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Black Rock Desert Expedition Report + Pictures

colbystephens

colbystephens

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Claire and I just got back from an epic overlanding trip through the Black Rock Desert and surrounding area. If you're unfamiliar, it's in far northwest Nevada - one of the most remote areas of the state. The town of Gerlach sits on the edge of the desert, population 161. Otherwise you're 100 miles to the nearest "real" town. The Black Rock Desert is the dry lake bed of what used to be Lake Lahontan, which was essentially a 500' deep inland sea in prehistoric times. Pretty awesome.

Our whole trip could have been done in a 2wd pickup, or even a Subaru. But, I sure appreciated the security of knowing I had real 4 wheel drive and a Detroit Locker out back. :wink1:

Here's the first picture I took on the trip. We had just set foot on the playa. It's a weird feeling. Driving on it, you sort of break through a thin crust to a hard surface underneath that you drive on. We felt pretty comfortable driving 50 MPH out there, but the world record for land speed was set out there at over 700 MPH. :yikes:


Black Rock-1 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Zoe the Dog loved the vast open space to run.


Black Rock-2 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

The mountains that surround the playa are unbelievable. They vary so much in color, from sand-white to red to black to marbled to everything in between.


Black Rock-4 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We drove out to the middle, got out and walked away from the truck and sat down. It was perfectly still and absolutely silent. Awesome.


Black Rock-5 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-8 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-9 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-7 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We were on a mission to see a couple of hot springs on the east side of the desert. As we approached that side we saw the black rock by which the desert was named.


Black Rock-10 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We were having trouble finding the designated road, and the dunes surrounding the desert are protected habitat. At this point we decided to get out of the truck and hike to Black Rock Hot Spring. Figured this way we'd find the designated route, and walk it back to the truck so we could get on the proper road.

Found this strange plot of dirt that almost looked wet or varnished, but it was as dry as everything else.


Black Rock-12 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

You'll notice, however, that Zoe did find the one patch of mud in the desert...


Black Rock-13 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Near Black Rock Hot Spring are the remains of an old covered wagon used by the '49ers to get to California on the Applegate trail.


Black Rock-14 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-15 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

The hot springs is super hot. I've seen pics of people swimming in this one, but it was boiling when we were there - so I didn't dare to touch the water. Apparently people/pets get killed because they jump in and can't get out due to steep slopes in the spring.


Black Rock-19 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr
 
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When we hiked back to the truck, the sun was starting to get low in the sky and the color of the light was pretty killer. Took a couple of photos before we headed back to the hot springs route.


Black Rock-21 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

By the time we got back to the springs, the sun was really starting to set. We had a goal to make it to another set of hot springs for the night, but we got hung up along the way taking photos of amazing sites - like random steam clouds coming from springs in the rushes.

Black Rock Hot Springs, again.


Black Rock-23 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

I need to read more about the desert, because there's SO much I don't know: Like what's the deal with the white top coat of soil?


Black Rock-24 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-25 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-26 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-27 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

This is CK5, after all, so here's a couple more truck photos.


Black Rock-29 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Note the steam in the rushes in the background.


Black Rock-30 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We ended up setting up camp in a big open flat space, rather than getting all the way to the next set of hot springs. It was amazing. I really fell in love with desert camping that night, sitting in the still silence watching the sun set. We sat up and looked at the starts for a couple hours. There was no moon till midnight, so the milky way was overwhelming. A coyote's howl alerted us to the moon the moment it peaked over the horizon. I took some photos of the stars, but they'll need some post processing before I can post them.

First star of the night was actually a planet...


Black Rock-32 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr
 
munepit said:
That's awesome. You do some super cool stuff!!!!
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K85 Octane said:
Wow, cool stuff Colby!!
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Thanks. We are SO blessed to live in the vast open West. I've been reflecting on how thankful I am for this lately.

This is the last post for now, but I'll post up the rest of the trip tomorrow.

The next morning we hiked over to Double Hot Springs, which was just a short walk from our camp. This one smells a bit sulfury, and has very steep and dangerous walls. It's extraordinarily hot too - 180* minimum. It was also absolutely stunning with the sunrise colors.

Sunrise over the playa:


Black Rock-33 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-34 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-35 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Sunrise over the hot springs:


Black Rock-36 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-37 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Claire looking down into the crystal clear, blue hot spring.


