Travel Tuesdays #8: The Mojave Desert

<h3The Mojave Desert

---

I LOVE going out to the desert. Not the kind of sandy, dune filled desert you might be thinking of, I'm talking about the Mojave Desert. There are a few dunes out there, but you have to know where to look for them. There's also the occasional dry lake which is flat, but for the most part the Mojave is mountainous and full of hills. Oh, and the occasional tank crossing.

The Mojave desert is huge, 47,877 sq. miles. It stretches from Southern California into Nevada, Arizona and Utah, however, it's the smallest desert in North America. It makes up for it size though with it's attractions like Death Valley, Las Vegas, extinct volcanoes like Pisgah and Amboy craters and too many ghost towns to name.

I'm not sure what it is exactly that attracts me to the desert, but I do know I love the views, the desolation, the secret, hidden history and just getting away from it all.

The desert puts things in perspective. It makes me realize how lucky I am to live comfortably in a nice, air conditioned home with plenty of water. Only 100 years ago these luxuries were unavailable, but people still lived out there. It must have been a miserable existence, unless you struck it rich! While I haven't struck it rich, I've come across some very cool minerals like this vein of amazonite. The whole mountain produces it and in much bigger quantities.

You must be very careful when traveling in the Mojave desert though. If you are an idiot like me you have to be sure to bring a few extra gallons of water, dried foods and sunscreen! I've been miles from nowhere before, gotten a flat tire, gotten stuck, almost fell down a mountain, and the list goes on an on. When you are in one of those situations you realize really quickly how fragile we are and how quickly the heat can overcome you. So always, always be prepared. Also, there is a fungus in the desert that will give you desert fever. It's very dangerous and undetectable. If you happen to get sick after visiting the Mojave go see a doctor.

There is a tragic, but fascinating story of a German couple and their two young children who lost their lives while vacationing in the Mojave. The story, as told by one of the rescuer's, was as dramatic and mysterious as any fiction story you will ever see or read. I will write about it someday.

Which leads me into another aspect of the Mojave, the mystery! Like this low, evening fog that creeped in.

The Mojave holds many secrets and mysteries. Some good like gold nuggets, some bad like the German tourists. Forgotten history like that of the borax 20 mule teams, the wooden monorail, the Bessie Brady, the site of the X-15 crash, the Panamint boom town high up in the mountains, the underground Mojave river, all of which I will share with you in the future.

One of my favorite area's to visit in the Mojave is Trona. Located in BFE, 30 miles east of Ridgecrest, CA also BFE, Trona sits on the edge of Searles Lake. A once gigantic lake that has no outlet. Having no outlet it collected minerals for thousands of years from the surrounding mountains which all drained into and collected on the lakebed. Today it is a tiny fraction of what it was, but it is rich with salt minerals.

Each year the Searles Lake Gem and Mineral Society hosts a gem and mineral show, Gem O Rama, in which attendees are allowed on the lake to dig out amazing specimens of pink halite and hanksite. I'll be writing about hanksite in my Monday Minerals series next week. My family and I have been attending for 5 years now and it never gets old. We've met people there from Germany, China, Japan, Russia, New Zealand and more. It's that famous, but you probably haven't heard of it have you? Well I'll be there in 2 weeks so you can read about it soon!

There are so many beautiful places in the Mojave to visit. I'll close with some additional photographs of some of those places. Do you know any by chance??

Next Travel Tuesdays #9: Virginia City, Nevada

---

• Follow me for stories on Japan, Gems & Minerals, Crypto, DnB, Cali & living life!
• Follow my wonderful wife for her adventures! @tokyowomanslife

Thanks for reading!

Our Steemit Blogger Central Discord community is here:

Discord:
https://discord.gg/e5XFZKa