Reunion August 24 – August 28 River Road House and Memories

One of the features of the River Road house is an old-fashioned front porch with comfortable chairs which is a perfect place for breakfast coffee. River Road is wildly overgrown with trees and shrubs and is extremely lightly traveled so it is a great spot for all sorts of wildlife including cicadas, birds, lots of relatively tame deer and other crawling and flying critters. A very relaxing and rejuvenating spot for coffee.

We spent most of Thursday and Friday just taking it easy until Friday night when we attended the reunion icebreaker. The weather stayed a little cloudy and drizzly off and on through both days, clearing up through Friday.

After our Thursday Beacon brunch, we toured Newburgh a bit, driving along the waterfront and then up past Washington’s headquarters, a jaunt up Liberty Street to Broadway; north on Broadway to Fullerton Avenue with a drive by of Newburgh Free Academy (NFA).

NFA looked pretty much the same from street level view, even 50 years on from our graduation. Drawing a bit on memory but mostly from our friends at Wikipedia; NFA had a long history with the first classes being taught in 1797, The first building was on Liberty Street and was not only a school but a court and public meeting place. Tuition was $2.50 per quarter for writin’ and ‘rithmatic with an additional $2.50 getting you Greek, Latin, or French… who would have guessed? V2 of the academy was built on Montgomery Street and opened in 1886 with 201 students and included grammar and academic classes. The “free” book system came into being and corporal punishment was abolished. The current main building on Fullerton Avenue and South Street was completed in 1928 with an annex built in 1931. By the late 1930’s enrollment reached 2,200 students. In 1965 the science wing of the school was opened on the north side of the 1928 structure. This building was one of my homes away from home during my years there with the planetarium, the science rooms, the earth science and geology lab, other labs and of course the math gang. Since our departure in 1973, a west wing extension with 35+ classrooms and additional dance and theater space and a refurbished cafeteria were added in 2004 and the former North Junior High became the NFA North Campus. Since then, the west campus with additional classrooms and a “non-traditional” high school approach has been added to the school. Time marches on…

We continued our Newburgh tour with a Walmart stop and a stop at the favored wine purveyor in what used to be the Mid-Valley Mall which was looking a little worse for wear and as they say, long in the tooth. The ladies got the jigsaw puzzle set up on the dining room table back at the River Road house. We ordered a pizza for delivery that we supplemented with crackers and cheese and, of course, there was an open and active bottle of wine for the ladies. Pizza tastes different in New York than in California.

Friday was clearing up and looked like it would be a nice evening for the icebreaker at Billy Joe’s Ribworks located on Front Street with the outdoor porch hanging out over the river. We got another late start to the day and did a tour of the Marlboro, NY area which was Dad Hagar’s old stomping grounds. Lots of changes. Still some fruit farms, but a lot of them had been sold off and subdivided into large acreage home sites. Most still seemed to be involved in growing something, but not on a commercial scale. We left a little early for Billy Joe’s because parking on Fridays on Front Street is a challenge. Parking karma was with us and as we pulled into the parking lot with really no expectations of a spot. A car, four stalls down from the front door, was leaving and we were in! For those of us moving through our 60’s, Billy Joe’s is not really the best fare for dinner – they are far more popular for their indoor and outdoor bar fare. We had a very nice dinner at Captain Jake’s next to Billy Joe’s where they had far more realistic pricing than the very fancy fish joint down the street. When I see menu items over $100 in Newburgh, I sort of get the giggles – especially down on Front Street.

The icebreaker was fun. Lots of familiar faces and even able to put names to some of the faces. Most of the crowd looked pretty much the same as they did 5 years ago at the 45th reunion. Danny Amato, who was one of the Balmville kids and who still lives in his mom’s house in Balmville, was there. Back in the day when I worked at Little Brook Farm Restaurant, I introduced Danny to the owner, and he became a more or less regular there working at large parties as a waiter, busboy and dish washer. Great guy, simple wants and aspirations and a very genuine person — I was glad to see him. Lots of other folks there, some great conversations and more importantly, nobody really made any overt forays into politics or religion; although in Newburgh, religion is generally far less controversial than politics. It was loud with loud music so most of the hearing aid patrol spent the evening out on the porch exchanging hearing aid stories with some hip and knee replacements thrown in for good measure.

Saturday dawned at about 9:00 AM and we made our way to Alexis Diner by 11:00 or so for brunch. For those who have not experienced an east coast diner, this would be the model diner. A menu that if you read everything on it would take about an hour to move through it. Large and very tasty portions, very fast service, endless coffee if you have a cup, otherwise, constant water and tea refills, attentive service, and the owner(s) ever watchful eyes on everything orbiting through the place making small talk with the customers. Saturday also brought, at least for me, one of the most meaningful experiences that I have had in a while and was certainly one of the highlights of this trip.

