The Colorado River Aqueduct

 I was planning a drive out to the middle of nowhere and noticed I would be passing over the Colorado River Aqueduct. I marked the spot on Google Maps and wondered why I had never noticed it before? After all, I've driven this route many times, and how do you miss an aqueduct?? I figured it might be a good photo opp and headed off to find it.

The folks that built the aqueduct made large berms which totally obscure your ability to see the aqueduct from the highway. People zoom by all day long and never have a clue that they have just driven over the aqueduct!

 

Seeing clear, aqua-colored water flowing through the middle of the desert is a strange experience. I was surprised at how quickly the water was flowing. You can almost hear the showers flowing, toilets flushing, and sprinklers sputtering at homes and businesses throughout Southern California. Peak flow is 1 billion gallons of water a day, and every drop of it gets used up. That amount of water boggles the mind and makes me wonder how sustainable this is, especially as our population continues to grow.

 

It's strangely beautiful, and yet my mind keeps telling me this water doesn't belong here.
 

The aqueduct is 242 miles long and was completed in 1942. As you may have guessed from the name, the aqueduct takes water from the Colorado River and delivers it to urban centers in S CA. It would have been completed about the same time as General Patton's troups were training in this area (Camp Iron Mountain... which I'll post about next week). Those are the Iron Mountains you see in the background. It employed 30,000 people during 8 years of construction throughout the great depression, and was the largest public works project in S CA during that time. The aqueduct is recognized as one of "Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders".

Undated map. My photos and video were taken just below where it says "Granite Mts.".

 
As I left the aqueduct in my rear view mirror, I was heading to yet another location based on something seen on Google Maps. It's a large hill with lines all over it. The lines appear to be about the size of a narrow road. My guess is that they were made by a dozer or earth mover of some kind. It's pretty obvious that they were likely made by humans (vs. nature), but I wanted to check it out.

Mystery Hill, on right, with tag and question marks.

 

A screen capture image from Google Earth shows a closer view of the mysterious lines all over the hill. I added the red line (0.4 miles) for size perspective.
 

Mystery Hill, center. Iron Mountains in the background.

 

 

As I got up close to the mystery lines, my theory that they were created by dozers started to blow away in the dust. I didn't see any evidence of earth moving equipment use. On the steeper parts of the hill, you might expect to see side cuts that would reduce road steepness. Some areas looked steep enough that a dozer would roll over and topple down the hill. It's as if the light and dark colored rocks just magically separated from each other to create this banding. It's also possible this is a geoglyph, made by Native Americans, but that's unlikely. Geoglyph sites are generally well document and protected. One final theory might be tanks. This area is adjacent to Camp Iron Mountain WW2 Training Grounds, and perhaps this hill was used for tank maneuvers? This is one of those desert mysteries that is likely to go unsolved!

 

On my drive back to pavement, I noticed a rusted out old car down in a wash, full of bullet holes.

I wonder what stories it could tell?? I'm guessing this is an old Karmann Ghia? Looks like it's been here a while! Time to continue to my final destination for the day. I need to get set up for an overnight photoshoot of the Milky Way. Check back next week to see if I get lucky!!
 

Thanks for stopping by!!

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