Prospecting for Mojave Gold... FISH!

wayoflife

wayoflife

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Last weekend, we got lucky and were able to get out to Barstow a bit earlier than we had expected and, decided to use the extra time to do a little prospecting out in the Mojave Desert. While our quest was to find gold, it would be more of the aquatic variety than precious metal that we would be looking for.

A few years back, I caught wind of an area out in the middle of the Mojave Desert where there was a small pool that held water all year long, even through the scorching triple digit heat of summer and held within it, a beautiful school of goldfish. Over the years, I would pour through my old maps and scour them for a possible location of where these elusive fish might be. During my search, I found goldfish to exist near Darwin and even out by Oatman, Arizona but, not anywhere in the Mojave. That is, not until a few weeks ago anyway. Reading through a blog, I gleaned a bit more information and even found a couple of photos and based on them, I was able to zero in on a highly probably location. Here are some photos from our quest to find Mojave Gold... FISH! I hope you enjoy.

Meeting up with a few friends that decided to come out to Barstow as well and stay the night for our big 2014 Kick-Off Run...
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Making a stop over at the Desert Discovery Center in Barstow to check out the Old Woman Meteorite - the second largest meteorite ever found in the United States...
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Planning future trips to find us some of these!
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Making a quick stop to soften up the ride...
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Time to prospect for some goldfish...
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After spreading out and searching far and near for a while, we were all but ready to give up when Stephanie yelled out a EUREKA!!
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Tessa says they look tasty...
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Everyone taking some time to grab a few shots before heading off...
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On our way back to pavement, we stopped to take a poser shot of our gas guzzling Jeeps next to a new solar power plant...
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With a bit of daylight still left in the sky, we decided to take another short run...
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Oops! In all my years of wheeling, I have never run a tougher tire than a Toyo MT. Of all the tires I have ever run, they are the only ones that I have NEVER seen it suffer from sidewall damage. Well, if anyone can do it, it'll be Trail Bud - don't know how he managed to do it but...
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Time for a quick temporary fix...
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Our next destination for the day - Impassible Pass. Over 100 years ago, wagons traversed this very spot and you can still make out the ruts they left behind...
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There used to be a nice plaque here telling about early emigrants traveling along the old Spanish Trail but, vandals have since taken it away...
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Our final destination for the day was an ancient ash flow from a volcano that erupted a long long time ago...
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I hope you enjoyed our short trip out to the Mojave Desert and the gold mine of fish we found. :cool:
 
I thought I knew how to have fun . You guys take the cake! Barstow is not to close to Carson City, you just went for the weekend?
 
Cool write up. Me and a friend happened upon a similar area in central Nevada a couple of years ago. Stopped at a little rectangular pond in the middle of nowhere and noticed the goldfish swimming around. Pretty cool when you find stuff like that.

Jack
 
That is awesome! Why am I not surprised that Trail Bud got the flat?!? :cheesy:

By the way, there are some pretty big goldfish swimming around Lake Tahoe now too.
 
dahreno said:
I thought I knew how to have fun . You guys take the cake! Barstow is not to close to Carson City, you just went for the weekend?
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Had to be back in SoCal that weekend and decided to do a couple of runs while we were there.

locrwln said:
Cool write up. Me and a friend happened upon a similar area in central Nevada a couple of years ago. Stopped at a little rectangular pond in the middle of nowhere and noticed the goldfish swimming around. Pretty cool when you find stuff like that.

Jack
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No kidding?? You would mind divulging the location of where you found them? If so, could you please PM it to me :yup:

Sharkey said:
That is awesome! Why am I not surprised that Trail Bud got the flat?!? :cheesy:

By the way, there are some pretty big goldfish swimming around Lake Tahoe now too.
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I heard about them over the summer. I hear they are HUGE too :crazyeyes:
 
Sharkey said:
I'm pretty sure they are in the keys, and they are more like koi than regular sized goldfish.
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When we were in Tahoe over the summer, the local news did a piece on them. The gal in the boat snagged one with a net and yeah, it was koi size for sure. But, it was very orange gold just like a gold fish. Apparently, they're a real concern.
 
thats awesome! i had no idea that there could be goldfish in the middle of the desert like that
 
They (the fish) have been there for the 30+ years that I have been going out there. There are 6 natural springs with in 10 or so miles of each other from that tank to Opal Mountain. At least 4 of the 6 are wet year round. Where the Solar Plant is now used to be nothing but alfalfa fields. The West end for the dry lake had a marsh and a year round waterfowl population. Still know a couple of the families that are hanging on out there.
 
locrwln said:
Cool write up. Me and a friend happened upon a similar area in central Nevada a couple of years ago. Stopped at a little rectangular pond in the middle of nowhere and noticed the goldfish swimming around. Pretty cool when you find stuff like that.

Jack
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Was that between Rachel and Tonopah in the Reveille Valley?

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