I had the good fortune of taking both an earth science and geology class at NFA taught by then a young guy named Jeff Callister. It was a different time than now; it was the early ‘70s. Jeff was enthusiastic and passionate about his teaching and even more passionate about connecting with his students. He organized both school and outside school activities including geology field trips and observations and an occasional social event in his back yard. He is the driving force behind introducing me to and eventually sending me off to Colorado School of Mines and my becoming a geologist. I had visited with him during the 20th reunion but was hesitant about visiting him on this trip as he would be 80 years old. I really had no way of contacting him (even after searching him out 9 ways from Sunday on the internet) so the only option (which I am incredibly uncomfortable doing) was to walk up to his front door and ring the bell. Joni and Pat pushed me pretty hard to go give it a shot and I eventually screwed up my courage, dropped my anti-social tendencies for a moment and stopped by his house for what I thought would be a half-hour visit.  To my great surprise, he answered the door and recognized me as Frank who lived down on Albany Post Road. He was still the same animated and enthusiastic Mr. Callister (although with less hair) and is in the middle of a rewrite for one of the books he had authored which he said had sold well over a million copies and was financing his and his wife Angie’s annual European vacations. We had a great visit that went on for almost 2 hours, reminiscing and catching up. I told him that I just wanted him to know that his knowledge, enthusiasm, and influence led me to a career that I have enjoyed every day for the last 45 years and as I told him I could not thank him enough for giving me a job that was the most fun anybody could have working for a living.

The reunion dinner was at a place called the Silk Factory which was located on a corner that in my time in Newburgh, I probably drove past 300-400 times and never noticed it, or more accurately, don’t remember noticing it. A large, old factory building with wide open interior spaces, exposed wood beam construction, high ceilings, loud disk jockey provided music and not one piece of sound absorbing material anywhere. The hearing aid patrol would be standing together smiling and nodding all night. I heard that about 115 graduates were there, most with significant others. All of this was put together by our resident reunion coordinator Theresa Ray and a few friends and helpers including her daughter Michelle. Turns out that at some point during the night, Michelle asked Joni and I if we would adopt her and take her back to California. I certainly did not hear that specific request but probably smiled and nodded. Imagine my embarrassment when I had to explain that as nice of a person as she was, we just could not give the guidance and love that she deserved as she would be the fifth daughter. A great time, great memories and great seeing everybody.

Sunday was another highlight and very meaningful day. We had lunch with our great friends Jimmie Polhamus and James Beard who are celebrating their 30th anniversary next year. Jimmie was another highly influential person in my life. As I say elsewhere on this blog, I arrived in Newburgh a naïve, Catholic school kid who had grown up in a sheltered environment in the West and Midwest.  Jimmie, the Balmiville School picnic table, the Powelton Club greens, the Desmond estate, his mom and dad and his basement were the center of social life for a rotating group of about 20-30 friends who for the most part lived in the Town of Newburgh but as we got older and became more mobile our sphere of influence grew. The stories and legends and the experiences together from the 4 years from 9th grade and high school always make me smile and laugh out loud and yes sometimes cringe about one social situation or another when I think about them. For the early 70’s it was a very safe and supportive group with just the right amount of internal edginess, great fun and great music while all the time trying not to upset the Town police to the point of visiting with them. It was, as I said elsewhere, a simpler time.

Our final high school story has been recounted over and over and sometimes I wonder if that is how it really happened. Since Jimmie and I tell it each time we see each other and the specifics seem to remain pretty much the same, I’m going with it. After NFA graduation, Jimmie and I did not have a lot of summer plans. At that time, I had a 1968 MG-Midget. Both Jimmie and I had received some cash gifts for graduation and somehow, we concluded that we would pack up the Midget and travel to the northeast until our money ran out. I recall it took about 4 weeks until we were low on funds but the only way that I can verify that is to go back and look at the dates on the 35 mm slides that I took on the trip.  We traveled to Maine hiking, camping, and enjoying life. The New England trip that follows in this blog is not only a first time visit to New England for Joni but an homage to that summer of ’73 trip with Jimmie. I can’t believe how fortunate we are to have all been friends and stayed in touch for almost 55 years.

Monday was the end of the Newburgh portion of the trip. Our stay in the River Road house was very enjoyable. Our trip down memory lane was for me extremely nostalgic and at the same time very meaningful. As I have said many times, I am one of the most fortunate guys in the world to have had the experiences that I have had and to end up where I have with friends and family that I love and treasure.

We gathered our belongings into the small but powerful and turns out extremely economical Ford Escape and drove Pat to LaGuardia airport for a noonish flight that would eventually get her back to Albuquerque. We went down the east side of the Hudson and had a very low-key trip back to the airport.

Next up – Mystic CT, Newport RI and north.

Road Trip August 23 – August 24 Travel to Newburgh, NY

As we slide into Fall after a long, very hot summer in the desert,

punctuated by highly unusual weather conditions, we will recount our road trip east for the 50th high school reunion and the New England tour.

We started our trip with a flight from Orange County to LaGuardia just a couple of days after the first tropical storm to hit the west coast since 1939 rolled through. It was a relatively non-event in Dana Point Harbor with maximum winds of 33 knots and several hours of light to moderate rainfall. However, it was much more devastating in Cathedral City where they received up to 5-inches of rain in 12 hours which is more than the average annual rainfall. We had no damage at our place. However, the wind did take out a couple of trees on the property and the sand traps on the golf course flooded making for a fun day for the ducks and geese. There was significant water and mud damage in the lower elevations of Cathedral City and along the Whitewater River, which is the main drainage through the area. The river became a raging torrent that went well outside the banks, crossed and flowed down the streets and roads and destroyed at least one golf course built in the flood plain.

Our Southwest flights were on time and uneventful. We like Southwest because as we have aged, we find that we do not travel light, and they allow two free, full-size bags per person!  LaGuardia has changed significantly since our last trip there in 2018 when construction was in full swing. For years it was the unloved child of NYC airports. However, the transformation in the last 5 years has been both welcome and incredible. The only downside is that because they had little land for expansion, they expanded upward rather than outward making for long escalator rides. Well worth it with the new terminal. We met Pat at the baggage claim and began our adventure.

