Wildrose Townsite
NP9. Location/Access:(36o 15.620’N, 117o 13.025’W) The Wildrose Townsite is located 1.5 miles down canyon from the junction near the Wildrose ranger station and 7.8 miles up the hill from the junction of the Wildrose and Trona-Panamint Springs Road.
Best Time: Anytime, all year.
Geology: The very small village of Wildrose was here until it washed away in a flash flood in 1969. There was a small store, gas station, and café. Many times since then, the road has been successively washed out and repaired. The same fate befell Panamint City several canyons south of here in the late 1800’s. The rocks that dominate the canyon between here and the up-canyon ranger station are formations of the Proterozoic Pahrump Group (mostly Kingston Peak with a little Crystal Spring near the townsite)(Walker, et. Al., 2002). The lower reaches of the canyon walls are Pliocene and Miocene(?) non-marine sediments. At the GPS coordinates there is a wonderful recumbent fold within the Precambrian rocks on the south wall of the canyon just above eye level (check behind the tamarisk bush if it’s regrown). Looking at the north wall of the canyon, the deformed rocks indicate the nearby presence of a major thrust or detachment fault. This is further evidenced by the larger scale folding on the south wall of the canyon a few hundred yards east up the road.
