A Trip to Maars, Photos at Soda Lake

Exploring on the Rim

Standing on the rim of Soda Lake gives such a peaceful view and at first glance it appears as a man-made reservoir out in the desert.  

However if you look past the cottonwood trees, rabbit bush and salt grass there are glimpses of the violent past that helped form Soda Lake and Little Soda Lake. 

The Soda Lake basin was created by a collapsed volcano cone, which includes the larger Soda Lake, 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) in length and its sibling to the west the 660 feet (200 meters) Little Soda Lake. They were possibly formed when magma rose close to the surface, boiled the groundwater and caused an explosive eruption. 

Basalt bombs, dark rocks of different sizes, litter the rim and give evidence of the volcano’s violent eruption. Careful footing is needed because the sand is very soft, which might give me a much too close encounter with the water. 

Both lakes are the remnants of two young volcanoes or technically speaking: maars.  USGS defines Maars as "tuff cones"-- shallow, flat-floored craters that were formed above a breccia-filled volcanic pipe or diatreme.

 

A pure form of sodium bicarbonate or soda from which the lakes are named was discovered by early pioneers and was used in mining. 

 Over the short span of 1500 years that is estimated in the life cycle of Soda Lake, nature adapts to the high alkali content of the water attracting a wide variety of birds that thrive on the brine shrimp and underwater plants.

 I look forward to a return visit in the spring to this peaceful sanctuary when the weather warms.

For more information:

 http://backyardtraveler.blogspot.com/2006/10/story-of-soda-lake-is-deeper-than-you.html

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/soda_lakes/

http://www.forgottennevada.org/sites/sodalake.html

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What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been.  I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences. 

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Photography places me in the moment where I can share that moment in time. It becomes a life story as represented by my interaction with the scene. The happiness and beauty or the sorrow and strife; how I focus leaves a lasting impression that might touch the viewer on a spiritual level.

 "Reflecting Nature's Artistry" 

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No images on this blog are within Public Domain or are available for free download. 

 All rights reserved, world-wide and images protected by Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). All photography, graphics, text, design, and content is copyrighted by Bonnie Rannald and should not be copied, down-loaded, transferred and re-created in any way without the express consent, in writing to Bonnie Rannald. For information on Bonnie Rannald licensed, right-managed images, please submit a written request.

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Grimes Point Petroglyph Trail

Walking with the Ancient Ones

Grimes Point, one of the largest and most accessible of the thousands of Native American petroglyph sites in the U.S, lies just east of the small farming town of Fallon, Nevada on Highway 50.

 

Designated as a National Recreation Trail in 1978, the one mile, 1280m, interpretive dirt trail is a walk back through ancient times when a Hunter-Gatherer people frequented the area at least 10,000 years ago leaving behind their legacy of rock art  with lines, circles, dots and abstract humanoid and animal shapes.

As with all petroglyph sites including Grimes Point there is little authentic information regarding the true purpose of the rock etching, however they appear to be along animal migration routes where water, plants and wildlife were plentiful.

The land around Grimes Point was much different 10,000 years ago, as was the climate.  The Ice Age was just drawing to an end and ancient Lake Lahontan was beginning to recede, leaving behind marshy remnants where waterfowl and mammals thrived.  The plants and animals of the area would have provided sustenance, clothing and building materials that were used by the hunter-gathers.

As a testament to their existence or place in history abstract designs were etched in the dark residue on rocks, called Desert Varnish which is created over a vast period of time from dead bacteria impregnated with iron and manganese salts.

At the kiosks, a Grimes Point Petroglyph Trail brochure is available that will give information about each group of rock carvings. A longer and more strenuous trail leads around the mountain to a major archaeological site,  Hidden Cave. Occupied between 3,400 to 4,000 years ago, Hidden Cave was used by the hunter-gathers as a cache or storage site.

All petroglyph sites should be respected because many were used as outdoor places of worship.

The petroglyph boulders should never be walked on and due to the oils in the hands they should never be touched. All of these sites and the rocks therein are objects of antiquity and are protected by state and federal laws.

Please regard the rocks and etchings as sacred monuments of history, left by a vanishing people.

Recommended Reading:

Patterson, Alex. 1992. A Field Guide to Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest, Johnson Books, Boulder, Colorado.

No images on this blog are within Public Domain.

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With my Nikon and tripod, my goal is to recreate the scene as it appears in nature, to preserve in a photographic image the awesome, yet simplistic beauty of the scene that waits around a bend or over a hill. Sometimes it's a colorful landscape, and many times I'm allowed in the presence of the numerous creatures that adapt to life in the wild.

 All rights reserved, world-wide and images protected by Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). All photography, graphics, text, design, and content is copyrighted by Bonnie Rannald and should not be copied, down-loaded, transferred and re-created in any way without the express consent, in writing to Bonnie Rannald. For information on Bonnie Rannald licensed, right-managed images, please submit a written request.

"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"

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