Pure California GOLD.

Some time ago I blogged about Lake Dolores/Rock-A-Hoola water park, a ghost town of sorts on hwy 15 between Barstow and Baker. Recently I got a comment on that blog post indicating that there were intentions to rebuild the place and reopen it.

That lead to this site, where you can watch the transformation.

And this site, where you can hear about the documentary being made on the place.

And then youTube, which of course, had old Lake Dolores commercials!

1970's commercial:


Yes, those were the famous stand-up water slides! Wait until you see them in the 1980's commercial below!!!



1998 commercial:

Spring 2011 Mojave Trip

I seem to take students back to the Mojave desert every semester - and truly yesterday was one of the most spectacularly beautiful days we've ever had. On top of that, students this year found the most amazing trilobite specimens we've ever found on one of these excursions, AND the famous brine trench had completely filled in; I think National Chloride must no longer be in business.

The brine trench yesterday.

The brine trench before!!!

The stairs to the lava tube yesterday.

The "stairs" before!

Everything was green from the extensive rains we've had this spring - I just couldn't get over how pretty the volcanic landscape was this time around.

Epic trilobite finds this year - last year 2 of this caliber were unearthed. This year? 5!

I've driven by this sign on old Rte 66 I don't know how many times. Needed to document it. Unfortunately, this is about all I know about that snippet of California's Rte 66 history.

sneak peak

My Jeep has a new "geo-mobile" decal that I drew up several months ago, ordered, and even put on the back window... but only now actually took a photo of it. I'm quite pleased, too bad its location in the carport means that the photo is dominated by reflections of the apartments...


Fresh and ready for the next expedition, I cleaned, waxed & buffed my boots and gave them sexy new red laces! I'm stupidly excited about this, obviously.


Finally, the pièce-de-résistance, coming soon to Bakersfield College and amazon.com! I mailed in my contract and submitted the manuscript, it should be available this fall. Pre-order your autographed copy now... just kidding!

manipulating the magnetic pole??? nice!!!

Well, a new semester begins, and with it comes a brand new challenge: cleaning up the lab room of the oddities that it has acquired over the last 50 years in order to create a semblance of order and make room for students, new lab materials, etc.

Today one of my faithful geo student helpers found this Life Magazine article from 1952 about the moving rocks in Death Valley. Pay attention to the middle column, it's brilliant.

Meanwhile the 2nd page of the article was also pretty entertaining, but admittedly the rock tied down with a peg and string was nothing to the high-waist tighty-whitey themed ad next to it.

The pages were torn and taped and I had to creatively scan it in bits and pieces, but hopefully all the goodness comes through!!!

"Sunny" Bakersfield

Quite some time ago, I unearthed these name stickers from the depths of my office, and sent them, among other items, to kilometres for entertainment value. Regarding the name sticker, two things truly struck me as bizarre: 1) California's most "conventionable" city??? What on earth does that mean? 2) Why is the word "Sunny" in quotes? It's almost never NOT sunny here, so... uhhh... what's going on?

Today I brought the entire roll of name stickers over to the College Archives, just in case they wanted them for some reason. I said that I thought they were funny, and I also said I guessed they were from the 50s or 60s based on the generally brown and multi-fonted theme. The Archive Queen took a look at them, and after a few moments, a look of surprise and recognition came over her face.

"These must have something to do with Sunny Scofield", she said, "she had a talk show and that little icon in the corner was her logo".

Her brief biography follows, and this will be considered another post in my unofficial series "lessons in odd California history".

SUNNY SCOFIELD
First woman producer/director and host of a television talk show (The Sunny Today Show, 1968). Almost 2500 shows aired weekday mornings. Believing that existing TV programs did not meet the needs and interests of viewers, Sunny originated a morning program with such a variety of guests and subjects that the program became nationally recognized.While talk shows are common today, there were no programs like this on the air in the late ‘60’s.

Manzanar. Or creeping around cemeteries at night.

Manzanar is an amazing cultural site not too far from Bake-town that I have driven past countless times, but never actually stopped at. We gave it a run through on the way to our campsite after hiking in the Bristlecones - specifically the cemetery. This was partly because of the great obelisk in the nearly full moon set against the Sierra Nevada, and also partly because at that time of night the visitor center/museum was closed.

Check out all the origami birds. Cranes that is.

One of the graves.

Our campsite (Tuttle Creek) is set against the backdrop of Mt. Whitney, more or less amongst the Alabama Hills. Not too often that one is camped by the tallest and second tallest mountains in the lower 48 on the same trip!

This is the grinning rock in the Alabama Hills. No, they're not in Alabama.

Riding the Ridge Route

My "commuter bike" - rather than take my beloved road bike on this journey, I opted for the knobbier tires and the massive saddle bags of my commuter so that I would be able to carry a full fledged picnic along the ridge for us to enjoy. My ipod (which obviously normally resides in the case taped to my bike frame) did not come on this journey!

