Nevada High Points #122 — Kinsley Mountains

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The sky lit up as I opened the tailgate. I picked Antelope Valley, below the Kinsley and Goshute Mountains, as a good place to catch some Great Basin aurora. My eyes had yet to adjust to the fading of the blue hour, but I could easily make out white spires streaking skyward to my north; I had only just parked. I would forego setting camp and, preferably, set up my cameras. I took a few shots for settings, seeing the green and red hues of curtained aurora below the upright spires. On a second camera, my Canon R7, I started collecting images for a timelapse. I lacked time to consider any compositional elements, but the skyline of the Goshutes and the light-glow of distant Wendover might make decent foreground interest. It all looked rather good — for Nevada aurora, and I looked forward to a beautiful night. A coyote sang its approval.

And then, nothing happened. I had paused to make dinner, setting water to boil on my stove, but a glance at the sky showed only stars above the false glow of the border-town casinos. I would wait — a quiet desert night is a good place to be patient.

I am on my way to meet my good friends and colleagues — Brian and Daniel — at the University of Utah, for a few days gouging around the southern Bonneville Basin. We are looking to improve the temporal resolution of landform deposition to investigate the natural taphonomy of radiocarbon dates — before archaeological dates can be used as a proxy for human population density in the Bonneville Basin of western Utah, we must understand how and where dates are preserved. If natural processes destroy or obscure otherwise dateable cultural features, we must calibrate our population proxies accordingly. There is a lot to it, but I let Brian and Daniel think about the proxies, while I try to understand the landforms. But in the dark of the night in Antelope Valley, prior to dropping into the Bonneville basin, I wait for northern lights and think about a morning walk into the Kinsley Mountains.

I missed out on a good night’s sleep. The aurora never returned, even as I waited and watched and then, waking every hour at the nudging of a vibrating alarm, monitored the sky throughout the night. Only stars. My cameras were ready but ignored. I soon give in to the blue hour. Fresh-ground coffee beans turn into a rejuvenating brew, so I can set my pack and break camp to find a canyon below the high point.

Although not known for its aurora possibilities, the Kinsley – Goshute mountain chain is the place for raptor migrations, so I had other attractions to consider. I could have done more research, but I thought maybe the spring movements might be in play. Many birds, especially hawks, eagles, and their kin, avoid open expanses of water, or former water in the case of the Bonneville playa and salt flats, preferring to hug the mountains along the margins. This focuses the migratory path into narrow bands, and Kinsley Mountains could be a rest stop along one such path. I will take the 100-500mm lens on my cropped R7 hoping for migratory birds.

Having chosen a canyon southeast of the high point, I drive along the alluvial bajada of the eastern mountain front, past ‘reclaimed’ mining waste hoping to look like hills. I notice a pronghorn antelope standing lonely on the playa-like plain of the basin fill, and I soon realize that she is not alone. She has a wobbly fawn; only a few hours old, the small thing is barely walking, it stands up, sits down. I am a little too close even though I am on a well-used road. Mom wanders off a little ways, so I move away as I hate to disturb them. My attempts at images are straight into the morning sun, so I leave the mom and her fawn alone.

The roads on the alluvium below the high point look good, so I turn toward the canyon of the Phalan Keegan Mine — the mine is inactive, but it is the reason the roads are here.  I can see steep limestone outcrops near the summit, and the adjacent plutonic granites are noticeably different. I park below the mine and set off, trying for an eastern ridge though I will need to dodge some large cliffs along the way. I am surprised to find, at the get-go, a well-constructed no-host bar nestled under pinyon tree. It is suitably decorated and has heavy chairs, a bar rail, a rock-lined hearth, and various pretty rocks and cached trinkets. An impressive surprise. I complain about ATV-laden hunting and off-roading parties at times, but they rather know how to create some intricate lodgings for their forays in the ‘wild’.

Wandering up canyon, I noticed a variety of songbirds, thankful for the Merlin app and its off-line identification magic. Gray Vireo, Dusky Flycatcher, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Spotted Towee, Woodhouse’s Scru-Jay, Rock Wren, House Wren, Bushtit. I see the Vireo and Dusky Flycatcher (I think), and the Jay is easy and obvious. The others elude me. A small flock of Pinyon Jays (no app necessary!) heads northeast over the ridge and away. Peregrines emerge from a cliff face high above.

The walk is nice, though I am not photographically inspired. Ramps of limestone lead nowhere, but I can work my way along outcrops and across some back slopes to eventually reach a nice, rounded summit. There is barely a breeze, and the late spring temperature is perfect, practically no clouds. The summit is pleasing, like most any summit can be, but this morning stands on its own. I am unhurried in the calm and spend quite a lot of time just enjoying the views from Mount Wheeler in the Snake Range to the Rubies in the west, and the expanse of the West Desert of the Bonneville Basin rolling out to the east

I do, however, need to get going. I drop down the opposite, north side of the eastern ridge but flush a Peregrine pair suddenly. I had seen one of them earlier. They are nested in a near-summit outcrop, and I have walked in on them from above. I do my best to get quickly away, as I hate disturbing them. But disturbed they are, and I am variously screamed at and dived upon until I get some distance. I watch for a while and then continue downhill.

It is an easy descent to some relict fans that are perched below the southern slopes. These ancient alluvial landforms are very old and almost perfectly smooth except where they are cut by deeply incised drainages. They are slowly tilted as the mountains build, and it is fun to see some Quaternary landforms far above the valley fills. Soon, I am back at the truck where I can open the bar where, here at noontime, it is bring your own beer.

Cheers to a nice walk. Even when the photos fail to motivate or impress me, the high points are special, every one of them.

Keep going.

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