One of my long secret ambitions has been to roll a couple of dozen old tires into Amboy Crater--no small chore--douse them with gasoline, and set them afire. I wonder what the expressions of the passing train crews would be like as they figured the old volcano was about to experience a second coming?
At Saltus, one whistle stop east of Amboy on Bristol Dry Lake, are surface mines one can visit, and watch San Joaquin Valley cattlemen load cheaper sodium chloride chunks than Morton offers. Also to be viewed are the more rare calcium chloride pools, whose refined product is efficiently used for rusting out vehicles in Eastern snow climates.
Here's a recipe for a good desert night's outing: Find yourself at Danby turnoff on Old 66. Even better add in a full moon. Go south on graded Danby road within half a mile and seek any cross trail. Then perhaps a hundred years east or west. Camp here. To the south you will have a wonderful 180 degree vista--backdropped by Old Woman Mtn, and the Santa Fe tracks in center stage--maybe half a mile away on the slight downgrade. It will seem as if you are in a huge amphitheater, waiting for the program to commence. And it soon will, as Santa Fe rails, which are never silent here, come alive, and you'll be train-watching or train-listening many hours of the night, along several miles of track. They seem to present their rumble, whine, light and whistle shows about every half hour! It is a full night's performance and one you'll not soon gorget!
Some twenty auto minutes away to the southeast at the old Florence mine ruins, is the traditional trailheadless beginning of the Old Woman Mtn climb. Its top will culminate your visit with more Santa Fe views, and you'll soon wonder what all the poor people below are doing.
Yes, Santa Fe Territory is to be respected, as each loaded piece of ATSF rolling stock is doing its part to hold our country together. It is, indeed one of our great American enterprises and resources.
Spurred on by ATSF action, The Mojave is NOT a wearisome wasteland!
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Move over Arizona-Sonora Desert
Museum. The hottest new tourist attraction in Tucson is Biosphere II the giant
ecological research facility in which four men and four women are attempting to
live self-sufficiently, sealed from physical contact with the outside world,
until Sept. 26, 1993. An estimated 170,000 amateur scientists and voyeurs have
already flocked this year to the facility that looks something like a giant
terrarium sitting in the foothills outside Tucson. While the Biosphere structure itself is not open to visitors, daily two-hour visits are offered and it's possible to stay at the nearby 27-room Inn at the Biosphere $80 per room per night, that is part of the complex. Tours include slide presentations on the project and walks that circle the structure, allowing glimpses inside. Visitors are taken into a small, simulated version of Biosphere II, which contains mock-ups of the nature zones-desert, jungle, savanna, marsh and ocean-contained within the main building. Rates for the tour that ends at one of two gift shops are $9.95 for adults and seniors, $5 for children 6-17 with adults. Overnight packages are available for $75 per person, double occupancy, in the Inn at the Biosphere, through Dec. 31. The package includes tour, dinner, breakfast and room taxes. For more information, call (602) 825-6200. |
| NEWS AND BRIEFS Tours of Biosphere II Offered Daily in Tucson |