Thursday, September 2, 2010

A Highway 50 Series

I've been working on a Highway 50 roadside geology series for quite a long time, and have managed to get a few posts in every now and then, but have many more to go before I really consider it complete (could it ever be complete?). The entire Highway 50 Series as listed below includes posts that reference Highway 50, stories about or revolving around Highway 50, and roadside geology some distance off Highway 50 (but not too far). The part of 50 that I'm considering as "mine" right now is really the stretch that runs through Nevada, from Stateline, Nevada, at Lake Tahoe to the Utah state line near Baker, Nevada. The Loneliest Road in America is considered to run from Fernley to the Utah state line near Baker, NV. Fernley is on Alt 50, which leaves 50 at Silver Springs, goes north to Fernley and then east toward Fallon. It rejoins 50 some few miles west of Fallon (I'm not sure whether to include Alt 50 as part of this series). I often access Highway 50 by driving through the canyon of the Truckee River from Reno to Fernley on I-80, but I won't include any of that with the Highway 50 Series.

I'm going to go ahead and list some things I haven't yet posted about that I consider part of this series. I have an intent to post about these areas; when or whether I get to them remains to be seen. So, from west to east:
  1. Locations color coded plain black (and not bolded) - I don't have photos for posts (though I might link to a photo in another post not entirely about Highway 50).
  2. Locations color coded red - I have photos but haven't written a post .
  3. Locations coded blue have a link to an existing post.
Additionally, I've listed some general Highway 50 road trip posts at the end of the main list; these go from one area on the road to some other area on the road. Some of these could be consolidated into location specific roadside posts, but so far haven't been.

CA Border to Hazen
Death Valley Trip, Getting There: Wave Clouds beyond the Sierra

Hazen to Sand Springs:
Dipping beds near Hazen
Soda Lake maar
Old barite mill (or not, location in question)

Grimes Point archaeology - petroglyphs in basalt
Salt Wells

Dust and Deflation (Fernley to Hazen to Fourmile Flat to Middlegate Junction)
Dust Devil Links (Eightmile Flat and Fourmile Flat)
Huck Salt Mine
Pink Playa Phenomenon (Fourmile Flat)
Lake Lahontan shorelines near Sand Mountain (on 80, on 95)
Sand Mountain for Sand Dune Week
Four Years Ago: Spencer Hot Springs, Kingston Summit, to Fallon
Spencer Hot Springs, Then and Now (a bit o' history)
Two Years Ago Today: The Loneliest Phone
Dikes near Sand Springs
Sand Springs (photo)

Sand Springs to West Gate:
Frenchman (for now, see Fairview Peak, Nevada)
Fairview Peak (photo)
Where in the West - March (Fairview Peak)
Fairview Peak, Nevada
Friday Fault Photos #6 (Fairview Peak)
Friday Fault Photos: Fault Scarp at Fairview Peak, Nevada
Friday Fault Photo: Fairview Peak, NV, Fault Line
Chalk Mountain (photos)
Things You Find in the Field: Stingaree Valley
West Gate geology
Friday from the Road: West Gate
Friday from the Road: West Gate Windmill
Lizards of the Day: Blue Bellies (at West Gate Windmill)
Windmill Down! (West Gate)

West Gate to Eastgate (old Highway 50):
Middlegate Junction (one sign photo)
Friday from the Road: Middlegate Station, central Nevada
Views from Middlegate
Friday - Back from the Road (Middlegate Station)
Backroads: Ophir and Out (Middlegate Station)
Xmas Greetings from Nevada! (Middlegate Station)
Clan Alpine Mountains (photo)
Geology on the Road: Flow-Banded Rhyolite with Breccia (Clan Alpine Mountains)
Geology on the Road: Breccia with Flow-Banded Rhyolite
Geology off the Road: a bit of Tuff, Fossil Leaves, and EarthScope
RIP Middlegate Shoe Tree
Ash-flow tuff near The Shoe Tree

Old 50 Turnoff to Reese River Valley:
Desatoya Mountains (west side photos, photo)
Back from Alaska (hike to Cold Springs Pony Express Station - CSPES)
Recent Hike: Water in the Desert (another hike to CSPES)
Cold Springs Pony Express Station (there's more!!)
Desert Critters: Horned Lizards (Cold Springs area in the Desatoya Mountains)
Signs of Fire (Edwards Creek Valley)
New Pass Canyon western roadcuts
Friday Fault Photos #4 (New Pass Canyon)
Shoshone Mountains (photo)
Columnar jointing in tuff near Mt. Airy Summit
Flash Flood on Highway 50 (Mt. Airy Summit, Mt. Airy Mesa)
Flash flood, sheet wash deposits, and erosion from 2008, with tuff

