Black Mountain

A motorcycle ride took us to a distant mountain peak that is covered with antennas and microwave towers. Black Mountain is so named because from a distance it looks very black. As we rode up the gradual slope we noticed that the color is derived from the surface rocks that are covered with desert varnish, a dark, glossy thin layer composed of minerals oxidized, over the course of thousands of years, by bacteria living on the rock surface.

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From the peak we looked east towards the Colorado River. We saw it as a ribbon of blue with margins of green vegetation in the distance as it emerges from the Picacho Peak Wilderness. The landscape is so large it just doesn’t translate well to a tiny website picture!

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