(Early May, 2019) We kicked off the start of our 2019 travel season with a short stay at the bizarre Trona Pinnacles, a National Natural Landmark in the dry Searles Lake Basin of Southern California. This unearthly landscape of towering calcium carbonate spires (tufas) formed under a deep lake at the end of recent ice ages, between 10,000 to 100,000 years ago, as mineral-rich hot springs percolated up and interacted with cold lake water and algal colonies.

The spires have been filmed in many TV shows and movies, including Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and Planet of the Apes.

I had first visited this dramatic area in the early 2000’s on a photo road-trip and was looking forward to spending more time exploring and photographing around the spires.

Our drive from Silent Valley Club to the Pinnacles went well – our route took us over well repaired paved roads right up to the turnoff to the Pinnacles.

The last five miles to the BLM Trona Pinnacles site was via graded dirt road – fairly well graded, but wash-boarded and rough in places. Sections of ruts and deep dried out mud-holes attest to how poor the road conditions can become during the winter months or after heavy rains.

Given the remoteness of the site and to minimize amount of driving on rough dirt roads, we topped off gas at Adelanto. We also enjoyed lunch at Astro Burger, a favorite stop along Highway 395 at Kramer Junction.

Just as we pulled into the large parking/dry-camp area at the first concentration of pinnacles, one of the trailer tire sensors sounded an alarm – a tire was going flat. Turns out that the patch failed on the tire we had previously had an issue with at Silent Valley. We changed out the tire and determined to replace it at the next stop up the road – Lone Pine.

We spent three-nights dry camping at this site and exploring around the Pinnacles. The BLM allows dry-camping and dispersed primitive camping around the area. There are no facilities at the site, other than a single vault toilet (badly in need of pumping out and more frequent cleanings). Our solar panels worked well and we had plenty of fresh water in the tank.

Weather was nice during our stay, mid to upper-80’s during the day and mostly calm or light winds. We were pleasantly surprised, as this area starts getting hot in May and often has high winds.

During our mid-week stay we mostly had the parking/camping area to ourselves. During the day, a light but steady stream of visitors stopped by the Pinnacles, including a group of dune buggy OHVs. A few car campers would setup towards evening and break camp the next morning. Wandering around the Pinnacles, we saw several people camping at primitive sites tucked in around the spires. (I understand that the weekend, after we had left, was much busier – more on this, later.)

Getting Buzzed at the Trona Pinnacles

While at the Pinnacles, military jets on maneuver from nearby China Lake base often flew through the valley, at times quite low – threading between the rows of spires.

At one point I was loading the pups into our truck when I saw a single jet dip in low over the pit toilet and head directly towards our rig – flying much lower than the tallest spires. We were being buzzed!

The jet flew directly over our rig and then flared off and climbed rapidly. The approach was relatively quiet until it passed over our rig – then the back-blast of noise was intense! Impressive – like having our own private air show. I wish we had our phones within reach – this would have made a great video! (The pups were less than impressed – terrified, actually.)

Photos

Here are a few snapshots from around the Pinnacles:

Night Photos

Here are a few night photos from the Pinnacles. While out at night I saw a few other night photographers at work. I met up with and worked alongside one photographer for a night – a productive session and pleasant company. (Jason P. – Nice to meet you & keep in touch!)

On another note, with the rise in popularity of night photography and increasing capability of digital cameras for night work, it seems that Trona Pinnacles has really been ‘discovered’ and heavily (over-?) photographed.

Although I only saw a handful of other photographers the nights we were there, the next few nights were new moon weekend and the Pinnacles was (by accounts) a real zoo – just crawling with night photographers.

I spoke with a photographer at our next stop (Lone Pine) who had led a photography group at Trona for new moon. By his estimate there were 50 or 60 night photographers working the spires and getting in each other’s way. (I had a similar experience the same nights while photographing in the Alabama Hills.) Unbelievable. It’s really getting crowded out there! (Again, Richard S. – Nice to meet you & keep in touch!)

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Trona Pinnacles and wouldn’t mind returning. Given how heavily photographed this area has become, though, I would probably choose to go elsewhere.

That’s all for now. Safe travels and enjoy the journey.