Quest for Whirpool Rock

No, I didn't misspell it. Open Google Earth and search for it. You'll see. Anyway, I was looking at things in Google Earth Saturday morning and saw Whirpool Rock. I had to find out what it was. I got the coordinates and headed out there.

There was a fair amount of people out riding ATVs and dirt bikes at the Rolls. Most of them seemed to be families riding together and not teenagers taunting death, so they were pretty well behaved.

I wanted to park as close to Whirpool rock as I could. I drove through some really tight spaces to get to where I parked. I got within 3/4 of a mile but didn't want to park there because it was also the highest spot. I didn't want to drive further down that road because I wasn't sure I could get back up. So I went back to a spot that was a mile away but lower altitude. I had to descend over 300 feet, but most of that was on a road so it wasn't bad.

I got a later start than I should have, so I was racing sunset to get there. I wish I wouldn't do that.

When I was about as far as I was going to go on the road, I heard a rattlesnake off to my left. It seemed a little cool for rattlers (mid 50's). I was hoping I'd be able to find it and get pictures. Then I noticed my phone vibrating and wondered who could be calling and boy did they have bad timing. Then I remembered that I had set a rattlesnake sound as my text message alert. The text message was the "I'm OK" message from my SPOT (I send it to myself to be sure it's working, though I'm not always in a place that I can receive it). I changed the alert so I won't be thinking it's just a text message whenever I hear a rattler.

There were a few more wildflowers in bloom. They were small so it would have taken a couple of minutes to get a picture and I was in a hurry. I'll have to get them next time.

It was very pretty out there. I took at least a dozen pictures of Four Peaks but I tried not to put all of them in the album. Here's one. See the bright cliffs in the lower right corner? That's where I was when I was taking pictures of Cottonwood Creek last Wednesday.

I got to the coordinates for Whirpool Rock, and this is what I found.

That's right. Nothing. I think maybe my coordinates are a little off. I need to plan on searching the area for 2 or 3 hours. A lot of washes cut through there and so you have to climb and descend 50 feet to go 100 feet in any direction. Next time, I'm going on the ATV so I can park much closer.

I had to start back to the truck. I'm not familiar with that area and I didn't want to be lost in the dark. Since I had used my GPS to get to the "rock", I could use it to find my truck if I had to, but I wanted daylight to find the best route. I did find a much better route for going back (less up and down) than I took on the way out there. The temperature was dropping and my arms were cold and stiff, but still I was sweating too much to put on a flannel shirt. I was racing the sunset back but I couldn't help but stopping to take pictures now and then. Also, all the ATVs and dirt bikes were gone, and the power boats were off the lake. Whenever I stopped, I heard the complete silence of the desert. I love listening to that.

2009_02_14