Ship Mountains Meander 
The Ship Mountains in Southern California's eastern Mojave Desert have long been touted as a collecting spot for colorful opalite nodules. These nodules are concentrated in a series of isolated low brownish Tertiary buttes just south of the Santa Fe railroad tracks near the site of the old Siam station. The nodules come in a variety of pastel combinations including pale green, pink, peach, pale orange, white, and our favorite, a brecciated mixture of colors with chalcedony stringers. However, while it was the opalite that first prompted us to drop anchor in the sandy harbors of the Ships, we soon found that they offer much more!
To join us on our first cruise into the Ship Mountains just settle into that easy chair and click on the photo link below. Be prepared for sand, isolation and surprises. We're 
sure you'll enjoy the vistas and the constant stream of trains crawling like colorful segmented caterpillars across the broad expanse of desert. Harold Weight, in his August, 1956 article in Desert Magazine, used these trains to comment on our modern dilemma. He said, "Sometimes I think our civilization is too like that streamliner, rushing us past places where we should stop---or at least pause and stretch our minds and see where we are and what is going on around us." The Ships are indeed just the place to slow our headlong rush through life and become reconnected to the peaceful solitude and harmony that pervades the desert.