| 0.2 (158.4) | STOP 5, on the right side of road, just south of Little Lake Hotel. If we turn and face down the road (south) we can observe the volcanic features which will help us solve the problem. The cinder cone at 11:00 is the source of the cliff basalt, called the Lower Little Lake Ranch flow, which has been dated at 440,000 years. This flow extended several miles to the south, but only a short distance to the north; we can see its northern contact with the granitic bedrock of the Coso Range at 9:00. The lower level basalt, the basalt of Red Hill, we see about us at 6:00, 4:00, 2:00, and 12:00; it is the same as the basalt we drove across south of Little Lake; it has been dated only as older than 10,000 years. An intermediate age series of cones and flows, dated at 130,000 years, we will see just east of Little Lake. These relationships are explained as a result of alternating basaltic volcanism and canyon cutting (Fig. 4)
 . Canyon cutting was accomplished by the Pleistocene Owens River carrying very large amounts of glacier melt water from the front of the Sierra Nevada to its eventual destination at Lake Manly in Death Valley. We will see further evidence of the effects of the high discharge at Fossil Falls, two stops from here. |
| | For those with archeological interests, a set of bedrock Indian metates can be seen at the base of the basaltic cliff to the west of the road. From here, drive to Little Lake Hotel. |
| 0.2 (158.6) | Little Lake Hotel - a refreshment and relief stop. |
| | STOP 6. Continue north of Little Lake Hotel, turn left and rejoin 395. Red Hill Cinder Cone lies ahead. It is the source of the approximately 10,000 year old flows. |
| 1.6 (160.2) | Columnar jointing in basalt just east of Little Lake. This is the 130,000 year old basalt, called the basalt of Upper Little Lake Ranch. |
| 1.5 (161.7) | Cinder Road, turn right to Fossil Falls. Enroute to the falls, to the southeast we can see two very youthful basaltic flows; their youth is evident by the fact that they occupy the modem topography. |
| 1.2 (162.9) | STOP 7, in Fossil Falls parking area. Here we will walk a short distance to Fossil Falls, cut in to the basalt of Red Hill by the glacial Owens River draining the lake which occupied Rose Valley to the north. |
| | Return to the vehicles and proceed back to Highway 395. |
| 1.2 (164.1) | Highway 395, turn north (right). |
| 0.7 (164.8) | At 3:00, we can see the breached crater on the west flank of Red Hill. |
| 1.3 (166.1) | Entering Rose Valley and the Death Valley Geologic Map Sheet. As we proceed north along the valley, we will observe at the north end a westward projecting spur of the Coso Range with a deep notch cut near its western end. This notch, called Haiwee Gap, was cut into Tertiary andesite flows of the Coso Range by the glacial Owens River. Seemingly, the river should have established its course farther west at the western end of the spur where it would have encountered more easily eroded alluvial fan materials. This type of gap has commonly been termed a water gap, and interpreted as a result of superposition of the stream from some higher level down onto the underlying bedrock during uplift of the region. It is, however, difficult to see what materials once overlay the Coso volcanics, and especially what has happened to them south of the gap. The crestal portion of the large alluvial fan northwest of Haiwee Gap is higher than the restored surface across the gap, as are lake beds of the Plio-Pleistocene Coso Formation exposed just north of the gap. One or both of these units may have covered the volcanic spur at the time the course of the glacial Owens River was established. During the uplift, the already established stream course, located along the axis of the valley, was maintained in that position, even through it had encountered more resistant rocks and the axis of the valley had shifted to the west. |
| 2.8 (168.9) | Rest area on right. Fault scarp in alluvium on west side of valley at 9:00. |
| 4.7 (173.6) | Railroad crossing. |
| 0.5 (174.1) | At 3:00, a large landslide scar and debris pile on east side of Haiwee Gap. The landslide probably was the result of oversteepening of the walls of the gap during downcutting by glacial Owens River. |
| 1.6 (175.7) | At 3:00, the Haiwee Reserv oir and the Coso Lake Beds; the high peak on the Sierra crest at 10:00 is Olancha Peak (12,135'). |
| 6.1 (181.8) | Railroad crossing. Owens Lake in view ahead. |
| 2.3 (184.1) | Town of Grants. At 2:30, on the crest of the Inyo Range, Mio-Pliocene basalts cover the south end of the range. North of the basalt cover, the bedrock of the Inyo Range for 15 miles is made up of a succession of middle and late Paleozoic carbonates and Triassic and early Jurassic volcanic rocks. |
| 1.7 (185.5) | Town of Olancha. Enter Fresno Geologic Map Sheet. The setting of Owens Valley between the imposing ranges of the Sierra Nevada and the White-Inyos is illustrated in Figure 5.  |