Salt Creek (Amargosa River tributary)

Last updated

Salt Creek or Rio Salitroso is a tributary stream or wash of the Amargosa River, in San Bernardino County, California. It was named Rio Salitroso, on January 16, 1830, by Antonio Armijo, whose expedition subsequently followed it up towards the Mojave River, as they established the first route of the Old Spanish Trail.

The mouth of Salt Creek is at its confluence with the Amargosa River at an elevation of 390 feet (120 meters). Its source is at 35°16′37″N116°10′50″W / 35.27694°N 116.18056°W / 35.27694; -116.18056 at an elevation of 890 feet (270 m) in the north slope of the Soda Mountains northwest of Baker, California. From there it flows down into Silurian Valley to Dry Sand Lake at 35°25′31″N116°10′03″W / 35.42528°N 116.16750°W / 35.42528; -116.16750 and then to another named Silurian Lake, flowing northwest, gathering in Kingston Wash from the east, before flowing out of the valley through the Salt Spring Hills to the Amargosa River beyond in Death Valley. [1]

Soda Lake may drain into the Dry Sand Lake in Salt Creek's upper reach through a wash from Silver Lake in extremely rare wet years when both lakes fill and overflow with water from rain or from the Mojave River.

Related Research Articles

Mojave River

The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, with the exception of the headwaters and several bedrock gorges in the lower reaches.

Amargosa River River in Nevada and California, United States

The Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, 185 miles (298 km) long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, into the Mojave Desert, and finally into Death Valley where it disappears into the ground aquifer. Except for a small portion of its route in the Amargosa Canyon in California and a small portion at Beatty, Nevada, the river flows above ground only after a rare rainstorm washes the region. A 26-mile (42 km) stretch of the river between Shoshone and Dumont Dunes is protected as a National Wild and Scenic River. At the south end of Tecopa Valley the Amargosa River Natural Area protects the habitat.

Amargosa Valley, Nevada Unincorporated town in Nevada, United States

Amargosa Valley is an unincorporated town located on U.S. Route 95 in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada.

Amargosa Valley

The Amargosa Valley is the valley through which the Amargosa River flows south, in Nye County, southwestern Nevada and Inyo County in the state of California. The south end is alternately called the "Amargosa River Valley'" or the "Tecopa Valley." Its northernmost point is around Beatty, Nevada and southernmost is Tecopa, California, where the Amargosa River enters into the Amargosa Canyon.

Places of interest in the Death Valley area

Places of interest in the Death Valley area are mostly located within Death Valley National Park in eastern California.

Carpenter Canyon Canyon in Nevada, United States

Carpenter Canyon is a canyon on the western side of the Spring Mountains, partially within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, in Clark County, southern Nevada west of the Las Vegas Valley.

Old Spanish Trail (trade route) United States historic place

The Old Spanish Trail is a historical trade route that connected the northern New Mexico settlements of Santa Fe, New Mexico with those of Los Angeles, California and southern California. Approximately 700 mi (1,100 km) long, the trail ran through areas of high mountains, arid deserts, and deep canyons. It is considered one of the most arduous of all trade routes ever established in the United States. Explored, in part, by Spanish explorers as early as the late 16th century, the trail was extensively used by traders with pack trains from about 1830 until the mid-1850s.

Piute Range

The Piute Range is located in the Mojave Desert, primarily in northeast San Bernardino County, California, United States, with a north portion in Nevada. Most of the range is the eastern border of the Mojave National Preserve, a National Park Service natural area and park.

Lanfair Valley

Lanfair Valley is located in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California near the Nevada state line. It is bounded on the north by the New York Mountains and Castle Mountains, on the east by the Piute Range, and on the south by the Woods Mountains and Vontrigger Hills. Joshua Trees can be found in most of the valley. Elevation is 4,045 feet.

Mojave Road Historical trails and roads

The Mojave Road, also known as Old Government Road, is a historic route and present day dirt road across what is now the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert in the United States. This rough road stretched 147 miles (237 km) from Beale's Crossing, to Fork of the Road location along the north bank of the Mojave River where the old Mojave Road split off from the route of the Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road.

Lake Mojave

Lake Mojave is an ancient former lake fed by the Mojave River that, through the Holocene, occupied the Silver Lake and Soda Lake basins in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California. Its outlet may have ultimately emptied into the Colorado River north of Blythe.

Bitter Spring is a spring within the Fort Irwin National Training Center in San Bernardino County, California. It lies at an elevation of 1355 feet and is located in a valley between the Soda Mountains to the east, the Tiefort Mountains to the northwest, Alvord Mountain to the southwest and Cronese Mountains to the south and southeast.

Silurian Valley is a valley in the Mojave Desert, in San Bernardino County, California. The valley trends in a north–south direction, its mouth located just southeast of the south end of Death Valley at 35°37′17″N116°16′07″W. Its head is at 35°23′36″N116°08′02″W. The valley is drained by Salt Creek a tributary of the Amargosa River and contains Silurian Lake and Dry Sand Lake.

Red Pass is a gap in the Avawatz Mountains, in San Bernardino County, California. Red Pass, lies between the Silurian Valley and the valley drained by an as yet unnamed tributary of Salt Creek, which drains much of the area of Fort Irwin National Training Center, through Red Pass into the Silurian Valley and into the Amargosa River in Death Valley.

Ward Valley (California) valley of far eastern San Bernardino County, California

The Ward Valley (California) is a lengthy almost true N-S trending valley of far eastern San Bernardino County, California.

Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail, was a seasonal wagon road first pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of Spanish explorers and the Old Spanish Trail across southwestern Utah, northwestern Arizona, southern Nevada and the Mojave Desert of California to Los Angeles in 1847. From 1855, it became a military and commercial wagon route between California and Utah, called the Los Angeles - Salt Lake Road. In later decades this route was variously called the "Old Mormon Road", the "Old Southern Road", or the "Immigrant Road" in California. In Utah, Arizona and Nevada it was known as the "California Road".

Lake Manly

Lake Manly was a pluvial lake in Death Valley, California, covering much of Death Valley with a surface area of 1,600 square kilometres (620 sq mi) during the so-called "Blackwelder stand". Water levels varied through its history, and the chronology is further complicated by active tectonic processes that have modified the elevations of the various shorelines of Lake Manly; during the Blackwelder stage they reached 47–90 metres (154–295 ft) above sea level. The lake received water mainly from the Amargosa River and at various points from the Mojave River and Owens River. The lake and its substantial catchment favoured the spread of a number of aquatic species, including some lizards, pupfish and springsnails. The lake probably supported a substantial ecosystem, and a number of diatoms developed there.

Kelso Wash

Kelso Wash is an ephemeral stream in San Bernardino County, California, United States, that drains into Soda Lake. The town of Kelso lies southeast of the wash.

Salt Spring -- sometimes called Salt Springs -- was a spring in the Mojave Desert, in San Bernardino County, California. It was a spring along the course of Salt Creek, a tributary of the Amargosa River.

References

Coordinates: 35°38′53″N116°18′45″W / 35.64806°N 116.31250°W / 35.64806; -116.31250