I chose to go and spend a night on the shores of Gross Reservoir, it was an easy mile hike in, and I was hoping to gain access to some potential gold deposits in the gravels of South Boulder Creek, which have proven themselves historically and in my own pan.
The reservoir, approximately sixty feet below its full level, was amazingly desolate. Winds would blow the sand and mud from the exposed sides, whipping them into dirt devils and creating characteristic carvings on the sides of the banks. The bottom, covered with what would be a thick, oozing mud was dessicated into dramatic flats of mud cracks.
The river here was very interesting, because it flowed through a large basin of wind-blown sand with little to alter its flow. This last semester, in my Sedimentology and Stratrigraphy class, we learned how to identify the mechanics and formations of these river deposits. They were most certainly present and identifiable, I picked out parallel cross-laminations, some subaqueous dunes, and longitudinal point bars, all characteristic of a sandy braided river system.
 |
| Crayfish skeletons were abundant on the shores. As I stepped into the river to sample a long gravelly bar for gold, I almost crushed this very picture-compliant guy. |
