The Trona Pinnacles near Death Valley National park has more than
500 tufa spires, which are composed primarily of calcium carbonate.
The same type of rock formation can also be found in Mono Lake near
Yosemite National Park. Due to the other-worldly appearance of the
tufas, many science fiction movies were filmed in the Trona
Pinnacles, such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final
Frontier, Lost in Space, and Planet of the Apes. The
Trona Pinnacles is not a national park or state park, and thus it is
not surprisingly that there is no paved road in that area. I was
told that the dirt road is accessible to 2-wheel-drive vehicles, but
when I reached there, I found that it takes a brave man/woman and a
2-wheel-drive car to make it all the way.
