Spring Mountain Ranch

Park Origin and History:

At the base of the magnificent Wilson Cliffs lies Spring Mountain Ranch. This 520-acre oasis was developed into a combination working ranch and luxurious retreat by a string of owners who have given the area a long and colorful history.

Early Ranch History

In the mid-1830's, a campsite was established along the wash that runs through the ranch. The spring-fed creek and grassy meadows formed a welcome oasis for travelers using this alternate route of the Spanish Trail through Cottonwood Valley. The use of the site by pack and wagon trains continued until their replacement by the railroad in 1905. This remote trail was also used extensively by outlaws involved in Indian slave trading, horse stealing and raids upon passing caravans. In 1840, a group of American mountain men and Ute Indians conducted a famous raid on the Mexican Ranchos in California. Mountain Man Bill Williams, a member of the raiding party, brought his band of horses through Red Rock Canyon where he rested the horses from the hard trip across the desert. Apparently he revisited the area several times and for many years afterwards the site of Spring Mountain Ranch was known as the "Old Bill Williams Ranch."

Location and Climate:

Spring Mountain Ranch State Park is located 15 miles west of Las Vegas, via Charleston Blvd., in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

At 3,800 feet, the ranch is usually 10-15 degrees cooler than the Las Vegas Valley. Temperatures range from below freezing to above 100 degrees, and winds gusting down Sandstone Canyon are not uncommon. The summer season usuallly brings a few thunderstorms and flash floods. Winters are cold, with occasional snow showers.

History of the Black Hills

The Black Hills are traditional hunting grounds for American Indians. The Lakota never welcomed "the whiteman" to these hunting grounds. The first European explorers to see the Black Hills were probably Francis and Louis-Joseph Verendrye. These French explorers were traveling through South Dakota near the Missouri River. The exact route they were using is unknown, but according to Louis-Joseph's journal, on New Year's Day in 1743 they were on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River and were "...in sight of mountains". It was reported that their American Indian guides would not take them any closer to the mountains because hostile bands of Indians were known to live there.

Lewis and Clark heard tales about the Hills from other traders and trappers, but it wasn't until 1823 that Jedediah Smith and a group of about 15 traders actually traveled through them. While fur trade was at its peak, the Black Hills were explored to some extent by adventuresome trappers, but because the hills were considered sacred by the Lakota, most trappers avoided the area. Several reports of the discovery of gold in the "Black Hills" were heard during this time. However, exactly where the gold was discovered was often confusing because the Laramie Range in Wyoming was also occasionally called the "Black Hills".

As immigration across the continent increased there was a marked decline in American Indian-white relations. The Army established outposts nearby, but they seldom entered the Hills Black thinking that to do so would surely cause trouble. Trouble, however, was already brewing. Bands of Lakota reportedly raided settlements and then retreated to the cover of the Hills. Because of this, Lt. G.K. Warren was assigned the task of making a thorough reconnaissance of the plains of South Dakota, including the area known as the Black Hills. The study of the area was supplemented by another reconnaissance in 1859-60 by Capt. W.F. Reynolds and Dr. F.V. Hayden.

Himalayan Forest Research Institute

Himalayan Forest Research Institute, Shimla is one of the premier forestry research Institution under the umbrella of Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (an autonomous body under Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India). This regional Institute addresses specific research issues of Western Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Mandate of the Institute is to cater the forestry research, needs pertaining to eco-restoration of cold deserts & mined areas and regeneration of coniferous & broad-leaved forests, besides activities on management practices in temperate forests, and in alpine areas too. Popularization of agro-forestry and other related extension activities has been included in its mandate. The Institute also has the national mandate of Eco-restoration of cold deserts and study of regeneration problems of conifer species and has been declared as Centre of Advance Studies for Cold Desert Afforestation and Alpine Pasture Management.

Haleakala Crater

Haleakala National Park

This special place vibrates with stories of ancient and modern Hawaiian culture and protects the bond between the land and its people. The park also cares for endangered species some of which exist nowhere else. Come visit this special place - renew your spirit of adventure amid stark volcanic landscapes, sub-tropical rain forest and the unforgettable experience of hiking the backcountry.

Summit Area

No place you have ever been can prepare you for the experiences and feelings you will have on the summit of Haleakala volcano. The landscape - deeply sculpted, richly colored, and intensely evocative will be unlike any landcape you have known. Visually expansive, the summit area continually eludes any attempt to understand its scale or dimensions.

Weather

Ever-changing and unpredictable
In any given day the temperatures in the park can range from a high of 80°F (27°C) in Kipahulu to a low of 30°F (-1°C) at the summit. In either area clouds and rain can quickly replace warm sunshine.


