Circular hole worn through the volcanic rock at Fossil Falls - fossilfalls24
Fossil Falls, Mojave Desert. Plenty of holes cut right through the rocks by water. October 20, 2007. Photo #24 of 40.
Fossil Falls, Inyo County, California - Located roughly an hour north of Ridgecrest along Highway 395, Fossil Falls is woefully misnamed - it contains neither fossils nor waterfalls. Instead, it is an interesting geologic feature that illustrates the power that water commands over rock with the passage of time.
This corner of California is still geologically active, with nearby bubbling hot springs and hot spots - Panum Crater just to the north erupted only a few hundred years earlier. The area that surrounds Fossil Falls, in the shadows of the nearby Coso Range of mountains, is covered with lava flows ranging from a few hundred thousand years old to just a few thousand years old. One of these lava flows crossed the watershed of the (now dry) Owens River.
During the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago, massive amounts of meltwater from the glaciers formed massive lakes in eastern California. This water poured over the basaltic lava rocks, wearing them down, polishing them into smooth shapes, forming the present-day Fossil Falls. While the area is now usually bone-dry, Fossil Falls shows what happens when billions of tons of water need to find some place to go.
A bumpy dirt road just past Little Lake leads to a small parking area. From here, a trail leads a fraction of a mile through the sharp, jagged rocks to the top of the falls - a large U-shaped nearly vertical drop to the base of the falls below. It's 70-80 feet straight down, then there is a second dropoff further downstream. But all around the lip of the falls are all sorts of curiously curved rock-forms, holes and water-swept mini-caves, all perfectly smooth and shiny in contrast to the razor-sharp basaltic boulders just feet away. Also of note just to the north, within sight of the falls, is the nearly symmetrical Red Cinder Mountain, a recent volcano waiting for its next chance to erupt.
In addition to its unique geologic interest, Fossil Falls is also very popular with rock climbers, providing numerous opportunities for all experience levels. Many of the rocks also sport prehistoric petroglyphs dating back thousands of years.
For me, this was just a quick visit, as part of the first day on my three-day trip to Death Valley. (Earlier in the day I had stopped at Randsburg and Red Rock Canyon State Park, and later in the day I visited Darwin and Darwin Falls.) It was extremely windy, with gusts approaching fifty miles per hour, so standing close to the edge of the falls was a dubious prospect (these same winds were whipping up massive wildfires in Los Angeles on that same day). Less than an hour to visit, didn't afford me the time to climb down into base of the falls, or look for Indian petroglyphs. Down in the valley below, a small group of rock climbers were goofing around, and a bus full of college students pulled up as I left.
For more information on Fossil Falls, please visit:
- Fossil Falls at Digital Desert.
Pictures taken on October 20, 2007. For more pictures of Fossil Falls, please visit my Fossil Falls photoset.
This photograph is free for use on the internet under the 'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial' license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase 'Copyright Matthew Lee High'), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.
Circular hole worn through the volcanic rock at Fossil Falls - fossilfalls24
Fossil Falls, Mojave Desert. Plenty of holes cut right through the rocks by water. October 20, 2007. Photo #24 of 40.
Fossil Falls, Inyo County, California - Located roughly an hour north of Ridgecrest along Highway 395, Fossil Falls is woefully misnamed - it contains neither fossils nor waterfalls. Instead, it is an interesting geologic feature that illustrates the power that water commands over rock with the passage of time.
This corner of California is still geologically active, with nearby bubbling hot springs and hot spots - Panum Crater just to the north erupted only a few hundred years earlier. The area that surrounds Fossil Falls, in the shadows of the nearby Coso Range of mountains, is covered with lava flows ranging from a few hundred thousand years old to just a few thousand years old. One of these lava flows crossed the watershed of the (now dry) Owens River.
During the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago, massive amounts of meltwater from the glaciers formed massive lakes in eastern California. This water poured over the basaltic lava rocks, wearing them down, polishing them into smooth shapes, forming the present-day Fossil Falls. While the area is now usually bone-dry, Fossil Falls shows what happens when billions of tons of water need to find some place to go.
A bumpy dirt road just past Little Lake leads to a small parking area. From here, a trail leads a fraction of a mile through the sharp, jagged rocks to the top of the falls - a large U-shaped nearly vertical drop to the base of the falls below. It's 70-80 feet straight down, then there is a second dropoff further downstream. But all around the lip of the falls are all sorts of curiously curved rock-forms, holes and water-swept mini-caves, all perfectly smooth and shiny in contrast to the razor-sharp basaltic boulders just feet away. Also of note just to the north, within sight of the falls, is the nearly symmetrical Red Cinder Mountain, a recent volcano waiting for its next chance to erupt.
In addition to its unique geologic interest, Fossil Falls is also very popular with rock climbers, providing numerous opportunities for all experience levels. Many of the rocks also sport prehistoric petroglyphs dating back thousands of years.
For me, this was just a quick visit, as part of the first day on my three-day trip to Death Valley. (Earlier in the day I had stopped at Randsburg and Red Rock Canyon State Park, and later in the day I visited Darwin and Darwin Falls.) It was extremely windy, with gusts approaching fifty miles per hour, so standing close to the edge of the falls was a dubious prospect (these same winds were whipping up massive wildfires in Los Angeles on that same day). Less than an hour to visit, didn't afford me the time to climb down into base of the falls, or look for Indian petroglyphs. Down in the valley below, a small group of rock climbers were goofing around, and a bus full of college students pulled up as I left.
For more information on Fossil Falls, please visit:
- Fossil Falls at Digital Desert.
Pictures taken on October 20, 2007. For more pictures of Fossil Falls, please visit my Fossil Falls photoset.
This photograph is free for use on the internet under the 'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial' license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and/or adapt this photograph without seeking permission first, as long as you provide attribution to the photograph (preferably by linking to this web page, or including the phrase 'Copyright Matthew Lee High'), and as long as the the photo is not used for commercial purposes. For more information about Creative Commons licenses, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en.