Qualla: The Trona Pinnacles: California's Most Alien Landscape

The Trona Pinnacles: California's Most Alien Landscape: Introduction

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wilson44691 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. An hour from Death Valley, in a landscape that makes the desert feel crowded, 500 stone towers rise from a dry lakebed like the spires of a drowned civilization. The Trona Pinnacles are tufa formations - calcium carbonate deposited around underwater springs when Searles Lake covered this basin during the last ice age. The lake dried up 10,000 years ago; the pinnacles remained, standing in clusters and rows that suggest architecture without architects. They've appeared in *Planet of the Apes*, *Star Trek*, *Battlestar Galactica*, and dozens of other productions needing alien landscapes without leaving California. The pinnacles require no set dressing. They already look like another planet. We just happen to be able to drive there.

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Image: Wilson44691 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

The Trona Pinnacles: California's Most Alien Landscape: The Formation

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY-SA 2.5. The Trona Pinnacles formed underwater. Searles Lake, fed by the Owens River system during wetter ice age conditions, covered this basin to a depth of 640 feet. Springs on the lake bottom released calcium-rich water that reacted with the alkaline lake water, precipitating calcium ...

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Image: Bobak Ha'Eri | CC BY-SA 2.5

The Trona Pinnacles: California's Most Alien Landscape: The Shapes

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit blmcalifornia, Public domain. Tufa formations are organic, almost biological in appearance. They don't form straight lines or predictable curves; they grow in bulbous, irregular shapes dictated by water flow and chemistry. The Trona Pinnacles cluster in groups that suggest forests, cities, or organisms frozen...

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Image: blmcalifornia | Public domain

The Trona Pinnacles: California's Most Alien Landscape: The Films

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Hollywood discovered the Trona Pinnacles early and hasn't stopped using them. *Lost in Space* (1965) used them as an alien planet. *Planet of the Apes* (1968) filmed the Forbidden Zone here. *Star Trek V: The Final Frontier* set Sha Ka Ree scenes here. *Battlestar Galactica* (bot...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Trona Pinnacles: California's Most Alien Landscape: The Setting

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AnimAlu, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Trona Pinnacles sit in the western Mojave Desert, surrounded by a landscape almost as strange as they are. Searles Lake - the dry lakebed they rise from - is mined for minerals; the nearby town of Trona is a company town built on chemical extraction. The basin is isolated, ho...

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Image: AnimAlu | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Trona Pinnacles: California's Most Alien Landscape: Visiting the Trona Pinnacles

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY-SA 2.5. The Trona Pinnacles are located south of Highway 178, between Trona and Ridgecrest, California. Access is via a 5-mile dirt road (BLM Road 143) suitable for passenger cars in dry weather. The site is free and open year-round; it's managed by the Bureau of Land Management. There a...

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Image: Bobak Ha'Eri | CC BY-SA 2.5