We had reserved a midsize SUV for the 16-day trip. On arriving at the rental car counter, they gave me the requisite envelope with a car space number listed on the front. On getting to the space, I was pleasantly surprised to find an almost brand-new Nissan Rogue. Loaded up the bags; adjusted the seats and mirrors; figured out the navigation system; got the climate control to where we liked at and went to exit the lot.  Unfortunately, the rental form and the car did not match as the rental agent had made an error in the space number. In typical NYC fashion, the guard at the gate almost seemed ready to get the tazer out which was wildly unnecessary since there is a barricade on the exit that could take the impact of a semi and not move. Once I seemingly convinced him that I was not a thief, we went to the correct vehicle which was a slightly more used, and significantly smaller Ford Escape. We performed all the pre-travel gyrations and finally headed out. Pat rode in the back seat and confirmed that it was not a seat for cross-country road tripping.

I love NYC, particularly at the tail end of rush hour. I should mention that we could not get the phone maps to connect to the navigation system reliably. Luckily, there were two navigators and a slightly hard of hearing pilot which did result in some unanticipated touring of Queens and South Bronx. Through perseverance and some minor trial and error, we ended up in Tarrytown, NY deep in Washington Irving country, at the Bridge View Tavern and Beer Garden for dinner and a bit of libation. The referenced bridge is the Tappen Zee Bridge over the Hudson carrying the New York Thruway traffic. A great architectural design which will forever be the Tappen Zee no matter what erstwhile politician they name it after. A leisurely dinner and then north to Newburgh.

Newburgh is not known for its accommodations. Most of the hotels/motels available were not new in 1973, so in keeping with the “always an adventure” theme, we booked an Airbnb house on River Road in Roseton on the north side of the Town of Newburgh. Arriving after dark, with some moonlight, we gained entry, schlepped the bags to the second-floor bedrooms, figured out the lighting and air conditioning, tested the restroom and pretty much crashed for the night. The pictures below show the house. Note the basement pictures which Joni was brave enough to open the door and take. She obviously never saw The Shining!

The house was a very good choice for our stay. It was a remodeled pre-1900 company town house probably constructed to house a manager/foreman at one of the brickyards that Roseton became known for in the 19th and 20th centuries. The trees effectively blocked the view to the north toward the plants and also pretty effectively blocked the view toward the river.

Danskammer Point and Airbnb Location

In addition to the brickyards where my step grandfather, Pete, worked for many years, there are 4 power plants that Dad Hagar worked on during two different periods at and near Roseton. The first two plants were initially constructed on Danskammer Point as coal fired power plants and eventually converted to natural gas and oil. These were originally constructed in 1952 and renovated in 1958-1960 during our first stay in Newburgh. Our second Newburgh stay was the four-year period between 1969 and 1973 when Units 3 and 4 located in Roston, just south of Danskammer Point were built.

Danskammer Point (Devil’s Dance chamber) was named by Henry Hudson circa 1609. Tradition has it that he saw Native Americans, the Lenni Lenape, dancing in the firelight on a large flat rock that was on the top of the point in 1609. The flat rock was broken off a few centuries later during a collision by a river steamer and replaced with a light house.

Day 2 of the adventure did not dawn as bright and early as we had hoped as we slept in a bit and were not in any rush after our travel day. It turned out to be a rainy and gray day. We eventually got ourselves together and ventured across the river to Beacon for brunch.

The River Road area along the Hudson on the Newburgh side of the river has enjoyed significant development on relatively large lots as folks from closer in to NYC recognize the natural beauty and views of the Hudson River Valley from this side of the river. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the commuter rail lines from NYC have been developed on the east side of the Hudson so towns like Beacon, Fishkill and Wappingers Falls have enjoyed a resurgence of urban renewal and redevelopment of the more historical aspects of those locations. Newburgh has been the beneficiary of some of that redevelopment also, but not to the extent of the east side of the river. The riverfront in Newburgh was redeveloped several years ago and the immediate areas downtown north and south of Broadway have seen some significant changes in the last 10 years. East Broadway down to the river had been slummy for many years including my high school years. The good news is that while still not fully redeveloped, it is clear that improvements are happening…. probably inevitable that would occur over the 50 years since high school.

Tahquitz Canyon 2 – June 23, 2023

A favorite short hike of 1.9 miles with 384 feet of elevation gain on the south side of Palm Springs. Lynn Acosta was visiting for a few days with Izzy and Rosie and this is one of those must-see attractions for visitors to the area. It is a hike with several limitations (no dogs, high entrance fee) but offers a relatively easy hike with great scenery and geology and of course the falls at the loop turn around, especially with high volume, late spring/early summer runoff in Tahquitz Creek. The day was surprisingly temperate for this time of year with a light breeze, which was great because there is scant shade along the trail until you get to the falls.

The geology here is dominated by the easterly dipping Palm Springs Complex metamorphic rocks as you enter the canyon from the visitor center. These are a series of metamorphic rocks (generally a gneiss) of somewhat uncertain age but generally agreed to have formed from 600 to 250 mya from sedimentary rocks deposited in an offshore environment. We know that they are older than the Peninsular Range Batholith which was emplaced in two episodes: the western side from 140 to 104 mya, and the eastern side from 105 to 80 mya. In the Palm Springs area this portion of the mountain range is known as the San Jacinto mountains. These are west of Palm Springs and are generally made up of a granodiorite and quartz diorite core. Therefore, similar to the Joshua Tree geology, the big glob of magma goo that formed the batholith intruded into the metamorphic rocks far beneath the surface, hung out there for a significant amount of time and eventually were uplifted, eroded, and uplifted some more.

