US 395 in Eastern California

US 395 has an extremely diverse landscape with respect to the geological aspects. Starting in the South there are ragged mounds of black charred lava chunks strewn all over the landscape. It really looks like the origins of the earth so many millions of eons ago. Maybe this is the result of the big bang / collision that started our planet. This goes on for miles with little other points of interest – no vegetation, no animals seen, not even snakes. Then the grounds begin to look like raw edges of the earth pushed up against each other like a long long fault line. The ridges crisscross the terrain between the Sierra and Inyo mountain ranges.

Eventually, we get to the glacial moraines of smooth rounded rocks as we approach central California. These rounded “rocks” are as large as houses or as small as bricks. The variations are really interesting to look at and speculate about. Still it’s high dessert with little useful vegetation. Locals have explained all of the political signs about water rights - that is an important issue for each election. Southern California has acquired much of the natural water flows from this central section of Eastern California. What use to be lush farm/ranch land is now VERY VERY dry. There is still some water in the valley’s river but Southern California still takes its share.

Then almost on some magical line cutting across California West to East, we drive into rich green fields with cattle munching here and there. And, like magic we are driving through farms/ranches up to we cross into Nevada and eventually to Reno. Every time we take this route we see more and more geological diversity and wonder about how it all came to be here so close to our Western coast. US 395 isn’t as beautiful as US 191 from Farmington, NM to Moab, UT or US 101 along the Northern Coast of California or Oregon but it’s up there in the top 3.

OK, here's some technical terms for the areas we passed through on US 395 (Boots did some research). There are cinder and black basaltic cones. There are lava fields near Taboose Creek. Most of that area comes from the Mesozoic period and include batholiths and igneous type rocks.

FYI, USA Weekend magazine put US 395 as 1 of the 5 Best Road Trips, check it (http://www.usaweekend.com/article/20130517/LIVING01/305170007/USA-s-5-best-road-trips) out! It covers the Northern section that we haven't traversed yet.