From the Ice Age, a Desert Lake is Born
My decision to move to Walker Lake, Nevada came after I was invited to
participate in an art festival sponsored by the Sierra Club to promote the
awareness of the sage of a natural lake and its water crisis. The open, natural
beauty of Walker Lake grew on me so I left Las Vegas and moved to rural Nevada.
Over the years that I have been living at Walker Lake, I have witnessed many changes as the water level continues to recede. It has been my mission to record as many of these changes as possible with my camera, therefore the Walker Lake Folklore Blog is my photographic expression of nature adapting to a drying lake.
Over the years that I have been living at Walker Lake, I have witnessed many changes as the water level continues to recede. It has been my mission to record as many of these changes as possible with my camera, therefore the Walker Lake Folklore Blog is my photographic expression of nature adapting to a drying lake.
As an intro, I would like to give a little historical information about Walker Lake.
Located on U.S. Highway 95, Walker Lake lies within the Great Basin Desert and is 130 miles south of Reno, Nevada. The history of Walker Lake goes all the way back before 586 million years to the Prepaleozoic Era when the Great Basin was formed by the ocean floor of the ancient seabed uplifting and the effects of plate tectonics fusing the land. Having no outlet, it became an inland sea.
Moving ahead in time to the Pleistocene epoch, (Ice Age) the ancient Lake Lahontan covered 8,665 square miles of Western and Northwestern Nevada and part of California with a maximum depth was around 900 feet.
The massive ice sheet receded northward as the climate began to dry and become warmer. This also caused Lake Lahontan to recede, leaving behind a number of isolated dry lakes in closed valleys, including Walker Lake. Three major rivers, the Truckee, Carson, and Walker drain east of the Sierra Nevada. Walker Lake is the terminus for the Walker River.
Watermarks etched high up on the rocks are a glimpse back in time to the water level of Walker Lake.
Continuing on with the historical overview, the next post will give a brief focus on human occupation and Walker Lake.
Follow my blog and check back for more folklore and
the legacy of this historical lake.
The images in this blog are for sale and available in various sizes
With my Nikon and tripod, my goal is to recreate the scene as it appears
in nature, to preserve in a photographic image the awesome, yet
simplistic beauty of the scene that waits around a bend or over a hill.
Sometimes it's a colorful landscape, and many times I'm allowed in the
presence of the numerous creatures that adapt to life in the wild.
No images on this blog are within Public Domain.
All rights reserved, world-wide and images protected by Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
All photography, graphics, text, design, and content is copyrighted by
Bonnie Rannald and should not be copied, down-loaded, transferred and
re-created in any way without the express consent, in writing to Bonnie
Rannald.
For information on Bonnie Rannald licensed, right-managed images, please submit a written request of the image.
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