The San Jacinto mountains, as we see them, were formed relatively recently with uplift along three faults forming a triangle. The triangle extends on the north side (South Pass Fault) located south of I-10, the east side (Palm Canyon Fault) which is the mountain front seen from the Coachella Valley and the west side (San Jacinto Fault) that is west of the highlands near Idyllwild, Ca. Mount San Jacinto tops out at 10, 813 feet above sea level with over 10,300 +/- feet of relief in the seven miles from the peak to the floor of the Coachella Valley forming one of the greatest mountain front scarps in the world.

From the pictures, you can see at the entrance to the Tahquitz Canyon, the Palm Canyon Complex formation which is a deep reddish brown due to desert varnish. Here is the result of my foray into AI internet searches. Desert varnish is an orangish yellow to black coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid environments. It is composed of clay minerals, oxides and hydroxides of manganese and/or iron, as well as other particles such as sand grains and trace elements. It is formed by bacteria that oxidize manganese and iron and cement them onto the rock. The color of the varnish depends on the relative amounts of manganese and iron in it. Desert varnish can take thousands of years to form and can be eroded by acidic conditions, lichens, or human vandalism. Back to the trail. From the pictures you can see that the falls flow over the granodiorite that forms the core of the San Jacinto Mountains.

Joshua Tree National Park – June 12 – 13, 2023 Camping and Hiking with Kiara

I am writing about this adventure today with a profound sense of loss but hoping that the therapy of putting the story of this adventure together helps me turn my sense of loss to one of joy in having been part of his life. One of my greatest friends who I have known for at least 37 years passed away last night suddenly in his sleep. He was an individual who craved, embraced, and practiced the adventure lifestyle. This adventure is an homage to Jeff, dedicated to his quest for adventures and his adventurous outlook on life.

I had thought that the May Joshua Tree trip would be the last one until the summer oven had passed. However, due to a lot of unusual circumstances; lower than normal June temperatures; Joni being involved with providing support to our former employer (Northgate); the availability of Kiara to join in the adventure and I suppose just wanting to get out and move about, Kiara and I made what I am pretty sure was the last pre-summer trip to Joshua Tree. It was a simple plan. A forty-five-minute drive to the park in Kiara’s small but powerful (with a massive trunk) Honda; a hike on the Wall Street Mill – Wonderland trail, overnight car camping at Ryan Campground and a shorter hike on day 2 along the Skull Rock Nature Trail with a subsequent picnic lunch and park exit at the Cottonwood gate on the south side of the park near I-10.

I procured a campground reservation at Ryan Campground Site 07. Joshua Tree was already operating on a summer schedule so there were areas that were closed including the entrance kiosk which was unmanned on arrival. We made a short stop at our campsite and set up our tents (to stake out our spot). The pictures include shots of the campground and Kiara created a video of the trip on her Facebook page that has some camping views.

Car Camping!

She had the larger of the tents and I had my little one-man tent that I last used sometime around 2000-2002 on a kayak camping trip to Santa Cruz Island. I was not sure how sleeping on the ground would work out for me. However, thanks to technology, I had a great ground pad that made it all possible.

Our Wall Street Mill and Wonderland Wash Loop hike ended up being 3.0-mile loop as we had to start from the Barker Dam parking lot. The hike to the mill was relatively easy although the trail was poorly marked and there were a lot of side trails to choose from. The phone GPS kept us on (or close to on) the trail. The mill was built by Bill Keys (see previous post) in the late 1800’s. It is a gold ore crushing mill that had two stamp mills and some outbuildings including a bunk house and of course out house. There had been a marker at the start of the trail placed by Bill Keys in 1943 after his release from San Quinten with the inscription “Here is where Worth Bagley bit the dust at the hand of W. F. Keys, May 11, 1943”.Of course, it had to be removed for preservation after being vandalized by despicable morons and is now memorialized by a national park marker.

The second part of the hike that wound through Wonderland Wash was a bit more challenging. The trail (or proposed trail) from the Mill to the actual Wash traverses a large, lower relief area of the Monzogranite of Indian Cove. This is a popular bouldering and rock-climbing area where there really was no specific trail but a lot of rock scrambling. The area has a little more moisture and soil available so there was a significant cactus bloom. I, of course, had an up close and personal encounter with at least one cactus as I hopped off a boulder a little clumsily (Kiara was much more fluid in her movements – youth) leaving numerous splines in my left leg. We eventually made it to the wash which was a very enjoyable, relatively flat, and wide trail, past the Wonderland Ranch ruins (pink building in photos) and back to the Barker Dam parking area.

We returned to our campsite, set out the chairs, grabbed the cooler and feed bag and had a very nice picnic lunch of normal goodies. I was tired from our hike and Kiara had been up to 2:00 AM the night before yukking it up with Joni so a quick nap after or late lunch seemed to be in order. A sunset dinner of pre-cooked lasagna warmed on the old Coleman emergency earthquake grill finished out the day. A very comfortable night in our nylon casitas, coffee/tea, egg bites and sausage for breakfast started day 2 of the adventure.

After breaking down camp we headed out to the entrance for a short cell coverage fix and then up to Keys Vista which provides a great view of the Coachella Valley. From there to the Skull Rock Trail which is a 1.7-mile loop that includes several national park markers describing the flora, fauna, and geology. The trail winds its way through the Monzogranite of White Tank, some very young stream outwash and some very young fan material. Of course, the star of the trip was the slightly alien looking Skull Rock that you can see in the pictures. On the trail back to the parking area, we stopped in a nice shady spot and Kiara took the opportunity to sketch a Yucca plant. So nice that all the girls did not inherit my lack of any known artistic talent!!

