Racetrack Playa
Tiny as ants, these visitors are out on Racetrack Playa. Though "playa" is Spanish for beach, in geology it means the flattest possible natural surface. This is also a near-permanently dry lake.
What the surface of Racetrack looks like up close.
In the middle of this 2.5 mile long oval is this excretion of rock called, what else but, "The Grandstand." The day I visited I was surprised to find rock climbers tethered to a boulder or two.
There is only a 1.5 inch differential over the playa's entire 3 square mile surface. You may have read about "mystery rocks" that move and leave tracks across the playa without human intervention. Best educated guess comes from NASA. Winds are very strong in this narrow valley. When an infrequent rain hits the playa, it turns the hard pan into shallow silt. Stiff winds follow and can move the stones across the surface and cause the weight of the rock to carve its path on the playa.
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