Summit Area - Mountain and Wilderness Area - Mountain

Weather in the high-elevation areas of the park is highly unpredictable and changes often. Cool temperatures, intense solar radiation, and rapidly moving clouds are characteristic. On average, the temperature drops about 3°F for every 1,000 foot rise in elevation (or approximately 5°C for every 1,000 meter elevation rise), making the 10,023 foot (3055m) summit of Haleakala about 30°F (or 17°C) cooler than the coast. Year-round summit temperatures range between below freezing to highs of 50°-65°F (10-18°C). The outside temperatures can feel much colder because of wind chill and damp, overcast conditions.

You may spend a few hours hiking in the cinder desert landscape, or a few minutes looking for native birds in the shrubland - whatever you choose to do, you will do it surrounded by native Hawaiian plants and animals. The mountain summit is one of the only easily-accessible areas of Hawaii where our rare and endemic species survive and thrive.

Already impressive in the light of day, the summit takes on a new dimension at night when the darkness reveals the brilliant night sky.

Mount St. Helens

Inside the crater of Mount St. Helens, a lava dome was built between October 1980 and 1986 by seventeen eruptions of viscous dacite lava. Each eruption added between 1 and 22 million m3 of new lava to the dome; most of the growth occurred when magma extruded onto the surface of the dome to form lava flows as thick as 40 m and as large as 400 m in diameter. The repeated rise of magma into the dome before the eruptions produced an exceptional pattern of ground tilt on the crater floor that began 2 to 4 weeks before magma extruded onto the dome. This repeated pattern of ground tilt was one of the most reliable measurements of deformation that we used to accurately predict when the Mount St. Helens lava dome would erupt.

At 8,365 feet, the rim of Mount St. Helens provides outstanding views of the crater, lava dome, blast area, and surrounding volcanic peaks. The most popular route to the summit is Monitor Ridge, starting at Climber's Bivouac. Most climbers complete the round trip in 7 to 12 hours. The route begins on the Ptarmigan Trail #216A which gently climbs for about 2 miles to timberline. Above timberline, the route travels over steep, blocky lava flows on the lower slopes and loose, sandy volcanic ash on the upper slopes. In early summer, snow is commonly encounted, especially in gully bottoms.

Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus (3,794 meters), the world's southernmost historically active volcano, overlooks the McMurdo research station on Ross Island. Erebus is the largest of three major volcanoes forming the crudely triangular Ross Island. The summit has been modified by several generations of caldera formation. A summit plateau at about 3,200 meters altitude marks the rim of the youngest caldera, within which the modern cone was constructed. An elliptical 500 x 600 meter wide, 110-meter-deep crater truncates the summit and contains an active lava lake within a 250-meter-wide, 100-meter-deep inner crater. The glacier-covered volcano was erupting when first sighted by Captain James Ross in 1841. Continuous lava-lake activity has been documented since 1972, punctuated by occasional strombolian explosions that eject bombs onto the crater rim.

Mount Erebus is an intraplate volcano, situated at the southern end of the Terror Rift within the Victoria Land basin, a major sedimentary basin with over 12 kilometers of fill and underlain by 21-kilometer-thick crust. The basin is bounded to the west by the Transantarctic Mountains, with 40-kilometer-thick curst (Cooper and Davey, 1985; Fitzgerald and others, 1986).

An older cone of Mount Erebus (Fang Volcano), composed largely of benmoreite, was partly destroyed by an unknown event, leaving a caldera of about 6-kilometers diameter. The modern cone of Mount Erebus, composed largely of anorthoclase phonolite (Kyle, 1977), has largely filled the older caldera, leaving only Fang Ridge (north of Mount Erebus) as a relic of the older cone. A roughly 5-kilometer-diameter caldera developed at the top of the modern cone, and it too has been largely filled (Berninghausen and Neumann van Padang, 1960; P. Kyle, written commun., 1987).

Most historical activity has been confined to the younger caldera. A reported exception was increased fumarolic activity in April-September 1908 and on 17 June 1908, near Abbot Peak, 10 kilometers north-northeast of the summit of Mount Erebus (cited in Berninghausen and Neumann van Padang, 1960). A seismic swarm in roughly the same area was recorded in October 1962 (Ueki and others, 1984; Kaminuma and others, 1985).

A lava lake discovered in 1972 grew slowly until 1976, when it was circular, about 60 meters in diameter. It remained relatively constant until September 1984. Larger-than-usual Strombolian explosions occurred in September to December 1984. Earthquakes were felt, and glow and increased steaming were observed from McMurdo Sound (37 kilometers southwest of the volcano) (P. Kyle and others, in Smithsonian Institution, 1984). The summit crater lava lake was buried by ejecta between 13 September 1984 and October 1984. When the lake was exhumed in December 1985 it was 15 meters in diameter, and it grew to 20 meters in diameter by December 1986 (P. Kyle, written commun., 1987).