View from Lookout Mountain, California

Photo-exploring on a crater's summit

Where would you go to spend the day on top of a mountain, among tall pines with a 360° view?  If you are in eastern California, that might be at Lookout Mountain.

Lookout Mountain is located on the Eastern Sierra and within the Inyo National Forest.  The name Inyo is Native American meaning dwelling place of the great spirit. 

 

To reach the summit of Lookout Mountain one must travel a gravel, dirt road that is opposite of the Mammoth Scenic Loop turnoff and is not maintained during the winter months.  

The narrow, one vehicle trail wanders through ancient Jeffery Pines that have their legacy almost as far back as the volatile creation of this peaceful mountain.  

Today, Lookout Mountain appears to be a  peaceful retreat.   However, its inception was due to a violent volcanic eruption around 677-692,000 years ago.  The summit crater that is just over a half mile, 1 kn, in diameter, is covered with gravely pumice and shards of obsidian which offer the few  traces of  this mountain’s volcanic features.  

Up high on this ancient summit, 11,158 feet, 3,401m,   wildflowers have managed to adapt in this harsh environment. 

 Yellow blooms of sulfur buckwheat accent the landscape against black obsidian and grey pumice. 

A walk toward the west gives a view of volcanic domes that run north to south:  Deadman’s Creek Dome, Glass Creek Dome and Obsidian Dome. 

Grey slopes, Precaldera Rhyodacite Flows tower on the northern horizon.

To the south are the Inyo Craters and the east side of Mammoth Mountain. 

Delicate white flowers of sego lily Calochortus nuttallii stand out in the dense chaparral.

 The tulip shape draws in pollinators and the entire plant was used as a food source by Native Americans.

Brilliant red of Desert Paintbrush, Castilleja, accent the grey alkaline soil.  Native Americans enjoyed the health benefits of this stunning plant which is similar to that of garlic.  

The shadows grow long, clouds flow across the western sky signaling it’s time to start my descent back down from Lookout’s summit.  With so many wonders to explore in the Mammoth, Mono County area, I am anxiously awaiting my next adventure.  When I go out on my adventures I try to have a blank slate which allows for the story to come into focus.

Follow my Blog and check back often to see where my next story will take you. 

For additional reading: 
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/long_valley/field_guides_lookout_mountain.html

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.

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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. 

Sign up and follow my blog to see where my next photo-adventure will be!

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" 

Many of these images are available on my website:

 http://www.bonnierannald.com/ 

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

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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Soda Lake's Tufa Mounds

Nature's Artistry in a lake within a volcanic cone 

What are the chances of finding a lake within a collapsed volcano cone out in the dry, hot desert of Nevada?  Just northwest of Fallon, Nevada, off a dirt road to the north is a 1.2 mile long body of water, named Soda Lake.

The basin that holds Soda Lake's water is a collapsed volcanic cone.  Over the short geological span of 1500 years, magma rose toward the surface which boiled the groundwater, causing a violent explosive eruption.  However, it has only been recently that the water for Soda Lake filled the collapsed cone when irrigation from farming caused the ground water to rise.

The eastern rim of Soda Lake provides the most noticeable clue of the volcanic cone and rises 80 feet above the water.  Dark rocks of various sizes, "basaltic bombs" can still be found mixed in the sand of the crater.

However, one of the most intriguing features at Soda Lake is not exactly due to its volcanic evolution.  Looking across the lake to the northwest, a number of white pillars stand out on the water's edge. 

At first glance, I was reminded of the Biblical "Pillars of Salt" and curiosity drew me to venture for a closer look.

The white pillars in various shapes and sizes growing out of the water appeared to me as abstract art works in plaster of paris. I was soon to learn that these creative works of nature's artistry were in fact Tufa Mounds.

Tufa is a type of limestone and tufa mounds are created when underwater springs rich in calcium mix with carbonates (soda). A chemical reaction forms that produces calcium carbonate--limestone.  The calcium carbonate precipitates or settles out of solution as a solid around the spring. Over the course of time, which usually takes hundreds of years, tufa mounds begin to grow. However these at Soda Lake are estimated by the USGS to be less than a century old.

Some of the larger tufa mounds reach about 9 feet tall (3m) with a 16 foot (5m) base.  Since the tufa mounds grow or form underwater, they may extend down 13 feet (4m) deep.

The shallow shore makes a sudden drop off  visible in the darker shades of green, the lake has a calculated depth of 147 feet (44.80m).

Soda Lake's high alkali content does not support fish, but brine shrimp do thrive in the water. The brine shrimp draw a large variety of waterfowl, including grebes, gulls, terns, coots and ducks.  Additionally people come to swim and soak in the lake for recreation and the health benefits of the carbonates.

Nature's diversity never fails to amaze me as I have discovered in this thriving habitat that exists within a collapsed volcanic cone in an alkaline lake.  Continue to follow my blog and check back often to see what adventures my next photo-explorations will discover.

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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. 

Sign up and follow my blog to see where my next photo-adventure will be!

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" 

Many of these images are available on my website:

 http://www.bonnierannald.com/ 

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

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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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. 

Sign up and follow my blog to see where my next photo-adventure will be!

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" 

Many of these images are available on my website:

 http://www.bonnierannald.com/ 

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

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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