Sky Island

I rose above Zzyzx and the low desert at Soda Lake, driving to a trailhead for Eagle Peaks, highest point in a sky island called Mid Hills.  Sky islands rise above the surrounding low desert to above 5,000 feet, with cooler temperatures and shaded woodlands, higher rainfall, pinion, juniper, sagebrush.  

Here you see the pointed Eagle Rocks from many miles away as I drive a dirt road toward them.

After a short hike I come close enough to see how alive the peaks are.  You see the young creature on the left rising from frothy rocks, her lips tasting air for the first few thousand years of life above ground.  Her father on the right guides her first tentative moments, as she emerges from deep within the earth, to feel the new thing—air.  

From communing with rising creatures whose minutes are counted in thousands of years, I descended to lower desert via a narrow canyon called Banshee.  The slot canyon drops through volcanic rock, pocked with holes, so many holes that they call the area Hole-in-the-Rock.

Emerging at the canyon outlet, I see the place I will camp, and circle back by another way to get the jeep and bring in down to where I will sleep.

Through all this driving and hiking I have seen no other person, save three or four cars on the dirt roads.  Solitude surrounds me, and the only sounds come from birds, breezes, and the occasional airplane overhead.

I took this sunset sequence from where the jeep was parked for the night, where I slept in it, and where, late at night, I got up to see so many stars, that even though the moon was down, they lighted my way.  

Next day, yesterday, I started uphill on foot for another look at the sky island.  I returned by the same route and drove the jeep where four-wheel-drive really was necessary, back to a paved road.  From there I drove to the south edge of Las Vegas yesterday evening, where I relax today, deciding what adventure is best for tomorrow.  Pictures from that hike follow: