Honey Lake Update: Comparison Photos 2007-2011

...a collection of various semi-comparable photos taken from 2007 through 2011 at the Honey Lake Rest Area on Highway 395 between Reno and Susanville, looking east toward the Skeddadle and Amedee Mountains.

9-22-2007: lots of water in the fall.
9-24-2008: not much water in the fall.
6-24-2011: pretty good water in early summer.
9-24-2008: a broader fall photo, not much water.
6-24-2011: comparable photo from this year, fair to good water, though nowhere near full.
3-22-2009: very dry in early spring.
6-24-2011: comparable photo from a few days ago.

As you can see, I don't have a full set of photos from spring, summer, and fall for every year, so these are not strictly comparable. I had stopped taking photos of the lake, partly because it has always looked the same to me during the last couple years: dry. I don't know if that's just because the few times I've been by have been at the wrong times of year, but I don't really think that's the case: I think it was dry, and is fairly wet this year after a good snow year in the Sierra. The Susan River and Long Valley Creek have been running well this spring, though maybe slowing down recently.

Related Posts:
One Year Ago Today: Honey Lake
Honey Lake Update and Other Water News
Honey Lake Update: Dust, Rain, and Water
Honey Lake Update: Snow Geese
Three Years Ago Today: East Side of Honey Lake

Honey Lake Update: Dust, Rain, and Water

While out driving around last week, I stopped at the Honey Lake Rest Area on Highway 395 between Reno and Susanville, and watched a dust storm, with scattered dust devils, on the Honey Lake playa. Honey Lake is shown on this map and photos as a lake, but it isn't much of a lake these days.
It was a dark and stormy day, and one particular dust storm arose, grew, whirled a bit, and dissipated while I watched. The photos of this storm were taken looking a little north of east from the rest area.
The Skeddadle and Amedee Mountains form the backdrop for this particular dust storm.
Here, the dust storm does a bit of whirling, forming a wide-diameter dust devil, prior to dissipating.
While the dust storm gets smaller, a vaguely funnel-shaped cloud forms above it. This cloud is probably not a funnel cloud, though I have seen small funnel clouds above large dust devils.
Now the dust storm is getting thinner and thinner, dwindling while I stand in the rain, getting wetter and wetter.
Meanwhile, a bit to the south, some classic dust devils arise in the desert mirage.
My favorite mirage-based dust devil of the day.
The clouds above the larger dust storm formed interesting shapes, especially as the dust storm was winding down. Here are a couple enlargements of the cloud shapes.

On the next day, the storm - wind and rain - was mostly gone, the playa was wetter, and vultures flew back and forth in front of me.
A little farther south, in the southwest arm of Honey Lake, I spotted some water in the lake (enlarge and look closely!).
The water was south of The Island, almost lapping up against a landform I sometimes call "the bluff." I'm always a bit happier when I can spot some water in Honey Lake.

Honey Lake Update and Other Water News

Photo taken September 24, 2008 looking east.

Photo taken September 22, 2007 looking east.

These photos were all taken from the same place: the Honey Lake Rest Area on Highway 395, betwen Milford and Janesville, two small towns southeast of Susanville, California, and north of Reno, Nevada. The lower two photos show nearly the same view, with the last photo taken almost exactly one year earlier than the upper two photos. Besides the slightly different weather, warm and sunny last week and slightly cooler with clouds a year ago, the upper photo shows no water in the lake while the lower photo shows water.

In the most recent photos, Honey Lake looks brown to dark brown and muddy. At the rest stop and while driving by, I could see water way out on the east side of the lake, in the eastern arm: the lake is by no means completely dry. I'm hoping, also, that water is being maintained in the wetlands in the Honey Lake Wildlife Area, though I haven't been out that-a-way for more than a year. It's a great place to spot birds, in case you are ever driving through the area.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this lowering of the lake level might have something to do with Washoe County's water project to import water from the Honey Lake Valley. It might, however, just be a dry year - other lakes in northern California are at low levels, levels I haven't seen for about 5 years or more - and water from the Fish Springs Ranch probably didn't start flowing to Reno's north valleys until sometime in August.

ChrisM of Pools and Riffles, was concerned about how the Fish Springs Ranch project might affect the recently signed Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA), which was finally signed by all parties on September 6, although the plan was already in place via an interim agreement signed several years ago. It's possible that the Fish Springs Ranch project may have helped with the TROA by relieving water demands on Reno area wells, thus making it easier to send water down the river to Pyramid Lake. That last bit, however, is just a speculation on my part.

The TROA still has to be approved in federal court. An excellent timeline showing the history of this agreement is presented here by RGJ.com.

Eric of The Dynamic Earth mentioned in the comments of my previous post that he thought Las Vegas had recently bought a desalination plant for Los Angeles. I looked into desalination a little bit, and found quite a number of interesting links.

Desalination for Las Vegas, with a plant being located somewhere on the coast of southern California, was mentioned by Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons in April, although I couldn't find any reference to Nevada actually getting very far with this idea.

