ADAM HAYDOCK

Recently, Francesco received a prestigious award from Rolex for enterprise that focused on his expeditions in the central American Tepui massifs of Venezuela, Congratulations Francesco! 

 http://www.laventa.it/it/blog/632-i-quarant-anni-del-rolex-award-for-enterprise-la-speleologia-e-l-esplorazione-in-prima-linea.

Francesco and Daniela flew from Italy to Los Angeles to receive the award and afterwards, they came out to Las vegas to stay with us to visit some caves and hot springs.

Eventually we came up to a boulder sticking out of the ground with other boulders blocking our way around this annoyance. I slowly got the Subaru over the rock but with the price of some small dings and dangs along the bottom of the car.

Thankfully, nothing was scratched or punctured...cant say that about the other car that cleared over the boulder though, but with a few more scratches going along the side of our cars from trees next to the road, we made it to the parking spot. There was a  nice thin layer of dust that made our cars look like they have been keyed but that can be easily removed by a detail or two, I hope.

The cave was really dusty and had a lot of rat and bat crap everywhere, there was even a section where the crap would stick to the walls from a burro and create its own flowstone formation which was, well shitty.... and different.

At the bottom there is a steep slopping descent and a 15ft. drop that leaves you at the top of a rock mound in a room with a lot of formations and on the ceiling and on the floor towards the back of the cave.

It was a bit dusty and the rock itself had a bit more of a gray look to it but the formations were really nice and there was one section of the room that had some red and orange tint fused into the rock itself.

 We all exited the cave without any incident and I stopped along the way taking more photos.  I was surprised to find a lot of photo opportunities in this cave and there were even more photos that I did not end up taking which I will like to do next time we visit this cave. 

The entrance views were beautiful once we got out of the cave and a lot of light actually works itself pretty far into the cave for a nice hue.

I continue to be surprised at how nice the caves in Nevada are and how interesting their hypogene properties are in relation to other caves in the region.  There must be many more that are yet to be found.  

More photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/albums/72157677183035165

As the sun started dropping over the range, the mountain shadow was catching up to us as we drove towards the range on a dirt road while taking a few scuffs from the trees brushing by us. eventually the sun set across the mountain as we crept into the desired parking spot for the short hike to the cave.

I grabbed my pack and gave the GPS over to Ron so I could attempt to catch the last bit of sunlight for the entrance before it got to dark. I estimated my position in relation to the gps and headed up the mountain and re oriented myself to the entrance of the cave.  Unfortunately, when we got to the cave the sun light was on its last bits of diffusion and twilight was upon us with decreasing temperatures.

I came down next and noticed the rebelay on the ledge as well as the other potential rub points which we more rounded but on a semi static 10mm rope, the core shots can increase a bit but we both made it down with no incident and I started to set up some photos for the room.

The cave was interesting and reminded me a bit of a decent sized corkscrew drop with a formation room on the way down and some nice formations at the bottom room.  There were some large formations at the bottom that appeared to be around 4 to 6ft in height and some long skinny stalactites, some 10-15ft in length hanging from the ceiling.  Everyone else decided to stay at the top so Francesco and I headed back up and we left the cave with without incident.  We headed for Ely to stay at a hotel and relax before heading out to the hot springs the following day.  I wonder if there is a map of this cave as there appear to be some leads that could beg for a good look into.

Adam Haydock and Francesco Sauro at the bottom of PJ's Pit, Nevada

 

Ron Davis in Big Warm Spring Falls. Duckwater, Nevada

Nevada has over 300 documented springs that seep or recharge water with a temperature range from just above freezing to right around the boiling point of water.   There are a number of crystal clear spring pools but unfortunately only one of these springs that I have seen have been able to be pushed  by diving into the spring itself.

Big Warm Spring Falls. Duckwater, Nevada

The Springs could be the result of the elastic yet stationary "thin" crust that allows water to be heated and rise from water pressure to the surface through fissure cracks in the basins of Nevada.  There is a theory that the geothermal caves and springs can be traced from northern Utah in a southwest directional line down into Mexico and further south into the volcanic belt of central America. This all great for us as we are able to enjoy some fascinated 90 degree warm springs with crystal clear blue water to soak in while we enjoy the day. 

Big Warm Spring Falls. Duckwater, Nevada

One spring in particular is the Big Spring in Duckwater Nevada.  There are two springs in this area as well as a rim stone travertine waterfall where the spring water cascades over a hill. This waterfall was a visit in itself and worth the extra five minutes of driving around to locate the falls.

Big Warm Spring Falls. Duckwater, Nevada

The big warm springs is the popular visit for this area and is also apart of the Duckwater Shoshone Reservation.  This spring is a sacred place for the Shoshone and also a critical habitat for the Railroad Valley Spring fish.  This fish is native to the regional springs in close proximity to the big warm spring. 

