Pennsylvania Canyon: Into the Canyon

After a long hiatus in this continuing story about Caliente, Meadow Valley Wash, and related places [Caliente series], I'm finally getting back to the fork in the road at the base of the Ella Mountain Lookout. Which way will I be going? I'll turn left, into Pennsylvania Canyon on the road with the warning sign that says "Road Damaged Ahead."
When I dropped over the saddle into the Pennsylvania Canyon drainage on the damaged road to Elgin, I finally did feel like I dropped into another world, a world of lower elevation, of rockier, steeper, sandier, and more washed-out roads, but also a world that was partly in another time zone, another dimension. I dropped farther and farther into the past as I went lower and lower into Pennsylvania Canyon.

I descended into some nether world that was neither here nor there, really. The sand wasn't as sandy or as roily from truck traffic as it had been 30+ years before, and the steep upper part of the road was seemingly steeper. The steep part was most assuredly rockier and had seen only minimal maintenance for at least a few years, possibly several.

The hillsides had been burned by fire, probably twice - once in a fairly distant past after my last visit in June, 1978, and again in some more recent time, perhaps during the last decade.

Pennsylvania Canyon hugs the west edge of the Clover Mountains Wilderness Area (did not exist back then) in the upper and lower parts of the canyon.

The trees I didn't recognize at first - the ones in the upper elevations near the lookout and the saddle - were Ponderosa pines. These were growing alongside sagebrush, manzanita, piñon pine, and Gambel oaks. Rabbit brush was growing primarily in the disturbed area on the side of the road.

The road was, indeed, damaged in places. The photo below shows a washed-out section not far below the upper steep area. The dirt and soil are a chocolaty brown color remembered from long ago.

Below the washout shown in the previous photo, the road is primarily in the wash. That washout, and the re-routing of the road into the wash, happened quite a while back judging by tracks and the general state of erosion. The current route occasionally goes onto the mostly eroded old road, which can be seen in the photo above to the right of the wash road. Much of our 1978 travel in this section may have been on the old road; I don't remember any old washouts.

One band of wild horses ran from my truck approach - a caution I haven't seen in our so-called wild bands in more than 20 years, a caution possibly bred of the poor road condition and the apparent lack of much human traffic in the canyon. One pass up or down the road by a 4-wheeler-type ATV created the only recent tracks I could see.

At 12:20, having started into the canyon at 11:15, I came to this washout in the lower canyon - located here, just north of the central 4400 contour, where the section line parallels a side canyon going off to the east - almost three miles south of the sandy turnoff I had been looking for. The turnoff I didn't find - east of hill 5547 and south of a 5200 contour - would have taken me to Elgin on what used to be the main road. There is one fresh ATV track in this washed out part of the canyon.

After duly examining the washout generated by this side canyon, I turned around to head back toward the Ella Mountain Lookout.

At 12:40, I pulled over and had lunch in the middle of the wash, in the shade of a juniper tree.

I came to the steep and rocky part of the road at about 1:35 pm, having once again missed the sandy turnoff from long ago. I didn't get photos of this steep part when going into the canyon: I was too busy looking for potential turnaround points in case the road suddenly dropped off into nothing. After all, it was supposed to be damaged!

- Where was the road damaged? I saw "Road Damaged Ahead" signs on both the northeast entrance near the lookout and the southwest entrance near Elgin. I think the damage was on the section between the canyon and Elgin, beyond the sandy turnoff I didn't find, though maybe the signs referred to the washed out lower canyon. Really, though, the upper section of the road just below the saddle was enough to give me pause when driving into the canyon. I drove cautiously, all the while considering the possibility of having to back up should there be a washout below me. Would there be a turnaround point ahead? A washout? Theoretically one can back out of anything one can get into, but when going downhill, that theory does not always apply. Gravity helps you while going down; it will hinder you if you try to back up. So I was cautious. I went downhill slowly, straining my eyes while trying to see through and around bushes that nearly blocked my view. -

Coming back out - and on the farthest reaches in, almost eight miles from the lookout and about four miles from Elgin - the heat and rocks and endless nature of the canyon defeated me, made me irritable at roads gone bad: roads poorly maintained for lack of required claim assessment work, roads inverted in their nature by being worse in the upper stretches, and better in the lower, than they had been in the past.