After Skull Rock we searched out a picnic spot. Kiara found a shady spot in the rocks on the road south toward the I-10 entrance and she whipped up some bagel, pastrami, and cheese sandwiches. A quick stop at the Cholla Cactus Garden wrapped up our JT5 trip.

I promised a little more geology of the park in the last blog so here goes. A lot of folks have trouble visualizing geologic time since we think more in terms of human lifetimes. For those of you who remember the big round classroom clocks in school that gained significant importance about 5-minutes before the school bell rang, consider that one full trip of the little hand around that clock is 12 hours. If we condense the 4.6 +/- billion years of geologic time scale into a 12 -hour clock here are some ideas of how long-ago things happened. In today’s geology installment we are going to be looking at rock formations in Joshua Tree NP that formed in the Proterozoic Period in the Precambrian Era which started about 2.3 billion years ago and ended about 541 million years ago. Thinking about our clock analogy, the Proterozoic started right after recess at around 10:57 AM and lasted until just after bedtime at about 9:10 PM. For comparison, the dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago or around 11:39 PM deep into the Tonight Show. Humans did not show up until about 200,000 years ago or at about 1 to 2 seconds before midnight … the Times Square ball just hit the bottom.

The oldest rock outcrops in Joshua Tree are predominantly gneiss (Pinto Gneiss formation) and the Quartzite of Pinto Mountain. These are metamorphic rocks that formed in the Proterozoic. Keep in mind that metamorphic rocks have protolith rock associated with them (i.e. they were something else before they became metamorphic rocks).

So here you go — the seas came in and the seas went out.  This description is extracted and modified from a great little book; Joshua Tree – The Complete Guide by James Kaiser. Way back in the deep dark past, when there may or may not have been even much of a primordial ooze, there were land masses on the earth. If we are to believe the “experts” the earth was probably significantly more dynamic back then between things hitting it, the moon being blasted off at some point earlier and also having an extra billion or so years to experience uplift and erosion. As eroded sediments washed off ancient continents into the ocean, thick sediment layers accumulated in the waters offshore. Over time, the bottom layers were compressed and formed sedimentary rock (think Grand Canyon not the inner gorge). Then, around one billion years ago, Earth’s continents collided to form a single supercontinent called Rodinia (the super continent before its more famous younger relative, Pangea). As the continents collided and smashed into one another, they crumpled (a geologic term for sure) along their edges to form vast mountain chains. Some of the previously formed offshore sedimentary rocks were caught up in these collisions, which generated extreme heat and pressure. Over thousands of years, this heat and pressure metamorphosized the sedimentary rock into gneiss (pronounced “nice”). Gneiss is characterized by obvious banding/layering of darker and lighter minerals in the rock. There are other metamorphic rocks of the same age in the park including quartzite and dolomite.

Then, around 800 million years ago—200 million years after the formation of Rodinia—Rodinia broke apart. North America drifted toward the equator, and Joshua Tree’s gneiss and other metamorphic rocks most likely became part of an offshore continental shelf covered with ocean that was largely lifeless.  For the next 250 million years, the Joshua Tree region lay underwater. Then chapter 3 of the Joshua Tree geologic history that we can discern began around 335 million years ago, Earth’s continents came together again and formed another supercontinent called Pangaea. The Joshua Tree region lay just off the northwest coast of Pangaea, and additional offshore sediments accumulated on top of it. When Pangaea broke up about 200+/-  million years ago (just before the dinosaur franchise appeared and as the Atlantic Ocean began to form), the North American Plate drifted west and collided with a vast (I love a good superlative) tectonic plate called the Pacific Plate, which underlies much of the present-day Pacific Ocean. The collision eventually pushed the Joshua Tree region up above water. It also generated intense heat and pressure that exposed the previously formed gneiss to a new round of metamorphism. The takeaway here is that the already tortured ancient gneiss and quartzite were subject to a second metamorphism; Joshua Tree NP rose from the deep bowels of the earth and then through the magic of erosion, faulting, and mountain building, we ended up with what we see today…. More on the glossed over Pangea geologic history in the next installment. The photo below shows the location of the outcrops in JTNP that are Proterozoic in age.

The colored areas within the park boundary on the map below show the distribution of Proterozoic rock outcrops throughout the park. There is a little license in this interpretation as it includes a few much younger areas that include Proterozoic rocks…. More on that in tectonics next trip.

Joshua Tree National Park – May 25, 2023 – Barker Dam

A trip to Joshua Tree National Park while the temperatures are still in a range that allows hiking without being a camel or carrying several gallons of water with us. We did a short 1.1-mile loop hike to Barker Dam near Hidden Valley to break in some new hiking shoes for Frank and give Joni time to recoup from her allergy/cold attack. Between us we have over 100 photos of that short hike. The rocks were alive with cactus flowers and blooming shrubs. After a great hike we had our usual lunch picnic in the rocks. After lunch we drove back to the trailhead of the Wall Street Mill to reconnoiter and continued along the Queen Valley Road to the east until the wash boarding got to be too much for the small but powerful CMAX. I always come away from Joshua Tree refreshed and relaxed but more aware of the fragile existence that we are so lucky to participate in.