Ron Davis at Big Warm Spring Falls. Duckwater, Nevada

Francesco Sauro, Daniela Barbieri, Ron Davis, Laura and I grabbed some breakfast in Ely, Nevada and headed out southwest to the town of Duckwater where these two springs are located. The Little warm spring has a few boils but it not that swimmable, especially when a human goes through the spring and disrupts the environment that that fish live in.

Ron Davis at Big Warm Spring Falls. Duckwater, Nevada

On the other hand, the Big Warm spring is a large spring pool of 90 degree water with a resurgence in the crack about 18-20ft underwater. The spring pool appeared to be 40-50ft in diameter with a river running down stream.  We all got in the lightly scented sulfur water and it was really relaxing and nice to get into these crystal clear blue waters.

Big Warm Spring Falls. Duckwater, Nevada

 Of course I brought a couple masks snorkels and a dive light to see if getting into the resurgence was feasible, more on that later. We all continued down the springs noticing the schools of railroad valley spring fish swimming through the cattails and the occasional boils of water coming up form the ground.  It was a nice and enjoyable experience for everyone to get into the water and enjoy the hydrothermal activity that provides us with a nice natural pool of water. 

Big Warm Spring Falls. Duckwater, Nevada

Now for the resurgence.  There was a lot of gravel that would stir up and tumble as rocks were moved around from the entrance. There was a lot of breakdown that I could see but I could not get past the entrance resurgence.  The rocks could be moved in theory but how far down you would have to go to find a corridor is a mystery and with the moving of the rocks would introduce sliding gravel that could close up the entrance once again so it would take a considerable effort and could be potentially dangerous.

Big Warm Spring Falls. Duckwater, Nevada

On another serious note, the Shoshone reservation has built a nice park around this spring and has been offering the opportunity for open access to the springs for people to respect and enjoy themselves in so a official request would have to be granted in order for any special use can be considered. Nevertheless, this place is a real treat and a charming place to visit so I recommend visiting this spring if you are in the regional area.

I am not sure why I find that there are some interesting canyons around the Las Vegas area but they indeed exist. The black canyon area have some very interesting canyons that take people through hot springs and opportunities to even rappel down into pools of hot spring water! This canyon is located in the Calico Basin side of The Red Rock just 10 minutes outside of Las Vegas.

Not to my Surprise, we had to park on the side of the street as the parking lot was full of rock monkey, trail hikers, and boulder grabbers though out this 3.5 mile loop trail.

We headed out on the obvious dirt trail passing by groups of climbers bouldering on the 2 story stones located just off the trail.  The bouldering routes appeared to range in difficulty as the climbs grunted and cheered when one of their own broke through a crux.  

What is nice about this location is there are a lot of routes and admission appeared to be free. So a nice Sunday afternoon hike or a climb can be found here in the Calico Basin and going through gateway canyon was easy to find and follow as we worked our way up through gateway canyon itself.

I brought my older camera with me as we started to work up the canyon, the sand stone layers turned into ice cream swirls of red, pink and a cream colored white like a mosaic of paint swirling around like paint on a spin art machine. This was surprisingly interesting to see how the layers of sandstone petrified into the rock to create these designs as we climbed up tot he top of the canyon. Along the way we met a British Air Force REPR pilot that joined us for the hike through the canyon. 

Eventually we could see some climbers on a few fixed routes to our right as we neared the top of the canyon and the most interesting part of the hike.

The canyon came to a dry fall that we climbed around and we soon found ourselves in a rather beautiful candy cane like canyon with clearly defined colors of red and white in a smooth meandering but very short slot.

We reached to the saddle after enjoying this candy store canyon we just walked through for a view of the valley below and a piece of Las Vegas that could be seen from where we were standing.

The canyon took a couple hours of hiking with some stops that we made along the way but overall, the canyon route is a great way to get out and visit some interesting and colorful red rock.

We will have to come back shortly and get a grip on some of the boulders for a Sunday afternoon workout.

We wanted to check out something a bit more localized and different so I did a little research and found a place called Hidden Canyon, which promised to be a few hours to run and a geology makeup of limestone.

 We have been running a lot of sandstone canyons and it was interesting to visit a Limestone canyon and being cavers, we enjoyed our pleasant Sunday afternoon in this limestone cave with no ceiling which has been named, Hidden Canyon.

 once we got to the top of the mountain, we could see where the drainage headed down into a canyon with polished limestone and a tight corridor.

 It was nice to not have anyone here where we could enjoy the canyon and take our time a bit because we were literally still in the city of in las vegas.

 The beta mentioned that there were three drops but when we went through the canyon, we noticed four rap stations.   All of the raps were 35ft. or less on a sloping descent which was not difficult to work our way down.

 A couple of the drops had some interesting light stained walls with a flowstone like mold starting to form and other drops had some interesting fossils embedded into the rock which we were not able to  identify.

 I would rate this canyon as a 3AII for it straightforward descent and ease of navigation but the hike to and from the canyon can take a bit of time to get to. I can imagine this route being a boiling inferno in the summertime so I think a good time to check this one out is in the fall, winter, spring time.

 This was a great way to get out and get some exercise on a Sunday and seeing some interesting limestone features.