(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Roadtrip:MojaveDesert [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-11-07 Joshua Trees Well, this will be the shortest road trip, but still interesting I hope. I was running a massive automation project in LA, working 80 hour weeks for weeks at a time and very much in need of shinrinyuko, or at least nature. So, when I got a 3 day weekend off, since there wasn't really time to fly across the country and back, I decided to see this desert. First, I had to sleep 16 hours so the first day was shot, I visited the 1970s Foxtrot class ex Soviet attack submarine museum on the water front. Its a fantastic mix of sophistication and extreme crudity. Its a couple hundred miles by road, through mountain passes with some of our first commercial wind turbines. You also cross the San Andreas fault close to the national park. I stopped and got out for this, of course. Jumping on it, cursing the gods and pissing all failed to trigger The Big One, thus disproving plate tectonics. Once and for all. Jebus is the only True geological theory. The most famous plant in this desert is the joshua, a kind of tree yucca. There are many other yuccas, including one with edible fruit. Stalks are edible too, the root can be used as soap and the leaves have useful fiber, used by original Americans for sandals and baskets. Prior to looking it up for this article, I thought the yuca (1c) I’ve enjoyed all over Latin America was from these plants too. Its not, its from cassava like tapioca! Less spectacular is cryptobiotic soil. “Cryptobiotic soil crusts are so named because 1) they form crusts on soil and 2) they are primarily made up of cyanobacteria, green algae, fungi, lichens, and mosses that can survive long periods of drought by shutting down their metabolisms, a habit known as "cryptobiosis." Kcet.org Where it occurs it is often the only thing that will grow, including several inches inside rocks. It stabilizes the soil and is fragile. It shouldn't be walked on as it is very slow growing but biologically fascinating. It can grow into little mounds up to 6”, but more usually a mere crust, though many of the organisms grow deep into the ground and even inside translucent, porous rocks. The Mojave desert merges into the North Sonoran, and this overlap, featuring occotillo and other Sonoran plants and animals is sometimes called the Colorado desert. The animals can be seen on a daily bucket a better wildlife photographer than I has posted. The geology of the part I was in was mainly elephantine pink granite formations with an alien look. It flattens into sand and gravel plain at the points I visited where it transitions to the Sonoran. The latter is rich in minerals and the Mojave had several primitive goldmines. You can still see stone circles where ore was crushed by one mule roller mills before being doused with metallic mercury to extract the gold. The soil is probably full of the stuff…din't affect me none, haha-may I interest you in some Haberdashery? Under the barely updated mining act of 1872, you can still do this to some extent on public lands, extract the sweet sweet moolah and walk off. You do not want to wander off the NP here unto private land, its full of murderous, suncrazed, trailer dwelling methrats with more guns than brain cells. It is a really wild alien planet kind of place and ties with the Karoo for my second favorite desert after the Sonoran. I've given up on polls, they just vanish on posting and the help desk doesn't. So tell me what you want next, arctic Kanadia, or the sw ¼ of Australia? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2022/11/7/2122243/-Roadtrip-MojaveDesert Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/