Black Rock-38 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-39 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We followed the creek down stream a short distance:


Black Rock-40 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-41 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-43 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

And then we came back up to the springs for me to do some more photography, like this grass on the edge of the spring with the steam behind it.


Black Rock-44 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Or this strange weed with the water drops on its threads.


Black Rock-45 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Or these water drops on this little green plant.


Black Rock-46 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Walking back to our truck, I took this photo which only begins to suggest the vastness of the space out there.


Black Rock-47 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Here's a pic of me at camp.


Black Rock-49 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Once we broke camp we started making our way across the playa with the day's goal to be that we would get to High Rock Canyon for the night's camp. But, we had many hours of grueling harsh trail between us and our destination. It was totally worth the work.

Here's a point-of-view shot for you guys.


Black Rock-50 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We stopped on the playa again. This time Claire wanted to work on some sketches for an artwork she's making. I took a few more pictures.


Black Rock-53 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Those specks on the horizon are the truck and Claire.


Black Rock-54 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock-55 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Claire's tracing.


Black Rock-56 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Ok, that's all for now. I'll tell you about the herds of wild horses we saw, as well as the 11 big horn sheep, the cattle drive, and unbelievable vistas tomorrow. HAHA!
 
Pretty cool.

I know nothing about hot springs, is the water fresh (not salty from the lakebed)? Drinkable when cooled?
 
Man, I wish I could join you guys on these outings, I'm jealous, a bit...
 
Maybe we should meet in Jarbidge sometime. :deal: I've been wanting to go there for a couple years, and that's about halfway between us. :D
 
colbystephens said:
Maybe we should meet in Jarbidge sometime. :deal: I've been wanting to go there for a couple years, and that's about halfway between us. :D
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A friend and I went to Wildhorse reservoir for a week long camping/fishing trip before he re-inlisted back in 2003 and we made our way to Jarbidge because the fishing sucked. There's such a wide variety of scenery in that area it's unbelievable. I always wanted to see it again but all my friends disappeared on me, (one died, one went to Iraq and one moved to Las Vegas), so I never made it back.
 
I'm down for that. Let's make it a plan for next summer, hopefully I'll have a good four wheel drive by then :rolleyes:
 
Looks like an awesome trip! Now if I can only convince my wife to go out like that...

Did you guys tent, or sleep in the Blazer?

Clay
 
snuffy74 said:
A friend and I went to Wildhorse reservoir for a week long camping/fishing trip before he re-inlisted back in 2003 and we made our way to Jarbidge because the fishing sucked. There's such a wide variety of scenery in that area it's unbelievable. I always wanted to see it again but all my friends disappeared on me, (one died, one went to Iraq and one moved to Las Vegas), so I never made it back.
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I've not been there, so I don't really know. But, what I do know is that the NV landscape never ceases to surprise with its strange variety of landscape. You'd never expect to find all the lush places in the midst of vast barren land.

noJeepshere said:
I'm down for that. Let's make it a plan for next summer, hopefully I'll have a good four wheel drive by then :rolleyes:
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I don't think you'd need anything more than a stock 4x4. I think the four wheeling is pretty tame up there - probably pretty bumpy/harsh like every other back country road in NV (I seriously can't overstate how uncomfortable back country roads are here... :haha: ) - but probably stuff any stock 4x4 could handle.

ccarley said:
Looks like an awesome trip! Now if I can only convince my wife to go out like that...

Did you guys tent, or sleep in the Blazer?

Clay
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I am regularly so thankful that my bride digs the wilderness. We slept in the Blazer on this trip. This is the first time we've done that since probably 2006 or so. Strangely, we absolutely froze at night. Temps were about 20*, which isn't so bad. We often go snowshoe camping and sleep on the snow. We're always toasty warm in our snow gear. I'm wondering if the truck was colder because the cubic feet in it is so much larger than in our tent, and our bodies couldn't keep up with heating it. :dunno:
 
To get to Jarbidge, a stock 4x4 will get you there and back just fine. The scenery up there goes from high desert to highly forested but there's pretty good roads all the way. You never do any real hard core offroading. Don't expect much in the way of amenities in Jarbidge itself. There's no gas station IIRC, and the "stores" are single wide trailers. There's some high canyons on the road there with lots of silt to drive through and a nice campground just outside of town at the base of the logging road that takes you up, up, up to the peak of the Jahabidge mountains.

