Most people simply call it the Bagdad Road or, sometimes, the Hillside Road because those are about the only possible destinations for most people. Oh, yes, there's also the Santa Maria River, which is where my dotter and I might often be headed. The county calls the stretch from the Kirkland railroad crossing out to Yava and thence to the Hillside take-off the Thompson Valley Road. I like to think of it starting at the tufa gates just beyond Kirkland (above) where the road turns to the west. The mountains seen here in the distance are the Weavers.
A good snapshot of what the road is like. Straight, through high desert range land. It parallels the little canyon of Kirkland Creek, where the Santa Fe tracks are located. Several prosperous ranches front on this perennial waterway, though the former Ruger property has been subdivided into a big development on both sides of the highway. The mountains in the distance are between Yava and the Santa Maria.
Kirkland Peak is a major landmark on your right shortly after leaving the little crossroads hamlet. Unlike most of the area, it is granitic.
Mesas formed from great flood basalts surround the flat terrain of Thompson Valley. A romantic piece of me has wanted terribly to make it to the top of one of these mesas, convinced that there's a strange and wonderful new world on top. My inner realist, of course, knows better. More prickly pear, grasses and cat's claw acacia, most likely.
One year, the dotter and I did the tour of the mine at Bagdad; we asked the company geologist if he could tell us where these basalts originated...where was the great crack in the surface of the world fron which oozed all this lava. His disappointing answer is that, frankly, no one knows.
Long shadows are the clue that this is the return trip, arriving shortly back at the tufa gate to Kirkland.
Most people simply call it the Bagdad Road or, sometimes, the Hillside Road because those are about the only possible destinations for most people. Oh, yes, there's also the Santa Maria River, which is where my dotter and I might often be headed. The county calls the stretch from the Kirkland railroad crossing out to Yava and thence to the Hillside take-off the Thompson Valley Road. I like to think of it starting at the tufa gates just beyond Kirkland (above) where the road turns to the west. The mountains seen here in the distance are the Weavers.
A good snapshot of what the road is like. Straight, through high desert range land. It parallels the little canyon of Kirkland Creek, where the Santa Fe tracks are located. Several prosperous ranches front on this perennial waterway, though the former Ruger property has been subdivided into a big development on both sides of the highway. The mountains in the distance are between Yava and the Santa Maria.
Kirkland Peak is a major landmark on your right shortly after leaving the little crossroads hamlet. Unlike most of the area, it is granitic.
Mesas formed from great flood basalts surround the flat terrain of Thompson Valley. A romantic piece of me has wanted terribly to make it to the top of one of these mesas, convinced that there's a strange and wonderful new world on top. My inner realist, of course, knows better. More prickly pear, grasses and cat's claw acacia, most likely.
One year, the dotter and I did the tour of the mine at Bagdad; we asked the company geologist if he could tell us where these basalts originated...where was the great crack in the surface of the world fron which oozed all this lava. His disappointing answer is that, frankly, no one knows.
Long shadows are the clue that this is the return trip, arriving shortly back at the tufa gate to Kirkland.
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