Lake Mead - a view looking northwest toward Wheeler Ridge

This view is looking northwest toward Wheeler Ridge along the Pierce Ferry Road (about 1 mile east along the unpaved section east of the intersection with the South Cover access road). Very steeply dipping strata of Paleozoic age crop out on the mountainside north of the road. Note the gently dipping strata on the right side of the image. These are alluvial fan deposits of Late Miocene age and are called "Rocks of the Grand Wash Trough". These ancient alluvial gravel deposits unconformably overlie the Paleozoic rocks (Beard and others, 2007). Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera) are in the foreground (USDA, [2010f].