And so, feeling defeated, I left - slowly but surely, using 4WD on lengths of road that didn't need more than 2WD in the past, and using 2WD where 4WD had been required. I left, and looking once again back down the canyon from the last saddle overlook, I did see, finally, that maybe I had just left some in-between world, half here and now, half there and then.

As usual, the road back, at least from the lookout to Caliente - those last 25 miles or so - was shorter on the way out than on the way in, though not necessarily smoother.

The Caliente Series & Caliente Camp Series

I'm bringing everyone up to date about my Caliente series because I'll be adding new posts soon. The series is multiple in nature: two related series have been running side-by-side. I'm calling the first one I started the "Caliente Camp series" and the second one the "Caliente series." In real time and in blog time, the Caliente Camp series started before the Caliente series.

The Caliente Camp series: These posts are mostly about a helicopter exploration camp I was part of in 1978, with some accounting of the two 2009 road trips I took to the area to travel down old roads. These stories will continue.

• Map area in Meadow Valley Wash: about the first area I mapped as a professional geologist, with some geological references.



• Our Camp in Meadow Valley Wash: a little about the first Caliente trip and the 2005 Meadow Valley Wash flood, an introduction to the 1978 helicopter camps in general, and an introduction to the Caliente helicopter camp in particular: camp basics, camp equipment, recon basics.



• Caliente Camp: Some more Exploration: my second visit in 2009 to re-check the old campsite, along with the checking of a couple other nearby areas, looking down the railroad tracks and bridge near the old camp, and photo shots of sand, running water, underbrush, cliffs, and wildlife.



• Caliente Camp Continued: Part 3: camp layout, camp construction, the water and shower system, the helicopter and buzzing of the outhouse or shower.



• Caliente Camp Continued: Part 4: I get unwanted attention from the camp cook and helicopter fuel-truck driver.



• Caliente Camp Continued: Part 5: what the food was like, more about the two camp cooks, and who will be in which camp.



• (To be continued...)

The Caliente series: These posts are mostly about my 2009 road trips to the Caliente area, although part of the two trips are documented in the Caliente Camp series, and some 1978 stories are told in at least one of the Caliente series posts. The Caliente series includes a couple posts about the geology and rock formations of the area, and other related items like the wildfires that were in progress during my second field trip. These stories will also be continued.

• From the Field: Caliente, Nevada: about Caliente, Nevada, the railroad station, a weather station, and smoke from California fires.



• Caliente Smoke Update: the thick smoke in the Caliente area was from the large Station Fire in southern California.



• International Vulture Awareness Day, 2009: photos of a turkey vulture seen near Caliente.



• Smoke from CA Fires as Seen from the Ella Mountain Lookout: photos taken from the Ella Mountain Lookout in the morning and afternoon, the geography of the area, the lookout, and a little bit about getting to the lookout.



• Meadow Valley Wash: Cottonwood Canyon to Elgin: about the Cottonwood Canyon area, about a couple 1978 traverses we did in the area, and pictures of volcanic rocks in the cliff walls of Meadow Valley Wash south of Elgin.



• Meadow Valley Wash: Elgin to the Narrows: driving from Elgin to "the Narrows," the Elgin schoolhouse, a "damaged" dirt road not taken (introduction to Pennsylvania Canyon), "road closed" and "flash flood area" signs, and the south end of the Rainbow Canyon part of Meadow Valley Wash.



• Friday Field Photos: The Narrows: what rock is this? There were no correct guesses!



• Meadow Valley Wash: The Narrows: the spectacular ash-flow tuff cliffs at "the Narrows," a deer, and the creek in Meadow Valley Wash, with some geological references.



