Pisgah Crater
5 Days in the Desert travelog #22
Pisgah, CA - Mon, 26 Dec 2022, 5pm
We drove Route 66 east, including stopping for a classic Route 66 picture along the way, to Pisgah Crater. Visiting Pisgah Crater was ironically one of the things we planned this trip around. That's ironic because we've wound up doing various other things the past few days and only got here this afternoon.
It's further ironic because as we approached Pisgah Crater we realized it's a fucking gravel pit. The volcanic cinder cone has been mined for decades for cinder and gravel. The road up the sde of the cone (yes, there's a road all the way up) is marked "private property" and "no trespassing". We met two other explorers chilling at the base of the mountain and asked them where to go. They recommended we simply ignore the hand-painted private property signs as the mine owner has been essentially bankrupt for decades.
Geologically this crater isn't as interesting as Amboy Crater, which we visited two days earlier. Amboy is unspoiled by mining operations. Amboy also shows multiple concentric rings inside the crater from a series of eruptions. OTOH, Pisgah has a variety of lava tubes and caves. We explored around for a bit on the BLM lands and found only a collapsed lava tube plus a few small caves.
Pisgah, CA - Mon, 26 Dec 2022, 5pm
We drove Route 66 east, including stopping for a classic Route 66 picture along the way, to Pisgah Crater. Visiting Pisgah Crater was ironically one of the things we planned this trip around. That's ironic because we've wound up doing various other things the past few days and only got here this afternoon.
It's further ironic because as we approached Pisgah Crater we realized it's a fucking gravel pit. The volcanic cinder cone has been mined for decades for cinder and gravel. The road up the sde of the cone (yes, there's a road all the way up) is marked "private property" and "no trespassing". We met two other explorers chilling at the base of the mountain and asked them where to go. They recommended we simply ignore the hand-painted private property signs as the mine owner has been essentially bankrupt for decades.
Geologically this crater isn't as interesting as Amboy Crater, which we visited two days earlier. Amboy is unspoiled by mining operations. Amboy also shows multiple concentric rings inside the crater from a series of eruptions. OTOH, Pisgah has a variety of lava tubes and caves. We explored around for a bit on the BLM lands and found only a collapsed lava tube plus a few small caves.