Desalination is being seriously considered in southern California and northern California, and one plant located near Oceanside, California - Poseidon's plant in Carlsbad - received approval in early August to begin construction. Santa Barbara is considering re-opening their moth-balled desalination plant, a plant that has been non-operational since 1992.

Desalination can have some environmental problems; the Carlsbad plant will be required to create 55.4 acres of marine habitat to make up for marine habitat loss during operation. Somehow, that area seems small to me, but I'm not sure what the re-habitation project actually encompasses. Also, the Carlsbad plant will test a new pump that's designed to use less energy in pumping the huge amount of water needed. Energy use for desalination is one of the environmental problems; it's equally one of the economic problems.

A few desalination facts from UNESCO, as of May, 2008:

• In 2002 there were about 12,500 desalination plants around the world in 120 countries. They produce some 14 million m²/day of freshwater, which is less than 1% of total world consumption.


• The most important users of desalinated water are in the Middle East, (mainly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain), which uses about 70% of worldwide capacity; and in North Africa (mainly Libya and Algeria), which uses about 6% of worldwide capacity.


• Among industrialized countries, the United States is one of the most important users of desalinated water (6.5%), especially in California and parts of Florida [although other references implied that very little desalination is actually underway in California].

High Water Across the West: Honey Lake

I've recently had the opportunity to travel across part of the Great Basin of eastern California and northern and central Nevada, and have noticed a lot of high water, almost everywhere. Honey Lake, which has been dry to only partly filled during the last several years, is once again a lake. The first two photos are from the 11th of April; the last three are from the 25th.

The lake is beyond full for what has been typical for several years, with bushes drowned around the edges and fences under water. In fact, you can see a bit of a fence or gate in the picture above, near shore, a little right of center. Most of the fenceline is completely under water.

Here's a relatively broad view of the lake taken on April 25th.

I cropped the previous photo so it would closely match the first photo from the 11th.

And this photo matches the second photo from the 11th. If you look closely at the two matching sets, you can see that the water was slightly higher on the 11th, and had gone down a teensy bit by the 25th.

I have several years of pictures of Honey Lake: there are these comparison photos from 2007 through 2011, these few photos from May and June of 2015, and one photo from early March, 2016. Even more photos can be found by searching the blog for "honey" (along with a few from nearby Pyramid Lake). Most of my photos through the years have been taken from the Honey Lake Rest Area).

One Year Ago Today: Honey Lake

One year ago today (yesterday, actually, because my internet connection went down in the middle of this post), there was water in Honey Lake. See that light brown, barely reflective stuff way out there? That's water, not a playa.

A couple days ago, driving through the same valley, there appeared to be only minimal, if any, water. In fact, all I noticed was a dark brown area where the now-dry lake bed was damp or muddy. No pictures, though. Maybe there was some water way out on the east side of the lake. I'll have to check on this again - I can't find an online water level site for the lake.

Northern Nevada (Reno) is stealing importing some of northern California's water, although reports say this *shouldn't* affect the groundwater in the Honey Lake Valley. It's called the Fish Springs Ranch Water Project.

L.A. should desalinate, thus easing much southern pressure on northern water. I don't know what it would do for Reno, though. Maybe L.A. could sell water north, thereby making a little money for themselves!

El Niño at Honey Lake

After our brief stay at The Nugget during the first part of our journey last month, we made a brief foray north on Highway 395, then quickly retreated southward along the same road. When we stopped at the Honey Lake Rest Area, it was raining hard in a localized but intense shower.

Looking across the partly muddy Honey Lake toward the Skedaddle and Amedee Mountains; May 21st, 11:56 pm.

Well, no that looks like a bit of hail!

As a bit of reference, the next photo was taken two weeks later when things had greened up and clouds were still prevalent (they are currently mostly out of the picture--it's summer!). That's the same mountains, same tree, different phone pole.

Photo taken June 4th, 2:38 pm.

The nearshore part of the lake in its northwesternmost lobe is considerably greener than usual in these pictures. Beyond the nearshore green swath, which grades into a brown, muddy-looking patch, a dark line and another green patch marks an area where water has been standing off and on this past year.

Photo taken June 4th, 2:37 pm.

A seagull poses for its picture, May 21st, 12:02 pm..

Honey Lake Update: Snow Geese

I hadn't planned on making a Honey Lake update so soon after the last one, but as MOH and I were driving by Friday we came across this huge herd flock of snow geese, which looked like a mass of little tiny sheep, until we got closer. Snow geese are known to winter in the area or region, though I've never seen them before.
Turns out they had gathered themselves together in almost the exact place I took a couple photos for my last Honey Lake update, right in front of the place I call "the bluff," near The Island, south of Milford. Looking closely, past the geese and to the watery place to the left of the bluff, it looks like the water is a bit lower than it was about two weeks ago (photos for the March 29 post were taken on March 20 and 21).
Some of the snow geese show rust-stained heads, which is at least sometimes common, according to the Peterson Field Guide. They are all just standing around, munching on grass, doing what geese do, on the other side of the fence along Highway 395 between Reno and Susanville.
Enlarged version of snow geese!
Snow geese flying, because of our proximity. We parked the Prius on the side of the road right next to the roadside fence. The geese show their distinctive black-tipped wings, and their even more distinctive "grinning black lips" - a thin black line on their orange beaks.
And we drive away, still having at least a few miles to go.

