Lut Desert Day 2
Today we drove around to the north end of the yardang field, where two interesting things were happening - the road cut through some yardangs, and the shapes of them became low, small and egg-shaped. We realized the shape change was because this is where the Salt River entered the yardang field from the north, and it has some role in changing their shape. It also makes the corridors much flatter and less sandy, and filled with clays and evaporites. We saw lots of salt polygons, gypsum roses and muddy coatings, and our hike down among the pathway of the Salt River was really tricky on the irregular terrain. Water was pretty near the surface, as we found out when we drove a little ways off and got stuck! But no field trip is complete without getting stuck or getting a flat - and we did both today. This gave us the chance to watch a beautiful sunset and take a nap. We actually got to spend the night in the desert here, and it was so spectacular! While we were trying to get long exposure pictures of the stars, we played a little with our headlamps before snoozing away, all curled up together under the desert skies.
Our day 2 route:
Hike in the small salt flat:
Hike along the Salt River:
.kHz file for our Salt River hike
VIDEOS:
Driving past the egg yardangs and Salt River.
Getting unstuck - good thing for the winch.
Salt River walking.
All pictures are below:
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