Indian Rock Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Located at a geologic monolith that is visible at the north end of the Smoke Creek Desert
Some 30,000 years ago this area was under the waters of Lake Lahontan, an inland sea that covered most of Nevada. The Smoke Creek Playa and the Black Rock Desert Playa were some of the last areas to dry up leaving a flat lake bottom…playa. This region north into Oregon is a high desert plateau formed by many years of lava flows. Buffalo Hills, the high black rim rocks to the west, clearly show the areas volcanic origins. Indian Rock monolith was formed by lava pushing up through a vent or crack in the surrounding rock and cooling. Later the softer rock was washed, eroded, and weathered away by water and later wind. While under the waters of Lake Lahontan hot mineral laden water moved up through this feature and formed “tufa” around the rock monolith. Tufa is formed by the precipitation of carbonate minerals from geothermally heated water creating the carbonate deposits. Over time and being subject to weather the built up carbonate has been falling off exposing the under laying rock. Just south of this monolith is Indian Rock Springs one of the many springs and seeps that dot the east side of the Buffalo Hills in what you would think is a waterless dry desert. While at Indian Rock watch out to the east along the base of the Fox Range for Union Pacific trains that move over the tracks along the east side of the Smoke Creek playa.
Indian Rock monolith is .4 of a mile off the main road and is accessible by a high clearance vehicle.
The web address is for Nevada History by John Evanoff who has much information and history about many locations in Nevada, including the Smoke Creek Desert.
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