were all dry.

Here is an interesting mix with some white rocks for emphasis; I don't know what that's about.   



Thank you again for the beta; would never have known of or found these otherwise.  

The next day had two parts.   We drove down to just past Ashford Mill, just the valley side of Jubilee Pass, to climb a peak Bob Burd labels 1269 (but the map is metric).   We started just east of a red ridge from his route, which was a bit smoother, and crossed a very green area with a bunch of small flowers and a lot of flowers-to-be thinking about doing something.



The summit had the advertised great views, without the longer climb of Jubilee, which I'd done many years earlier.  There was a bit more haze though.





The rest of the day was Kaleidoscope Canyon.   If you don't know, be sure to visit on a sunny day with good blue sky in the second half of the afternoon to get the best light on the colors.   This used to be a semi-secret place, but now it is on alltrails, so, sigh.   We saw one other party going in while we were on the summit and encountered them on their way out, but no one in the canyon itself, just colors and a lot of brittlebush in bloom.







Eric had never seen this spot and it was good to know that the colors had not faded over the last decade   It is a bit of a slog up fans, but they are easy walking and as long as you get yourself into the right canyon with the right light, the colors are amazing.  The combination of the two hikes made a great day.