• Friday Field Photos: Tepee Rocks: the ash-flow tuff making up the rock formation known as Tepee Rocks east of Caliente on the road to Ella Mountain Lookout (whew!), with some geological references.



• Meadow Valley Wash: Up the Canyon to Caliente: driving from "the Narrows" to Caliente, looking for the side road to the 1978 map area of the Caliente Camp series, train tracks and a train, and a beer at the end of the road.



• Pennsylvania Canyon: Getting There: driving the dirt road to the Ella Mountain Lookout, bad roads, on the wrong road, some unusual trees, and I'm about to go into Pennsylvania Canyon.



• (To be continued...)

These two series overlap, and I've switched back and forth between the series, partly because I started the Caliente Camp series before I made the second road trip into the area and didn't know what kind of series I was starting. Next on the agenda: getting into Pennsylvania Canyon, the first of the 1978 truck mishaps, and the second of the 1978 truck mishaps. Which one shall I post first?

I plan on updating this post with the remaining parts of these series.

Links: Deep Time and Time

It being the start of a new year (the year 2010 to be precise), I have a few deep-time links for all you deep-time lovers (or would that be lovers of Deep Time?):

• The 2009 Geologic Time Scale: GSA



• No vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end: Hindered Settling, Mar 2007



• The Geologic Time Scale is Mind Boggling: Edward de Leau, May 2007



• How the Discovery of Geologic Time Changed our View of the World: ScienceDaily, Sep 2007



• "We find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end": Laelaps, Oct 2007



• Time: All The Rage, Feb 2008



• The times they are a-changin': Laelaps, Apr 2009



• Time Almost not Beyond Imagining: Recent Volcanism on the Colorado Plateau and Deep Time: Geotripper, Aug 2009



• Fading Into Insignificance: Mather Point, Grand Canyon National Park: Geotripper, Dec 2009 - this is a great use of photography and zoom lenses to create a sense of scale, which is then a metaphor for deep time, with the background being the Grand Canyon, a perfect example of deep time!



• Deep Time: SERC at Carleton College



• Mapping Deep Time: About.com: Geology



• Understanding Deep Time: Boulder Area Sustainability Network (BASIN)



• Hutton's geology: ‘No vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end’: OpenLearn

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve 2009

The last photos of 2009, taken on New Year's Eve, 31 Dec 2009.
The last sunset, looking east, with magnificent wave clouds above and behind the Schell Creek and Duck Creek Ranges.
The last sunset, looking west, with our hiking hill barely in view at the bottom of the photo.
The last birds: a couple of juncos braving the cold evening, despite a relatively empty bird feeder.
Certainly not the last icicles of the winter!
The last full moon - a blue moon - not an eclipsed moon in this locale.

Hope you're having a great New Year's Eve. I'm spending mine having a toast or two by myself. It's Friday night on MOH's schedule - that is, it's his last night shift of three, before a couple days off in the middle of his month.

Our Little House: Winter Birds

Our bird feeder hangs above our snow-covered garden after the partial melting of an early December snowfall. It took a while for the local birds to find our feeder, but after they did, a whole bunch showed up to chomp down on some seeds! (Chomping birds will be seen later in this post.)
Two days after the first photo, we had the big snowstorm of December 13th. A piñon jay chills in nearby bushes.
We mostly get juncos and a few other small birds coming to the feeder, but sometimes a piñon jay tries to get the larger seeds out of the feeder. They always look just a little awkward.
Juncos are nibbling seeds or grabbing grit from an area of ground exposed by our shoveling.
A junco hangs out on some overhead wires.
The sun came out a day or two later, and juncos galore came to the feeder.
Juncos on the ground eat seed spilled from the feeder.
Two juncos argue over which bird gets which perch.
Juncos hang out on the cord running near the feeder. The snow behind the feeder is tracked by little bird feet.
Today, it's been snowing, more than two inches so far - snow we are not supposed to be getting as far as I can tell (slight chance today, none last night when it started).
Here's what our bird feeder looks like against the backdrop of today's snow and some large icicles: one junco peers at me while I take it's photograph. Say cheese seed!

