On a hazy winter day, unique cathedral-like shapes float above a coppery
layer of atmospheric dust with no apparent connection to the desert floor — part
mirage, part reality.
Captain Kirk was suspicious of the appearance of ‘God’ here. Mark
Wahlberg crashed his space ship here on the planet of talking apes. And Jack
Robinson flew by a pitted monolith in search of his daughter Penny.
More than 500 tufa columns erupt from the Searles Dry Lake basin giving the
area its otherworldly appearance, making it the perfect location for science
fiction movies.
Scenes from “Star Trek, The Final Frontier,” the remake of “Planet
of the Apes” and “Lost in Space” are only a few of the movies,
TV shows and commercials filmed at this remote site in the Mojave Desert called
Trona Pinnacles.
The pinnacles are located eight miles south of Trona, 20 miles from Ridgecrest
in Kern County. Visitors have a wide variety of activities available at this
unique landmark. Hiking, picnicking, photography and geologic sightseeing are
all encouraged by the Bureau of Land Management which oversees the area. Only
primitive camping is allowed, as there are no developed sites.
Teenager Mike Smith and his friends decided on a balmy winter day to “follow
a dirt road out of Ridgecrest — and we ended up here.” Here turned
out to be the top of one of the towers.
Scientists have determined hot springs rich in calcium bubbled up under Pleistocene
era Searles Lake; mixed with lake salts and alkalines creating calcium carbonate
which bonded with algae and formed the tufa pinnacles. Over thousands of years,
the lake dried and the columns grew up to 140 feet tall, covering 15 square miles.
Read more about Trona Pinnacles:
According to online encyclopedia Wikipedia, there are three distinct sets of
formations, categorized by age and elevation. The groups are dubbed the northern,
middle, and southern groups which formed during three ice ages. There are four
tufa forms: Towers — taller than they are wide, 30 to 40 feet tall. Tombstones — stubby
and squat, 20 to 30 feet. Ridges — massive toothy tufa ruins. (Trona has
three ridges — one ridge is 800 feet long and 500 feet wide and 140 feet
tall.)
Designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1968, the Pinnacles are located
within 3,800 acres of Federal property managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
They are inside a BLM Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) designed
to protect and preserve unique resources.