Due to the locked gate some of you might remember seeing from my previous Ridge Route post, I came up with the concept of biking it. We headed out yesterday and did some 17+ miles on it, way up high in the Transverse Ranges, battling wind the whole time. It amazed me on the Century I rode a few years ago how the wind managed to be a headwind the whole time, even when we switched directions, so I wasn't entirely taken off guard when that happened again yesterday.

Most of the shots I took look the same, so I picked a couple with riders & geology in them. You'll note that these shots tend to be looking up hill. This is largely because it felt like most of the ride was up steep inclines. Of course, every steep incline meant a downhill on the return. The downhills though, on this ancient battered overgrown rubble-filled sand patchy road, were more bone-rattling "try not to die as I veer around yet another steep corner" panic ridden rather than opportunities for my hobby of taking photos while riding a bike.

Here we are at Swede's Cut, which is comparable to Beale's Cut in a sense. This cut, however, was not dug by hand, but rather by steam shovels brought up there by mules. Beale's Cut, which in its glory days reached a staggering 90 feet deep, is out-shone by Swede's Cut, which is to this day, 110 feet deep. Geologically, it's a fabulous example of Plate Tectonics. I mean really. Here we are, up on a high ridge in the Transverse Ranges, ogling some tremendous angled and interbedded sediments: the muddiest of mudstone shale and the biotite-iest of arkose sand. Clearly the edge of a delta? And now here? Brilliant.

For a sense of ridge-ness, this is a view up on the Ridge Route, and waaaaaaaaay down in the distance is the I5, all ugly and trafficy. From up where I took this photo it sounded like bees in the distance.

Lesson in California History... continued

Not too long ago, I brought you the southernmost portion of the Ridge Route: Beale's Cut.

Today, I bring you snap shots of the northernmost portion, just south of Gorman.
You know you're on the Ridge Route when you find the right signage.


The only remaining part of the former 3-lane highway. Right at Gorman.

The part of the road that still has washed out areas is locked up. I mean, REALLY locked up. They don't want you in there. In fact, you evidently need a quorum to unlock the gate. Or, you can walk...

The work being done on it for repairs... since it was washed out by heavy rains in 2005, the primary improvement is drainage.

Remains of the Tumbleweed Inn - one of MANY hotels on the Ridge Route.

Lake Dolores/Rock-A-Hoola/Discovery Waterpark... another piece of California History

After driving back and forth on Hwy 15 countless times and not making the stop here, I finally did (accompanied with a few die-hard students who still had some energy left after the long weekend field trip). I first noticed this place, seemingly an odd location for a water park (mid-desert) when I drove here back in 2005. There were water slides (or one at least) actually up and visible from the road then. After several drives back by this place I finally committed to memory the name "Rock-A-Hoola" that I could see on the sign and did a google search. I found this forum that provided many answers, odd stories, and probable false posts. An interesting read none-the-less.

The summary is this:

• It originally opened in 1962 as Lake Dolores, named for the founder's wife. It was a campground waterpark, and potentially the first "real" waterpark known. It grew over 22 successful years to include stand up water slides, zip line, and all kinds of other dangerous sounding thrill rides in addition to standard waterpark stuff. (People entering the park had to sign an extensive waiver - we saw some of these in the broken down buildings when we strolled around in awe)
  
• After a period of closure, the park was sold and re-opened as Rock-A-Hoola in 1996, but the new owners went bankrupt and the park was returned back to the original owners 3 years later. Most of the signage and papers we saw around indicated the name Rock-A-Hoola alone or in combination with the more historically well-known Lake Dolores (as in "Lake Dolores Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark" was found on business cards strewn about)
  
• Sold again, and re-opened under yet another new name: Discovery Waterpark - the third and final run went from 2002-2004. The only evidence we saw of this name were a few plain-font address labels lying around an old office behind the ticket counter.
  

From left to right:

• Top row - google maps outdated image still showing waterslides that are now torn down, sign in parking area, entrance lined with 50's themed route 66 (which is further south than the road this is on) posters
• Middle row - KyKy by the former lazy river, envelope and tickets found in old office, view of the park from the top of the location that used to have waterslides
• Bottom row - the waterslides (photo from themeparkreview.com), regulations sign for the waterslides (I like how there's no warning about health safety like heart problems, but there is a no zipper rule), the hill that held the waterslides as seen today
  

This Weekend's Lesson in Southern California History

Amongst a trip to LA to visit family, I made a commitment to find and photograph the "famous" Beale's Cut (that no one I've talked to so far has heard of before me). I bought the Ridge Route book, because I am fascinated with this sort of history.

