Germar's Monthly Updater

November 2002: Mojave Desert I spent Thanksgiving weekend with some friends in the Mojave Desert. The panorama below shows the 180° view from our campsite. We were camping at the foot of the Providence Mountains, in the middle of nowhere. We could not see a single person for the next five miles around our camp! There were only a view cows, burrow droppings, and abandoned mines. On Friday, we hiked up to the nameless peak at the left side of the Panorama ("First peak"), continued on the ridge, and reached the next prominent (but still nameless) peak at 11:30. From here, we continued to the highest summit of the range, Providence Peak. A storm had approached by then and it started raining. We had to climb down a steep gully with 15-feet high slippery rocks and arrived back at camp after night fall. It was quite an adventure. On Saturday, it was still raining in the morning and we decided to visit Mitchell's caverns, a lime stone cave 10 miles east of our camp. After our return, the weather cleared and we hiked on yet another nameless mountain, denoted "Evening Peak" at the right of the Panorama. Click here for full-size panorama! Also, don't miss to check out the annotated map of our campsite and our hiking trails! Click here! Below is the view from Providence Peak toward the vast expanse of the Mojave Desert. Nights in the desert are getting pretty cold, and we enjoyed sitting close to our blazing campfire. On our way to Mitchell's Caverns we almost drove over a rare desert tortoise, who decided to spend the day in the middle of a dirt road (Not a smart idea for a creature that looks like a rock from 20 feet away). My driver managed to get around the poor creature in the last second, and was able to warn the rest of the group by radio. We really scared the hack out of it. I can well understand that it was not willing to stick out its head as long as we were watching. Mitchell's Caverns were really a blast. The cave was well preserved and the stalactites hanging from the ceiling were still growing at some points. It felt like walking under hundreds of daggers. Not a good place to be during an earth quake! We reached the "Evening Peak" shortly before sunset. The shadows of the mountains that were casted by the low Sun on the endless plains below were just spectacular. It was a great day! Me and my hiking companions were super happy. Here is the proof (sorry, I forgot to shave): Enjoying the last rays of the Sun, we were beginning our descent. When we finally left the desert the other day, we drove by the Granite Mountains - a possible destination for next year's Thanksgiving.

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