Conference in Zzyzx, CA, which included a trip through Death Valley and Mojave Nat'l Preserve.

1. Death Valley, Feb 11, 2005: note lake from all the recent rain. It’ll be gone by summer.

2. Check out those crossbeds in the lakeshore deposit! The lake in Death Valley used to be about 600 feet deeper than it is now.

3. Pebble imbrication in the crossbed set. I don’t have to tell you that it doesn’t get any better than this, folks.

4. Coyote at the Furnace Creek Ranch in DVNP. Don’t worry—I was in no danger.

5. With all the rain, Death Valley is loaded with flowers at the moment.

6. The road to Father Crowley Point. Still in DVNP but not in Death Valley itself.

7. An angular unconformity, of course, from Father Crowley Point.

8. Gas prices at Panamint Springs. It’s the only game in town.

9. The obligatory Joshua tree.

10. Owens Lake from Keeler, CA. The water that used to fill Owens Lake was basically stolen by Los Angeles in the early 1900’s via an aqueduct. The lake is now dry, with wicked dust storms and bitter residents.

11. Sign close up.

12. Finally at Zzyzx for the NAGT Southwestern Section Conference—a bunch of CA and NV geologists gathering together to talk about geology. Below is an overhead view of the conference center, which was in the middle of nowhere.

13. Zzyzx spring has been used for centuries. In the 1940’s, someone tried to convert it to a desert resort and planted palms and built buildings and pools.

14. Geologists slay me.

15. From the Desert Studies Center at Zzyzx.

16. Local waterfowl at Zzyzx.

17. Here’s where we stayed. 12 to a room in bunk beds. The bathrooms were in a different building.

18. Have you seen the world’s largest thermometer? I have, and it’s in Baker, CA, at the Bun Boy Motel where Pam H. and the 2-live Field Geology crew will be staying one night during Spring Break.

19. Oh, yes, it’s gneiss! From the field trip into the Mojave Nat’l Preserve.

20. Check out the disconformity—basalt over conglomerate.

21. Petroglyphs scratched into basalt.

22. The Kelso dunes. The summit is farther than it looks. Just ask Doug.

23. Mantle xenoliths (peridotite) in basalt.

24. Lichens on basalt.

25. The dark spots are fossil algae in limestone, as if I had to tell you.

26. Lots of dirt roads in Mojave Nat. Preserve.

27. On my final day out there, I drove into the middle of nowhere to find the only dinosaur tracks in California. P.S. – I found them.

28. And they really weren’t that spectacular.

29. More tracks. Pens point at tracks.

30. There are a million stories in the naked desert. Most of them have to do with abandoned cars.

31. Sculpture at the Las Vegas airport.