Reese River Valley to Big Smoky Valley:
Reese River Ravens
Reese River Valley (looking south photo, looking west photo)
Toiyabe Range (photo, photo, photo)
Stokes Castle
Friday from the Road: Austin, NV (Reese River, Austin)
Geology on the Road: Austin, NV (powder cache door, quartz monzonite, dikes)
Things to do in Austin, NV
Austin: Is it Time to Leave Yet?
West to Southwest of Center: Beers and Roads and Folds and Things
Things You Find in the Field: Speed Traps
Geology on the Road: Highway 50 #2 (ash-flow tuff & granite, Austin Summit)
Geology on the Road: Highway 50 #1 (ash-flow tuff, Austin Summit)
Austin pass geology, granite, faults
Bob Scott Summit granite, contact
Field Trip Day 1: Getting There (flowers, Bob Scott Summit)

Big Smoky Valley to Hickison and Pete's Summits:
Big Smoky Valley (photo looking north)
A Saturday Drive (Big Smoky Valley)
A Road Trip to the Hot Springs (Spencer's Hot Springs)
A Soak at Spencer Hot Springs
Four Years Ago: Spencer Hot Springs, Kingston Summit, to Fallon
Spencer's Hot Springs (also mentioned here)
Linka Mine skarn
Memories: First Trip on Highway 50 (Pete's Summit, Lone Mountain, Cortez)
Pete's Summit petroglyphs, graptolites (mentioned here)

Big Smoky Valley Area and Monitor Valley
SW to SWxS of Center: West Northumberland Canyon
SWxS to SSW of Center: The West Northumberland Canyon Springs and Northumberland Pass
South by West of Center: Monitor Valley Salt Flat or Dry Lake
Backroads: Too Cold to Change a Flat, and other Considerations
South of Center: Potts Ranch Hot Springs
The Geographic Center

Hickison Summit to Lone Mountain:
Hickison Summit ash-flow tuff, faults, base surge?

Hickison Summit petroglyphs in ash-flow tuff
Gold mines near Gold Bar up the 3 Bar Road
Three Bar Ranch Road

Lone Mountain to Eureka:
Eureka! It's Lone Mountain!
Lone Mountain: Intro to Stratigraphy
Lone Mountain Stratigraphy in Brief
Tweeting the Eureka Quartzite
The Eureka Quartzite at Lone Mountain
Antelope Range (photo)
What Dust Hazard? (Roberts Creek Rd, Slough Creek, east side of Lone Mountain)
ENE of Center: Breccia at Devils Gate
Coarse-Grained Calcite in the Devils Gate Breccia
More about Devils Gate: limestone, horst, sill (?)
Speaking of Slag and Silver (Eureka)

Eureka to Newark Valley:
Eureka Summit hoodoos in poorly welded tuff
Eureka Pass contact of tuff against limestone?
A Fan Weekend - Nevada Style (alluvial fan in Newark Valley)
Three Years Ago Today: Newark Valley Geology at 70 Miles Per Hour
Pancake Summit (mentioned here)
Newark Valley (looking west photo)

Newark Valley to Ely:
Busy Days! (Ruth to Jakes Valley)
Geology on the Road: Ely Limestone Panorama (near Illipah Reservoir)
Springtime in the Egan Range (north of the Thirty Mile turnoff)
Garnet Hill
Friday Fault Photos (Keystone Junction, Ely Limestone, fault and folds)
Geology on the Road: Highway 50 #3 (Keystone Junction continued)
Today's Hike: Trees, Wildflowers, Stratigraphy, and Faults (stratigraphy near Ely)
The Lincoln Highway: Quotes and Links
Friday Field Photo: Cannonball Chert
Falling Rock (rock slide near Ely)
Pronunciation... (Ely)
Signs of Spring: Ravens (Squaw Peak quartzite)
Tweeting the Eureka Quartzite (Squaw Peak photo)
The Eureka Quartzite on Squaw Peak