Quick history of Joshua Tree NP. It became a national monument in 1936 and a national park in 1994. Barker Dam was constructed initially in 1900 as a storage source of water for cattle in the vicinity of Joshua Tree NP. In 1910 William Keys acquired the property and continued development in this area.

Fresh off a scandal that Keyes participated in with Death Valley Scotty he moved south from the Death Valley area to Joshua Tree area and befriended Jim McHaney, a local cattle rustler and man of dubious moral character. Jim passed away after living a relatively long and questionable life and Keys took over his property. He worked the property both as a cattle rancher and a miner building the Wall Street Mill and enlarging Barker Dam. In his mining activities, there was a dispute over the Wall Street Mill and in typical Florida or Texas fashion he shot, killed, and in atypical fashion, was convicted of manslaughter of Worth Bagley in 1943. After 10 years at San Quinten, he was paroled and a few years later Trump issued a pardon (oops Freudian slip). What happened is that through the efforts of Erle Stanley Gardner, Keys was pardoned. He passed away in 1964. Keys Ranch is a guided tour area in Joshua Tree that we have yet to get to visit. It is on the list.

The trail works its way through the Monzonite of Indian Cove, a Cretaceous (100+ million years ago (mya)) formation. For non-geologists, a monzonite is an igneous intrusive rock (formed underground from hot-gooey magma). It is very similar to granite although generally finer grained. All granites and granite like rocks are at least second-generation rocks with the source rock being basalts (an above ground, or ocean floor rock generally from volcanic type of activity). If you are a believer in plate tectonics (and who isn’t?), granite like rocks were formed during subduction of continental plates. Essentially one big chunk of the earths crust jams under a second plate and is driven downward in a journey to the center of the earth. It never makes it to the center of the earth as it turns into the goo. The monzonites in Joshua Tree formed as plutons (big chunks of upward migrating, solidifying goo) making mountains. The plutons are estimated to have formed about 20 to 40 miles deep. The stresses in the subsurface, probably from the collision of the plates, created the joints within the pluton (that may or may not have been fully solidified) that give large portions Joshua Tree its characteristic outcrops.

There finally, I have answered a question that Dr. Rudy Epis posed on a test about 47 years ago or so on why is a granite a granite? This answer is probably better than … on the third day there was dry land. Next trip, I will add more, information on the drifting and the seas came in the seas went out history of the area of Joshua Tree.

Visit, Fun and Hiking – April 17-20, 2023 – Albuquerque – Santa Fe and Home

We spent the next several days at Casa de Pat where she had decided to adopt a new rescue cat. While I was not particularly popular with the cat, Joni and Pat slowly worked their way onto the kitties good list. After suggesting that he might bite off my face or scratch out my eyes, he finally came over and sniffed my hand but that was the extent of our relationship.

We spent most of the morning catching up on laundry and just hanging out as did Joy and Larry. They were settled in the Bernalillo KOA about 15 minutes north of Pats house. Eventually, we got everything together and made a trip to Old Town Albuquerque after a lunch stop at Tako Ten. We headed downtown for some shopping, sightseeing, a stop at the favorite winery and at the favorite home accessory store. Joni got chili infused wine, and we picked out a new wall runner, metal wall art for the bunk room and a metal roadrunner for the outside wall. A great dinner at Pats and always great sunset from her location brought the day to a close.

We had been looking for a hike to get us out and get a bit of exercise. There are literally hundreds of hikes in the vicinity of the Sandia Mountains. Unfortunately, most of them start at 5200+ ft and climb 3000 ft up. My old and only partially functional lungs are not the best at that elevation. Last time we hiked at those elevations, Joy and Larry were commenting on my beautiful blue lips. Pat recommended a City of Albuquerque Open Space Park just about 1-mile south of her place called Elena Gallegos Park. What a gem! The city did a great job with the park and trails for a reasonable price ($1 admission for the car with 4 people). We chose the Pino Trail Loop, a 2.5-mile loop with 305 feet of elevation gain and a maximum elevation of 6760 ft. It climbs the alluvial fan to the rock fans at the base of the Sandia Mountains. At this time of the year, there is a flowing spring/stream at the trail top that flows down slope and is crossed at both the high and low point of the trail. The pictures below are of our hike on the Pino Trail Loop.

The geologic formations that are found in the Sandia mountains are literally older than most dirt. The granites that you see as the majority of the mountains are estimated to be at least 1.4 billion years old and there are older formations both north and south of the main range. At the top of the mountains are conspicuous layered sediments that are about 320 million years old. A quick calculation shows that there is about 1-billion years of rocks missing from that geologic sequence. The Sandia Mountains landscape as we see it today is relatively young (5-10 million years old) and is an east tilted fault block on the eastern edge of the Rio Grande Rift. They mountains are steeper on the west side with a shallower east dipping surface on the east with approximately 35,000 feet of uplift along the eastern margin of the Albuquerque Basin. The geology and tectonics of the whole area are incredibly interesting, perhaps contributing to the seemingly large number of retired geoscientists in the area.

Wednesday was a day we had been looking forward to. Joy, Larry, Joni and I headed to Santa Fe to visit our friend Johnny Walker. Johnny is a 92-year-old Scottish geologist with a couple of PhD degrees in geology who confided in me on this trip that he was thinking about cutting back on work. He is one of the last renowned gentlemen field geologists having worked in mining exploration geology all over the world from Africa to Australia. One of the most polite, articulate and entertaining people we know with stories of deepest darkest Africa, aboriginal Australia, United Nations and World Bank assignments, US and British Embassy parties and meetings in the New York corporate boardrooms of some of the largest corporations in the world. I do get a little jealous though when he holds those goodbye hugs with Joni extra-long. I think he is gauging if he has a chance with her if I die before he does. We had another great dinner at Pats and then took Joy and Larry back to the RV so they could get set to head further north into the wind and snow.