Tufa Tuesday: Tufa Domes and Thinolite at Pyramid Lake, Nevada

Pyramid Lake, located in northwest Nevada (MSRMaps), is named for a pyramidal-shaped tufa-mound island officially known as The Pyramid, also called Pyramid Rock. Hot water emanates from springs all around the base of The Pyramid near water level, a fact that can be tested by swimming out to the rock. Please note that the largest island in the lake, which is sometimes thought incorrectly by passers-by to be The Pyramid, is actually Anaho Island, a pelican nesting site. Although Pyramid Lake is entirely within the Paiute Indian Reservation, Anaho Island is a National Wildlife Refuge.

Anaho Island and The Pyramid as seen from an overlook near the junction of Nevada routes 445 and 446.

Anaho Island is the large island in the right and center part of the photo; The Pyramid is the small island closer to the far shore and immediately to the left of Anaho.

The Needles Rocks as seen near Thunderbolt Bay.

As you drive north of Sutcliffe, the paved road turns to dirt — variable dirt, from good conditions right after a blading, to execrable conditions of extreme and rocky washboard that will set your teeth on edge if you really want to get through to destinations to the north (Smoke Creek Desert), northeast (Gerlach and Black Rock Desert), and northwest (Honey Lake).

Eventually, The Needles Rocks comes into view (MSRMaps of The Needles Rocks).

The Needles Rocks tufa mounds seen in the distance from the pullout at George Washington Rock.

The tufa mounds or masses known officially as "The Needles Rocks" and locally as "The Needles" and even "the Needles Rocks," form two rough lineaments near some once popular hot springs at and near the lake margin. If you back out from the MSRMaps view in aerial photo mode, you'll see that the lineaments are parallel to faults or structures cutting bedrock to the north. It seems likely that the hot springs are related to the linear structural conduits, and that both are related to the formation of the mounds, although it turns out that most or all of the large-scale tufa mounds and features formed 26,000 to 13,000 years ago when calcium-rich springs, possibly cold, emanated from the lake bottom (Benson, 2004). Some tufa may still be depositing today, especially at places like The Needles Rocks, where springs may still contain high amounts of calcium (read more here and here).

I don't personally know much about the spring-water composition, but do know that the hot springs at The Needles Rocks are great, especially the hidden ones along water's edge, where you can swim beneath tufa into warm mini-caves.
This is the same view of The Needles Rocks, with a spherical tufa dome on the right.
Another view from the same point at George Washington Rock (Google Street View). I was really surprised to find that Google had driven this road — it used to be considered a road going from nearly nowhere to almost nowhere else: I mean, it goes places, but it's mostly traveled by locals.

I'm not sure which of the two or three large tufa mounds or masses at this pullout is George Washington Rock; a sign may explain things — or maybe the sign just reminds you that you should have a day-use permit to pull off the main road.
A nicely formed tufa dome. Go to The Pyramid to see some tufa "forts" — my word — where large, spherical domes have been eroded in half so you can see the many layers and types of tufa inside. The Stone Mother and the eroded forts uphill from her are great examples (MSRMaps location). Be prepared for a rough, though passable, drive in.
Inside most of the spherical tufa domes — which are called barrels or spheroids, see Figures 18 and 19, among others — you will find masses of elongate to radiating crystals of thinolite.
This partially eroded tufa spheroid shows multiple layers of thinolite crystals

"Thinolitic tufas, or thinolites are thought to be chemical precipitates that originally had the composition CaCO3.6H2O; that is, they precipitated as the mineral ikaite, which suggests the presence of very cold water (Shearman and others, 1989). The thinolites have since recrystallized to a more stable form of calcium carbonate (calcite)."

—Benson, 2004.
The Needles area is closed, and has been for quite some time.

The last time I was there, in June 1991, it was open to the public. I was leaning back in my camp chair, watching the sun dogs to the west, when I glanced straight overhead and saw a Kern arc. The sun was low on the western horizon, and the arc looked like a rainbow making a complete circle around the zenith. It was distinct, not faint like the one at Atmospheric Optics. At the time, I didn't even know such a thing was possible.

Some References:
Benson, Larry, 2004, The tufas of Pyramid Lake, Nevada: USGS Circular 1267.

Benson, Larry, 2004, The tufas of Pyramid Lake, Nevada: USGS Fact Sheet 2004-3044 (a shorter version of the above Circular).

Coolbaugh, M.F, and others, 2006, Geothermal Potential of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, Nevada, USA: Evidence of Previously Unrecognized Moderate-Temperature (150-70°C) Geothermal Systems: Geothermal Resource Council, Transactions, v. 30.

Ikaite (Wikipedia).