To Shoshone, California in The Morning

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Dublin Gulch near Shoshone. Rooms carved out of hard clay. Some fireplaces and stoves. #shoshonecalifornia #desert#mojave#desertliving#inyocounty#deathvalley

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Going inside a two room affair. This one had a stove and a stove pipe. The still photo shows how textured material like an old door gets a new life in monochrome. #shoshoneca#roadtrip#desertliving#mojave#deathvalley#getoutdoors #explore#

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The old Shoshone cemetery. Nothing like being buried in a clay pit. #cemetery #cemeteryphotography #cemeterywandering #shoshone#roadtrip#inyocounty #deathvalley

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Famous road cut two miles west of Shoshone on HWY 178. Several layers of tuff, which is lithified ash and fragments called clasts which are thrown out of a vent. Notable here is the dark layer. This is vitrophyre, which is crystal or phenocryst laden obsidian. Tiny pieces look like glassy black sand, larger pieces can be solid or break apart easily. The safer collecting spot for these volcanics is on the other side of the road, since this road cut was cut and fill. Plenty of material on the downslope across the road.

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Vitrophyre from that road cut along with somewhat lithified tuff from the site. Also at the site is this orange, strongly welded tuff laced with vitrophyre. I did not self collect that piece, bought it from RC last year, but there is plenty at the road cut if you want to do the pick work and dress the stone. #rocks#geology#geologistonboard#volcanics#roadtrip#rockhound#geologyrocks#inyocounty

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Trying to orient people to Shoshone. Tecopa and the China Date Farm are only fifteen miles or so from Shoshone. #geology#roadtrip#rocks#deathvalley#explore#

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Okay, who’s the rockhound dumping in the desert? Pulled off the road a bit about eight miles from Shoshone. I promised myself no rockhounding today but look what I found! This isn’t construction debris, some of the sandstone pieces have been slabbed. Nice 1/4 inch thickness. Collected half a bag of miscellaneous. A few agate pieces light up soft lime green but nothing special. My metal detector doesn’t trip on anything but one of my Geiger counters won’t quiet down on a sandstone piece with a purple deposit. Hmm. Another mystery. I will return. Oh, the last photo shows the tricky entry point to the highway. Don’t get high centered. #roadtrip#rockhound#rockhounding#shoshone#restingspringswilderness#inyocounty#minerals#radioactivity

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Resting Springs Wilderness Area. I’m outside the boundary, no vehicle traffic allowed in the WA. #wilderness#roadtrip#shoshone#limestone#rocks #geology #minerals

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