Thursday was a travel day. Our flight left later in the day, so it was a very relaxing and slow morning. We worked out the details of the trip east for the 50th high school reunion, packed our bags and headed out. Pat is such a great hostess! We always enjoy our visits at her beautiful, comfortable, relaxed home. An uneventful pair of return flights except for minor delays got us back to Orange County with all of our checked bags by 7:00 PM with Kylie providing shuttle service to the boat.

Travel – April 11-16, 2023 – Day 6 – Whites City – Roswell – Albuquerque

All great adventures have a well-defined beginning and end. This was a great adventure but not the end of the trip and definitely not the last adventure of this trip.

We spent the early morning watching Joy and Larry get ready to roll. This was not their first rodeo. A well-practiced dance got the rig buttoned up and secured, the Jeep attached, and final check of lights, navigation, Cheyenne and Louie settled, and we all headed north and eventually met up in Roswell, NM.

However, before we left Whites City, Joni and I were approached by a young Hispanic gentleman with little to no English who needed gas at the Whites City gas station. It is unattended a significant amount of each day, particularly on a Sunday morning so only the credit card option was available. Alas, all he had was cash. Seemed like a classic scheme to shed some dubious currency, so I was a little skeptical. Joni looked things over and volunteered to swap some credit card gas for cash. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, the credit card machine on the pumps was also not working so we parted ways understanding that our newfound acquaintance thought he could make it to the next closest gas station.

Roswell, NM — a town making the best of notoriety. In addition to the advertised alien landing and reported eventual dissection, I believe that this town boasts the greatest number and variety of different fast-food joints that I have ever seen. At least one of all the majors and a vast majority of the minor players are here and in some cases at two locations, one on the north side of town and one on the south side of town (in case you change your mind).

In addition, there is the International UFO Museum & Research Center, founded by Walter Haut, who had been public information officer at Roswell Army Airfield in 1947. Walter either believed in the alien theory, believed in the ability to support his retirement on the backs of the now deceased aliens (maybe – maybe not) and government destroyed spaceships or that a sucker is born every minute. Whichever one of those you want to believe in, I have to say that a stop at the museum was well worth the $5 senior admission charge to the exhibits in the old Roswell movie theater. The exhibits were well put together and interesting. The audio-visuals were well done, the history of the event was very well documented and it was all arranged to keep your attention and interest. There were some hoaky things and disturbing things (mostly the diorama of the alien dissection as you entered the rest room) but all in all a worthwhile five bucks.

We finished our Roswell visit with a stop at a barbecue place that Larry found in Yelp. He was a little concerned that it would be a bust when we saw that it was a repurposed old A&W or Sonic Burger. We forged ahead and were very excited that the food was good, and the place had been redone nicely. Take a look at the picture below. One of the aprons on the wall was a bit of a surprise based on being in Roswell, at a barbecue place and with the sentiments on the other two aprons — you decide.

We shot north out of Roswell on US 285 and interestingly, the trip north did not seem as boring as the trip south. We settled in at Casa de Pat and then went to dine at the Kaktus Brewing Company in Bernalillo, NM next to where Joy and Larry were camping. The admonishment to not judge the place by the outside turned out to be entirely true as the interior atmosphere was eclectic but comfortable including patrons dogs on the patio and the beer and pizzas were delicious. The outside reminded me of some of the establishments in Turtle Bay, Baja California.

Let the New Mexico Adventure part 2 begin!

Guadalupe Mountain National Park – April 11-16, 2023 – Day 5 – Permian Reef, Hike, Beer

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is in the bottom 15 least popular national parks. I think the fact that the true beauty and grandeur and yes … geologic oohs and ahhs of the park are only accessible by long hikes and potentially overnight trail camping combined with the thinking that it is just a mountain in west Texas keeps it relatively under populated. However, the proximity of the park to Carlsbad Caverns, it’s obvious expression of contribution to the creation of the caverns and the geologic significance of the world’s largest Permian reef uplifted by faulting over 2-miles made it a must see for us on this trip.

Luckily, there are several shorter trails to give visitors a taste of the flora and fauna, the geology and the diversity of the area. To get some exploration in, we picked a 2.5-mile loop trail called the Smith Spring and Manzanita Spring Loop. It was a perfect hiking day; less than 80 degrees F., light to moderate winds from the east and clear. The trail climbs the bank-ramp complex, past a groundwater fed pond on a well maintained, easy to follow trail. There were flowers and views to enjoy. The springs were at the topographic high of the trail (5,947 ft) and were very scenic and refreshing. We opted to go counterclockwise in the loop so that the wind would provide some push up the steeper and rockier portion of the trail.

Another great hike with Joy and Larry and great snacks afterwards with cold Sol beers. Afterwards a quick stop at the park headquarters which had very good information on the wildlife and the geology. After that, we hit the micro-brewery in Carlsbad, NM pizza and beers and a stop for ice cream before ending the day.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park – April 11-16, 2023 – Day 4 The BIG Room

Day 2 in the park was devoted to exploration of the Big Room. The Big Room is the largest cave by volume in the US. It is a little over 8.2 acres in size with a 1.25-mile trail for exploration. At its highest point, the roof is over 275 above the floor.