The Devil's Miner

Last night, we watched the documentary The Devil's Miner via Netflix online streaming - an excellent movie about two young brothers, 12 and 14 years old, who work in the Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) silver-tin mines of Potosí, Bolivia. I highly recommend this movie. It documents the poor working conditions at the mines, the poverty of Potosí, and, in particular, the children who work at the mines. The story is told through the eyes of 14-year-old Basilo Vargas, who started working as an underground miner at the age of ten.


Basilo had to go to work after his father died, an event that made him the main provider for his mom, younger sister, and younger brother. Many children in Potosí start working in the mines at young ages; others work at easier jobs - despite child labor laws - in the city. Both brothers go to school when they can; the older brother has plans to leave the mines in six months and go to work in the city - his long range dreams include becoming a teacher and traveling to the major cities of the world. His younger brother wants to become a civil engineer.

The mines are said to have taken 8 million lives since their inception by the Spanish Conquistadors in the mid 16th century. The estimate, as far as I can tell, came from the book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, and includes deaths from underground hazards, silicosis, and mercury contamination. Life expectancy for miners working during the Spanish enslavement period was less than a year; life expectancy of miners today is 35 to 40 years. Currently, of the 8,000 miners working in the Cerro Rico mines, about 1,000 are children between the ages of eight and twelve (from BBC's History echoes in the mines of Potosí by Becky Branford).

The movie is also about Tio, a god or devil the miners make offerings to underground and at tunnel entrances to the mines. The Spanish Conquistadors, trying to crush an uprising by the enslaved indigenous workers, constructed devil-like idols, then they told the workers that this fearful "god" would kill them if they didn't work. The Spanish word "dios" became "tios" because the Quechan language has no "d," and "tios" later became "tio," the Spanish word for uncle. You can see one photo of Tio here; other pictures can be seen at the movie website by clicking on "Gallery."

While writing this, I started wondering about the potential for bringing in a large mining company, either to operate underground using large-scale, low-cost methods, the way El Peñon does in Chile, or to discover and mine a larger, lower grade deposit using open-pit methods. Bolivia, which runs a state-owned mining corporation, has historically been unaccomodating to foreign mining investment, although they recently entered into a joint venture with Apogee Minerals Ltd on an underground mine property located less than 200 km from Potosí. Also, it turns out that the people living there, proud that the City of Potosí is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are against any open-pit-type mining because they don't want to see the shape of the land changed. In fact, the UNESCO Courier reported in 2000 that 97% of people living in Potosí "would rather starve than see the silhouette of El Cerro disappear and, with it, the World Heritage title." [UNESCO doesn't report the actual survey that came up with this number or statement.]

Hopefully, no matter what the future holds for Cerro Rico, children won't have to continue to become miners, and miners won't have to work in such primitive and unhealthy conditions.

More Information:
Devil's Miner at IMDb

NYTimes movie review: As Bolivian Miners Die, Boys Are Left to Toil

LATimes movie review of 'The Devil's Miner'

City of Potosí - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Xmas at Our Little House

I don't yet know for sure where I'll be on Christmas day, but this is what Christmas decorations look like at our little house. I went out a few days ago and found the tiniest fake tree I could find, decorated it with two tiny-light necklaces designed to be worn to Xmas parties, along with some tiny gift-wrap bows, and there it sits, hanging on our front door knob, on the inside where we can see it. We also have some LED lights wrapped around our elliptical exercise machine, which I haven't photographed. I have a large selection of various lights and decorations at our lake house - including a somewhat larger, though still small, fake tree. I didn't want to duplicate by buying more stuff, hence this tiny tree.
Here's wishing everyone happy holidays, whatever kind you may be celebrating and enjoying!