The desert has more than its fair share of pinnacles. The Trona Pinnacles are famous though!
The Trona Pinnacles are located where an ancient lake bed used to be and represent a unique geological landscape. Over 500 of these tufa or calcium carbonate spires are spread out over a 14 square mile area across the Searles Lake basin. The information sign indicated the pinnacles were formed between 10,000 and 100,000 years ago! During the Pleistocene Ice Ages massive runoff spilled from the Sierra Nevada into a chain of “inland seas”. This system of interconnected lakes stretched from Mono Lake To Death Valley. Archeological evidence of inhabitants in the form of large spear points and throwing sticks dating back from 8,000 to 10,000 years old were found at Searles Lake as well.
Searless Lake, the dry lake bed holds one half of the natural elements known to man. That includes Trona, a mineral. The lake bed has been commercially mined since John Searles discovered borax in the area in 1862. Borax is still in many things, including fiberglass and fertilizer. Back in the 1800’s the borax was hauled from the Searles lake bed to Los Angeles by wagons using 20-mule teams.
We hiked around the pinnacles and marveled at how odd this place must have looked submerged in water when it was a lake. All these pinnacles, some over 140 feet tall, were underwater! So the famous comment from above? Planet of the Apes was filmed at Trona Pinnacles and a thousand member Hollywood cast and crew shot scenes here. Apparently the pinnacles appear in Lost in Space and Star Trek as well.
Ballarat
The town of Ballarat was born in 1897 following the discovery of the Radcliff Mine in Pleasant Canyon. Its namesake was the famous gold city in Victoria Australia. Ballarat, CA was never a very large town serving as a miner supply and recreation center. During the height it boasted a population of about 500 people and had a Wells Fargo station, post office, school, jail, morgue, 3 hotels and 7 saloons. Now it is just a ghost town. We stopped off on our way by one day to look around and take pictures.
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