Pulpit Rock

MOH and I came upon Pulpit Rock from the east on our last tour through the Black Rock and Smoke Creek Deserts. I have some old photos lying around somewhere, maybe even some digital ones, but in case I couldn't find any, we pulled over on the side of the road so I could grab a few more. We once hiked up to the rock; I suspect the photos from that hike are on photographic paper in 4x6 mode, filed away in an archival box. (That reminds me: my project to digitize everything. Ha ha ha.)

The rock, placed in the pillar category by the U.S.G.S., has obviously been named for its shape. It's not far from the Nobles Trail (or Nobles' Trail), which passed through the Kamma Mountains not far to the south, so maybe the name originated with emigrants on the trail, but I've found little history about the rock, other than that it's considered sacred by more than one group of Native Americans. It's also been used as a nesting site for golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, and prairie falcons (p. 3-43, last link).

MSRMaps location; Google Maps street view.
Almost immediately upon pulling over, we noticed two large birds perched in an upper alcove of the rock formation, and at first we thought they were golden eagles.
I took some more pictures simply to identify the birds. This photo, when enlarged on my camera, made me wonder if the birds could be bald eagles, because the coloring seemed off for goldens.

Aha! The one flying away is a obviously a turkey vulture!
Now, only one bird is left!

We don't know if the alcove was being used for nesting by these birds, or if it was just a convenient perch to wait for roadkill dinner.

Sawtooth Dike

Backing up somewhat from Midas on the Tuscarora Loop, one of the first places of interest on the way to Tuscarora from the Golconda side — besides the Midas Trough itself, which the Midas Road goes through to get to the turnoff to Midas — is a spectacular rhyolitic dike, Sawtooth dike (Zoback and Thompson, 1978), named after Sawtooth Spring (MSRMaps location).

Heading eastward into the Midas Trough on the Midas Road, the Owyhee Bluffs in the distance on the left.

Sawtooth dike running up the face of the Owyhee Bluffs.

This dark-colored, rhyolite dike is a feeder for a thick section of rhyolite flows that immediately underlie the rhyolite to rhyodacite volcanic rocks of Jake Creek Mountain, the latter of which cap this portion of Owyhee Bluffs. The older rhyolite flows fed by Sawtooth dike are, in aggregate, 10 to 400 m thick (more than 30 to more than 400 feet thick).

Air photo of Sawtooth dike (from MSRMaps).

A bit of geology: dike sections in turquoise, fault in blue.

Sawtooth dike is in two main sections, offset by a small left-lateral fault, with a small portion caught up along the fault. According to Zoback and Thompson (1978), the dike is a syntectonic intrusion, syntectonic with extension producing diking in the northern Nevada rift and with extension-related strike-slip faulting (a little more about the northern Nevada rift here). The south end of the dike is reportedly cut off by the north bounding fault of the Midas Trough (Rowan and Wetlaufer, 1973, per Zoback and Thompson, 1978).
Another view of the dike, from Zoback and Thompson (1978), used here as per GSA fair use policy. (Thanks, Andrew Alden!)

View Midas Area in a larger map

By the way, the entire road from its turnoff from I-80 or old Highway 40, through Golconda and out along what is now S.R. 789 to the current road usually called "the Midas Road," past Midas and out to Tuscarora, was known as S.R. 18 prior to the 1976 renumbering program (see this 1975 state roadmap). I'll be listing all non-40, non-I-80, non-789 roadside geology (and other) posts related to the Midas Road under the tag "18" as below.

A Few References:
Rowan, L. C., and Wetlaufer, P. H., 1973, Structural geologic analysis of Nevada using ERTS-1 images: A preliminary report, in Symposium on significant results obtained from the Earth Resources Technology Satelite-1, Vol. 1, Technical representations, Sec. A: Natl. Aeronautics and Space Adm. Paper G-20, p. 413-423.

Wallace, A.R., 1990, Geologic map of the Jake Creek Mountain quadrangle, Elko County, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey, Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-1672, scale 1:24000.

Zoback, M.L., and Thompson, G.A., 1978, Basin and Range rifting in northern Nevada: Clues from a mid-Miocene rift and its subsequent offsets: Geology, v. 6, no. 2, p. 111-116.

Tuscarora Loop

View Tuscarora Loop in a larger map

This is a Google Maps version of a road trip MOH and I made back in early June. The loop part of the trip begins in Golconda, goes north on the Getchell Mine Road, east on the Midas Road, past the turnoff to Midas, across a bridge at Rock Creek, past the turnoff to the Hollister Mine and Ivanhoe mercury-gold district (not shown), up Willow Creek to the Willow Creek Reservoir, over the Tuscarora Mountains to Tuscarora, down S.R. 226 (or Tuscarora Highway) to the Taylor Canyon Resort, beyond the resort to S.R. 225 (or Mountain City Highway), south to Elko, and west on I-80 to Golconda. As a loop, one can essentially start anywhere, not necessarily at the gas station in Winnemucca where we started. The Midas Road from the turnoff to Hollister and over the mountains to Tuscarora isn't always open in winter and can be muddy in spring to early summer.

Places shown:
1. gas station in Winnemucca
2. not quite downtown Golconda
3. turnoff from Getchell Mine Road to Midas Road
4. Sawtooth dike
5. folds in rhyolite
6. turnoff to Midas
7. Rock Creek
8. Willow Creek Reservoir
9. Tuscarora
10. Taylor Canyon Resort
11. Elko
12. Golconda underpass
13. gas station in Winnemucca

Besides the pinnacles and "Nodding Rock" in the Midas area, we'll be seeing some other sights from along this route in the coming days and weeks. The Midas Area map will be added to as needed.


View Midas Area in a larger map

Places shown:
1. turnoff to Midas
2. Midas
3. pinnacles
4. "Nodding Rock"

Nodding Rock

MOH and I spotted this rock formation in dark-colored volcanic rocks west of the town of Midas, NV, and called it Nodding Rock. The rock formation is part of a widespread group of rhyolite to rhyodacite flows, domes, and densely welded ash-flow tuffs (and rheomorphic tuffs?) that cap the Owyhee Bluffs and other nearby hills and plateaus of the Snowstorm Mountains near Midas: the volcanic rocks of Jake Creek Mountains, middle or upper middle Miocene in age.
General location (MSRMaps): the ridgeline about 1 mile west of Midas, south of hill 7230 and just north of the change in map coverage.

A Few References:
Wallace, A.R., 1990, Geologic map of the Jake Creek Mountain quadrangle, Elko County, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey, Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-1672, scale 1:24000.

Wallace, A.R., 1993, Geologic map of the Snowstorm Mountains and vicinity, Elko and Humboldt Counties, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey, Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-2394, scale 1:50000.

Smoke in the Black Rock & Smoke Creek Deserts

Smoke over the Black Rock Desert, as seen from the east on the Jungo Road. Smoke is probably from the Salt Fire north of Redding.
Smoke over the Smoke Creek Desert, as seen from the southwest part of the Black Rock Desert looking toward Gerlach. Smoke is from the Chips fire near Belden and Caribou, CA, and the Peak fire in the mountains southwest of Milford, CA.
Smoke over the Black Rock Desert, as seen from Coyote Spring Dune (MSRMaps location, Google Maps location), looking east toward Trego Hot Springs.
Smoke over the Smoke Creek Desert southwest of Gerlach, as seen from Coyote Spring Dune. Newish jeep for scale.
Mirage on the Black Rock Desert, looking southwest toward Gerlach, the green patch or oasis in the middle ground, and at smoke beyond the peaks of the Fox Range in the background.
Smoke over the southern Smoke Creek Desert, looking south from a point on the Smoke Creek Desert Road, about four miles nearly due south of the mouth of Five Springs Canyon and about four miles southeast of Granite Spring. The darker hills on the left are in the Fox Range near Reynard siding; the lighter hills behind them are in the Fox Range near Wild Horse, Pole, and Rough Canyons.
Another shot from the same angle, with a thin mirage on the desert (click to enlarge). The farther pale blue hills beyond the ones near Wild Horse Canyon, et al, include low hills near Sano siding and Emerson Pass, the Terraced Hills just north of Pyramid Lake, and the Virginia Mountains on the west side of Pyramid Lake.

Photos are from 3Aug2012.