At one point of the trip I believe your only about 15 miles from the Idaho border and you can look out over the landscape to the north and see for ever from that peak. I really wanted to go back but I didn't dare go by myself.

You sure know how to make a guy homesick Colby.....thanks a lot! :doah::D
 
I bet Montana has plenty to offer! :D I've got a real strong desire to explore MT. I was in Great Falls as a kid... wait for it... because I was a competitive figure skater and I went to a regional competition there! :D Briefly visited Helena one day, and drove up to the entrance to Glacier NP.
 
On day 2 of our trip we took a mountain pass off of the Black Rock Desert on our way to High Rock Canyon. As we rattled our bones loose on the terribly rough road, we found a couple of skeletons along the way. We didn't find the skull of this cow, but we did find many of its leg parts, more spine/ribs, and a jaw bone.


Black Rock 2-3 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

As we worked toward the top of the pass, there were numerous incredible vistas of the playa and associated valleys.


Black Rock 2-6 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

In this picture, on the right side of the middle-range of mountains you can see the Black Rock mountain after which the desert is named. I had a couple pics of this mountain up close in my earlier posts.


Black Rock 2-7 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

This is looking slightly north of that vista, toward the part of the valley that we would end up using as our return route the following day.


Black Rock 2-8 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

And here's this one, because who doesn't enjoy a picture of a pretty girl? :whistle:


Black Rock 2-9 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Eagle Eye Stephens in the passenger seat of my K35 spotted a couple of big horn sheep on the mountain ridge next to our trail. :woot: This ended up being a herd of 10, and I think I was able to identify one ram amongst the lady sheep. I don't have a telephoto lens for my camera yet, so you'll have to deal with this crummy close-cropped photo. I count five in this image.


Black Rock 2-10 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

And again the view of the playa from where I was perched watching the big horn sheep.


Black Rock 2-11 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock 2-12 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Fall in Nevada is unreal. It never rains here, so the fall colors stick around for quite a while. Another reason to love NV is that you find things in unexpected places, like springs and creeks in the draws of a barren landscape that give life to rich and lush stands of aspens.


Black Rock 2-15 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

A short distance after the summit of the mountain pass we came to this incredible vista.


Black Rock 2-16 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

A point nearly on the horizon just above my head was our destination for the day.


Black Rock 2-17 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Once we got down to the flat land pictured above, we were bouncing down the road along a sage-covered berm to our left when I noticed a number of clouds of dust rising up from the other side. As I wondered to Claire about what it was, the berm ended and 7 running wild horses came into sight apparently spooked by the noise of my truck on the road. They were much closer when the berm ended, but I didn't have my camera immediately ready.


Black Rock 2-18 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

But, conveniently for me they ended up slaloming across the road, and we took chase - keeping a reasonable distance between us and them.


Black Rock 2-19 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock 2-20 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We see a lot of wild horses in NV. One day on another trip I counted over 60. But there was something particularly special about this. I'm not sure if it was the surprise of seeing them running wild so closely (they're usually so stable and somber), but it was like experiencing the nostalgia of the historic American west in the making. Soon the horses darted off to the left of the road and disappeared among the sage, leaving only the clouds of dust trailing them to indicate their location.
 
We rounded the next corner and found some particularly strange earth formations.


Black Rock 2-21 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Shortly afterward I began to wonder to Claire: How common are cattle drives these days? Do the cowboys use horses or ATVs? What would be more expensive to maintain - a horse or an ATV? And then I couldn't believe the irony of my questions because just a few minutes later I had to pull over and wait for 3 cowboys and a cowgirl as they drove a herd of about 50 cattle past us.


Black Rock 2-22 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We didn't take many pictures of them, because we tend to shy away from taking photos of strangers for our own benefit. These guys definitely made me wish I could grow a better mustache...

There's several shelters out there which can be used on a first-come-first-served basis (if you dare). Some of them are actually decent ranching houses that were abandoned. Others are like this.


Black Rock 2-24 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

I'll take a tent or the bed of my truck, please.

The shadows were getting long and we were nearing our destination, but we decided we needed to explore on foot a bit to stretch our legs. So we hiked a short distance down Little High Rock Canyon. We saw lots of hoof prints from cattle, and suspected that the cowboys used this canyon as a place to stop and water the cattle.