Ely to the Utah border:
Two Years Ago: Trips to the Ovens (Ward Ovens)
Cave Lake
A Change in Weather: Fall becomes Winter? (Duck Creek Range, Success Summit, mylonite, contact)
Success Summit view
TheTail(s) of Thirty or Forty Antelope (Steptoe Valley)
Geology on the Road: Slate near Connors Pass, Highway 50
Friday Field Finds: An Old Trommel (Spring Valley)
Snake Range detachment fault (mentioned, photo, photo, photo, photo, and header photo above)
Friday Fault Photos #9 (Snake Range detachment)

On and near Wheeler Peak:
Alpenglow and Tentglow
Hiking in the Mountains
Where in the West: Wheeler Peak
Our Campsite on Wheeler Peak
Bristlecone Pines
My First Geology Tool
Rock Glacier: The First View
Rock Glacier: Closer and Closer
Rock Glacier: Higher and Higher
Rock Glacier: Near the Top
Rock Glacier: View from Above!
Rock Glacier: History and Links
Friday Field Photos: Wheeler Peak
A Snowshoe Trip
More Snowshoeing
Wheeler Peak Photo Sets, Spring and Summer 2006-2009
Friday Field Photos: Tarn It! (Teresa and Stella Lakes)
Friday Field Photos: Looking down on some Alluvial Fans
The Trail to 10,800 Feet
The Trail to 11,600 Feet
The Trail to 12,100 feet
The Trail to 12,350 feet (Or so)
Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things: Another Trip to Wheeler Peak
A Quick Note (Teresa Lake)

General Highway 50 Road Trip posts:
Spring Snow Squall in Central Nevada (Middlegate to Mt. Airy Summit)
Back Again - At Least for Now (Clan Alpine Mountains, Shoshone Mountains)
This is (More or Less) a Test (Eureka to Fourmile Flat)
Friday from the Road: There & Back Again (Edwards Creek Valley, Big Smoky Valley, Antelope Valley)
Through the Rain (Clouds: eastern and central Nevada, West Gate, and beyond Reno)

Also see: Highway 50 Links; posts tagged Highway 50

Last updated 17Jun2016.

10 comments:

Lyle said...

If possible I would suggest you go a bit into Utah, to at least cover Notch Peak, which from Highway 50 is quite spectacular. Actually the stretch from the Nevada State Line to Delta,Ut is probably more lonley than anything in Nv. Its 110 mi or so between Gas in that stretch which is longer than the stretches in Nv.

Dana Hunter said...

Oh, my. It's going to be a busy few weeks catching up on these! Thanks for this!

Silver Fox said...

Lyle, thanks for the idea! I rarely get in to Utah, though I may have a couple distant photos of Notch Peak somewhere.

As you may have noticed from clicking on other "roadside" tagged posts, I'm not really particularly targeting The Loneliest Highway. In fact, when Life Magazine dubbed the stretch from Fernley to Utah as "loneliest," I would see someone I knew every time I drove through Austin. Many other roads in Nevada get a lot less traffic, as do many Utah roads.

Then there's the E.T. Highway...

Silver Fox said...

Dana, let me know when you get through all of them! ;)

Lyle said...

Just checked Notch peak is the second highest vertical cliff in the US after El Captain. The interesting thing is how few people see anything of Nevada other than maybe Clark County. One of the interesting historical facts is that at one time both Eureka and Austin had railroad lines to them. Both were built during the great boom and folded by the 1930s.

Silver Fox said...

Lyle, thanks for the info about Notch Peak - I'll have to put it on my list of things to blog about.

I mostly see other parts of Nevada besides Clark County, and really try to keep it that way, though there is some great geology down there. Usually I'm just driving through... avoiding Las Vegas.

Dan McShane said...

Fantastic! I'll be plowing through these as time permits.
I have driven the ET Highway twice before it was given that name. After my first drive I had a theory that the rabits were bored and were enteraining themselves by dashing in front of the few cars that came along. Every couple miles a rabit would dash in front of me so close I couldn't see them in front of the hood. I never hit any, but there was plenty of evidence that others pushed the edge to close.
Anyway - Thanks for puting this together.

Cian said...

This is great! I'm going to have to dig through them all -- I suspect I'll add several spots on my "to visit" list for geo road trips next year.

Silver Fox said...

Dan, I drove by the turnoff to the ET highway a couple weeks ago, was surprised it started in Warm Springs - I always just thought of old Highway 25 as "the road to Caliente" and thought the ET was just from Area 51 to Rachel and down to Alamo. It's been a long time since I've traveled that route, and it was long before they called it ET.

Silver Fox said...

Cian, have some great road trips - and now you can blog about them!