furzicle's Journal

Some people go to Palm Springs....

Searles Lake is a Dry Lake just west of Death Valley. The metropolis of Trona sits on its western "shore." (Ps, you can see all of Trona in the far distance.) The mining done here is the present incarnation of the borax mining of 20 mule team fame back in the very early 20th century. The town is comprised of massive processing plants and an assortment of really dilapidated and boarded up houses.

Once a year , namely the second Saturday each October, Trona invites nut-case geologists out to enjoy their hospitality by blasting a hole in the lake with dynamite and then power pumping tons of saline crystals out from under the salty crust on their lake. The townspeople really go all out providing an organized and friendly event, even supplying at very reasonable cost BBQ sandwiches and homemade pies. One can shop for all manner of geology related knick-knacks at their Gem-O-Rama (fossils, polished stones, jewelry, pick axes, geology books, and the all important buckets and soda bottles of saline used for washing your finds.)

I enjoyed being in a place where everybody there VALUES the benefits of getting good and dirty! (So different from the ideal in Irvine where my favorite school is!) It is really fun to paw through the piles of excreted sludge looking for the treasure of all time. The only drawback to these crystals is that they are like the wicked witch OZ-- they melt quickly when wet. The best defense is to coat them with mineral oil and to not leave them outside on a picnic table, as I usually do with my rock treasures.

I pretty much forced O to go on this expedition. He thought he'd rather do something else. I played the "You owe me" card pretty heavily. In the end, or I should say, immediately upon arriving, he was enjoying himself to the max.

It was chilly out there this year so the the spread of salt crust on the lake looks even more than usual like a frozen Wisconsin Lake. The frigid temperatures (60's) and expected wind and low temps in the 40's were part of our decision to bug out for home at the end of the day.

This activity was featured recently on the show Dirty Jobs, so the crowd was bigger than ever. Of course the truck which sank into the lake was pretty interesting. If that hadn't happened, the tradition is for the truck to go into pumping mode halfway through the afternoon and dredge up additional goodies. Of course a big part of the entertainment there is simply seeing the process in action. I think that the truck must have sunk into the salt halfway through the original pumping because there seemed to be less sludge piles for all of us to paw through.

We finished off our day by visiting the Trona pinnacles which are just a few miles south of the lake (See last few photos.)

BE SURE TO CLICK ON THE LJ CUT LINK AFTER PICTURE #2 to see more!!!!!

( You really want to check out the rest of our awesome pictures!!!!! )

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