Black Rock 2-23 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

When we finally rolled into our destination for the night, the light on the walls of High Rock Canyon was extraordinary.


Black Rock 2-25 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We parked the truck, and got out to explore on foot while the sun was setting.


Black Rock 2-27 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

This is where we set up camp for the night.


Black Rock 2-30 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

It turns out I didn't read the signage at the beginning of the canyon well enough, because we weren't supposed to camp here. Clearly, however, we weren't the first because there was a fire ring there. But, we left no trace, and picked up any litter we found around there - so I guess it evens the score.


Black Rock 2-30 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

This canyon was a pass along the Applegate trail, and got popular with the 49ers' gold rush.


Black Rock 2-31 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

The color of the rock in this canyon is incredible, reminiscent of Moab, Arches NP, or the Grand Canyon.


Black Rock 2-33 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

This is looking west in the canyon from our campsite just before dark.


Black Rock 2-32 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

The stars that night were even more stunning than the previous night on the playa. I think part of this is due to the fact that here I don't think there's any light pollution from Reno, which was evident from the playa despite being 100 miles away.


Black Rock 2-35 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We got up the next morning to watch the sun rise. It turns out that it takes about 4 hours for the sun to do so in a canyon this narrow. So we waited a while. But, I thought this picture really showed the scale of the walls relative to my truck.


Black Rock 2-36 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

And then we saw another big horn sheep. I believe this is a ram. I've always wanted to see a ram on the edge of a cliff, so this was pretty gratifying. It was a bit of a distance away, however, so you'll again have to excuse the closely cropped crappy photo.


Black Rock 2-37 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Fall colors in the canyon, as we walked back to make breakfast.


Black Rock 2-38 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

When the sun started to appear in the canyon, we decided to hike up to the top of the walls.


Black Rock 2-39 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock 2-40 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

The view was worth the work.


Black Rock 2-41 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock 2-43 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Here's a picture, again for scale, of our camp.


Black Rock 2-45 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr
 
As we came back down we stopped for our last family photo before heading out.


Black Rock 2-48 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

End of the fall colors in the desert.


Black Rock 2-49 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock 2-50 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Our route back to the playa took us past Fly Canyon. It was a surprise to us, because we hadn't heard about it. What an extraordinary canyon to happen across! We started exploring it from the west end, but quickly found that we couldn't pass through that way due to a massive drop off.


Black Rock 2-52 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

So, we found a place to park on the north side and dropped in.


Black Rock 2-53 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Lichen and fall colors get along nicely there.


Black Rock 2-54 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

We dropped down into the cavern for some more exploring, but the dog had to stay behind.


Black Rock 2-55 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock 2-56 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Black Rock 2-58 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

This hole marks the west-end of the cavern, and is where we stopped when we tried to enter the canyon from the west.


Black Rock 2-59 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Here's one of many great interpretive signs along the Applegate Trail. You can imagine my surprise when I found out that covered wagons came with lockers.... (kidding. :doah:)


Black Rock 2-61 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

When we got back to the playa, Claire really wanted to drive on it because you could go 50 MPH and not touch the steering wheel.


Black Rock 2-63 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Goofy. :)

We got to experience a nasty wind storm on the playa. It was fun to see, but we were sure glad we had perfect and still weather the two days before.


Black Rock 2-65 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

There were numerous times we'd be going 50 MPH and then all of a sudden we couldn't see beyond the front of the hood of the truck - couldn't even see the ground. And then instantly you'd break out of it and see something like this.


Black Rock 2-66 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

The way home had the windiest conditions I've ever driven in. It was a real bear to keep the truck going straight down the road. Headwinds were a nightmare, and destroyed my fuel economy. But, we had an extraordinary trip. Can't wait to go back!
 
Its interesting you asked about cattle and quads vs horses.

Horses all the way. Quads are limited in range.

When I worked on a ranch in my youth. It took us 3 days to round up cattle for branding. It was all done on horses. Still is done on horses.

Cool pics man I have always wanted to go over there just to see where they set the records

I think the first record ( highest speed was in the early 80s out there) in thrust 2
 
Some beautiful pics and country. Looks like you have some excellent calender shots in that batch of photos!
 
Thanks. Perhaps I'll submit them next year. This trip was just outside the date requirements for this year's calendar submissions. :)
 
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