In 1862 General Beale completed this cut [by hand], providing a route through the San Bernadinos that effectively connected northern and southern California. The following year it was deepened to its maximum of 90 feet! This definitely ranks up there with Burro Schmidt's tunnel in terms of engineering feats. However, Schmidt has Beale beat in terms of uselessness and randomness. Or perhaps, Beale has Schmidt beat in terms of usefulness?

Looking north up Beale's Cut, earliest known photo. Taken from here.

By 1910, traffic had significantly changed... from the horses and carriages that scrambled up and over the cut in the late 1800s to motor vehicles (the allegedly had to drive up the cut in reverse so that fuel reached the engine), to cargo trucks in the early 1900s. As a result, the Newhall Tunnel was constructed for truck traffic nearby, actually tunneling through the mountains, and the Cut was essentially abandonned. Traffic though (again, depending on which source you read) still used it until the original construction of Ridge Route in 1915.

Depending on which source you read, the cut collapsed sometime in the late 1930's, losing 2/3 of its depth. Below is the photo that I took with my phone (why oh why did I forget my camera???), at approximately the same angle as the B&W photo above. It's obviously overgrown.


The Cut was used for backdrops (either superimposed or actually filmed there) for Westerns. There is also apparently a famous (but superimposed) photo of some Western star jumping on a horse across the cut. Look it up on google if you want.

This is an aerial photo looking south with the Cut in the middle. Hwy 14 is to the left.

Cool stuff I say. Cool stuff.

End of Year Adventures

Ahhhh, exams being over and fun needing to be had, the geology club (and their fearless empire-building leader) set out on epic adventure of "nerds in the wilderness".

Day 1 was a gorgeous day in the desert, and considering the date was December 12th, we were surprised by the warmth. The clouds were neat looking too.

The plan was to take Mesquite Canyon up into Red Rock Canyon State Park to get to Burro Schmidt's Tunnel, a different route than I usually go. We had 3 vehicles, countless cameras, a Middle East Feast, water, tow strap, emergency contact, energy, rock hammers and a bottle of dilute hydrochloric acid.

Some things were quite different: puddles of water, signs (usually when I go I don't see any signs... so this is an improvement I guess?), the original cabin was boarded up - so no one can get in anymore...

The mummified rat and separated soy sauce also seemed to be "new" - or at least uncovered - the 2nd and 3rd built cabins on the site seem to be undergoing "renovations" of a sort. Of the sort that involves removing scads of mattresses and other garbage, but leaving behind old soy sauce and dessicated rodents.

Other things, like the tremendous views, remained the same - breathtaking as ever.

After visiting Burro Schmidt's tunnel for the zillionth time, I suggested we visit the Bickel Camp, which I had actually never stopped at before. An old time prospector who overlapped in time partially with our old friend Schmidt, he was slightly less nutty and actually mined gold and sold it, rather than digging a tunnel from nowhere to nowhere.

Gas can collection that I was intrigued by.

"Interesting"

56 years of canned beans.

Walt himself. Quite beardy. The remainder of the day was spent trying to not get stuck in the middle of the desert, which had a surprisingly wet sandy floor that day, which was remarkably difficult for our token 2 wheel drive truck to cross. Also, the "roads" would randomly be punctuated by a cliff or ravine or massive rock or fence or something inconvenient for even Snaggletooth (the Geomobile Jeep) to navigate.

The next part of the end of year geo club adventure series (day 2) was a garnet hunt in the moutains between us and LA. This was appropriate because garrrnets are the pirate ore (yarrr). We hiked up a mountain in a cloud.

It gave pretty spectacular, spooky, fairytale-like scenery.

So did the trees.

And then it actually snowed - which, for some, was their first ever snowfall. For me, it was like "huh, it's snowing... in southern California"

Once garnet hunting was deemed a success (and garnets were found), we continued on with the non-denominational end-of-year pirate-themed geology winter party - with a dino bounce house. For me, my first time in a bounce house - YAY! Thanks to one of the geo club students (El Presidente) who actually owns it (well, her family does).

After we bounced ourselves silly and legless we retreated to dinner, which included the traditional pirate feast of "fish loaf" (a fish baked into a loaf - kalakukko - traditional recipe). Captain Bear Beard actually undertook this task (and built the elephant pinata) - and went to the extent of shaping the loaf like a fish too. It was excellent. No fish heads were included on the inside. Nor was there bacon, as one of our young pirates does not eat meat. Yarrr.

Logically there were brachiosaur and elephant cookies to be decorated & eaten (thanks Lulu for the brachiosaur cookie/pancake cutter - still comes in handy). Along with loads of other treats.

The evening culminated with games (Apples to Apples & Cranium), and a white elephant gift exchange and white elephant pirate pinata (obviously). It was necessary to use the "double eye patch" blind fold method and eventually finish it off with swords. All in all it would have been tricky to squeeze anything else in, this was one of the best multi-themed adventure-parties I have ever done. Much laughter was involved.