While it is clear that what is now known as Carlsbad Caverns was known in antiquity by indigenous peoples of the region and early explorers, the eventual development of the area began with a 16-year-old cowboy named Jim White thinking that he saw smoke while mending fences and chasing cows in 1898. The smoke turned out to be bats emerging from the cave. This discovery led him to a lifelong commitment to the cave including exploration, leading tours, mining guano and eventually fighting to preserve the cave as the first chief ranger of the park. He married, had a son and lived a short distance from the natural entrance to the cave in a house provided by the guano mining company with no running water and minimal electricity. He died in 1946. Contrary to what most people surmise that Whites City at the intersection of US Highway 62 and Carlsbad Cavern Highway was named for Jim, it was actually founded and developed by Charlie White an entrepreneur/developer not related to Jim.

We met Larry and Joy and went across the street from where their rolling home was parked to enjoy breakfast at the Cactus Cafe in Whites City. Nice place, good food, friendly waitress…. not open for dinner and not open every day…. From there we were off to the park, down over 750 feet in the elevator and began exploration of the Big Room. The average exploration time is 1.5 hours. We always apply the retirement factor of 2x to the time and spent about 3 hours sauntering along the trail. At every turn it was a Wow Wow Wow exploration. Consequently, the number of pictures was incredible with over 450 pictures between Joni’s iPhone and my camera. This was narrowed down to the 132 photos included in the slide show below. It should be good for 2 glasses of wine or 2 beers or 1 cocktail — sipped. Again, scale is generally missing from these pictures as described previously.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park – April 11-16, 2023 – Day 3 – Going Down, Down, Down

An early meetup with Joy and Larry and drive up the 7-mile road to the park headquarters to begin our visit. Day 3 was a two-event day with a morning hike and exploration down into the caverns and later in the day, a ranger guided tour into the Kings Palace and an elevator ride out.

The following description of the geology of the caverns is extracted from a USGS description of the park.

The area where Carlsbad Caverns is located today was the coastline of an inland sea 250 million years ago. Due to the warm, shallow, tropical seas, the reef formed from mostly sponges and algae instead of coral, like many reefs today. Landward of the reef redbeds, evaporites, lagoonal mudstones, pisolitic grainstones (calcium carbonite grains that build on each other looking like tiny onions), and back-reef grainstones were deposited during this time period. Today, the reef deposit makes up the Capitan Limestone formation, which is 750 feet thick, and most of the National Park is within this limestone formation. Eventually, by the end of the Permian (approximately 251.9 million years ago marked by the largest mass extinction of life in earth’s history), the sea dried up and the reef became buried by sediment for tens/hundreds of millions of years. Fossils from this time period can be seen within Carlsbad Caverns, including ammonites, crinoids, snails, nautiloids, bivalves, brachiopods, and trilobites. 

Over the past 20 million years local faulting and stresses of the Earth’s crust uplifted the reef sediment by nearly 10,000 feet, creating the Guadalupe Mountains to the south southwest. The sediment eroded, exposing the reef. Within the Guadalupe Mountains there are more than 300 caves, and 119 known caves within Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The Big Room in Carlsbad Caverns is the largest cave chamber in North America, with 8.2 acres of floor area. Additionally, Lechuguilla Cave is the deepest and third-longest cave in the United States.

The caves in Carlsbad Caverns are unusual, as they formed from sulfuric acid instead of carbonic acid. Most caves in the world are formed when water interacts with carbon dioxide and seeps downwards. The location of the Guadalupe Mountains played a key role in the creation of these caves. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located near the border of New Mexico and Texas, and close to the Permian Basin, which hosts large oil fields. Hydrogen sulfide-rich water rose from the oil reservoirs as late as 12 million years ago and mixed with groundwater to form sulfuric acid. The limestone was dissolved at the water table, and therefore, Carlsbad Caverns was dissolved from below and not from above. Gypsum blocks, a byproduct of sulfuric acid dissolution, can be seen today on the floor of the Big Room of the Carlsbad Caverns.

So, there you have it. More interesting to me was the concept that at some point in time each level of the caverns represented a relatively stable water table. As the caverns were formed, and the uplift of the area continued, there was beyond a significant amount of free-standing water in the caves. All those years when the water dousing guys came around looking for the underground rivers and lakes to drill into for water supply had some bit of rationale. If only there had been a limestone bed in the area!!

The park was not crowded at all during our visit. After going through the visitor center, we hiked down through the natural entrance to the cave and dropped 750 feet on a 1.25 mile relatively steep switchback trail. As we dropped down the temperature dropped to a chilly 56 degrees F, all light was provided by artificial means, and it got very quiet. Lots to see and appreciate.

The second part of the day was a guided tour into the King’s Palace portion of the park with Ranger Rick. This area is only open to ranger guided tours because there are no railings to keep morons from destroying the cave. It is a phenomenal area of the caverns to visit, and Ranger Rick knew his stuff including geology, archeology and history of the area. At one point, he did the obligatory turn off of all the lights for a bit so that we could appreciate what it took to explore the caves back in the late 1800’s.

The photos that accompany this post are primarily from Joni’s iPhone. I found that while my camera gave realistic photos with lighting and color, the iPhone did a far better job of making the caverns wild and crazy features and topography visible. Also, apologies for lack of scale in many of the pictures. The dark doesn’t provide much opportunity for distance comparisons. Moreover, the railings and controls to keep Moron Assholes Generally Americans from ruining the cave features does not allow up close warm and fuzzy approaches to the features.