What the flip was Lauren doing at the (Kelso) dunes!?

Not four wheelin' that's for sure. All off road activity was prohibited at the dunes, I guess they are protecting the uh... lizards. In any case, from Mitchell's Caverns we went back west on the 40 to Kelbaker road, the same road that brought us out of the route 66/crater area. A bit round-a-bout, but there aren't many through roads in the Mojave.

The dunes were big. Estimates are that the sand is 700 feed deep! That's a lot to sink into! From the parking lot, we hiked maybe a 1/2 mile in the sand, up and down sort-of dunes before deciding to turn around. We wanted to see the cinder cone field in the north Mojave, and honestly, it was just too much sand.

Kelso Dunes are still neat, even if you don't feel like hiking up hills in sand for a few miles. The stretch of dunes is 35 miles long. Winds from the Granite Mountains [to the south west] feed the dunes both in sand (from alluvial fans) and winds. Well, what makes the sand stay there? Wind currents hitting against the Providence Mountains to the east move the sand up and back west, keeping the dunes basically where they are. That doesn't mean they don't "move" though. Wind is constantly changing and reshaping the dunes.

Besides being quite long, Kelso Dunes are also a very special kind of dune because they boom. Only 30 dunes around the world are known to do this. During a strong wind, the moving sand rubbing up against the stationary sand on the lee side of the dune (the flat side) makes a low-pitched boom, described as the sound of a low flying aircraft. We were not fortunate enough to hear the sand boom, then again, we were fortunate enough not to be caught in the sand storm needed for the dunes to boom.




Dad taking pictures of the Providence Mountains (Mitchell Caverns are in these mountains)


Sand, and more sand. Lots of sand, and lots of critter marks in the sand


More sand