“Yeah, Desert Sky - Dream beneath the Desert Sky”
A drive through Joshua Tree National Park might take a couple hours, viewing the park from the road. An exploration of the park would take a lifetime. Joshua Tree National Park has over 550,000 acres of wilderness filled with a variety of plants and animals that make their home in this land shaped by strong winds, unpredictable torrents of rain, and climatic extremes. Every now and then, man intrudes in this wilderness and leaves his brief, passing mark among the surreal geologic features that cover the landscape. Let’s go see what we can find.
When I say "Candy Bar," do you think about yummy sweet treats or giant quartz monzonite rocks with crazy names? What if I added, "Snickers, or Mounds, or Big Hunk?" I guess it would depend on whether or not you're a rock climber, a confectionery connoisseur or had recently view Murbachi's 3D imagery of a group of climbing rocks in Joshua Tree National Park known collectively as "The Candy Bar."
Read MoreI know what you're thinking. "Lower Ivanpah Tank? What the heck is that?"
It's a newly-named tank/dam I recently located. Well, I had help. Whilst studying Google Earth, the fabled 3D photographer, Murbachi (Joshuatree3d.com), had spotted what appeared to be a man-made dam a short distance east of Ivanpah tank. I had no idea there was another tank in the area, so we set forth to discover it.
Read Morehe Hi-View Nature Trail is located up in the hills behind the Black Rock Campground, in the northwest corner of JTree. If you're looking for a family-friendly campground, Black Rock can't be beat. Numerous sites, each with a picnic table and fire ring. Restrooms and actual, real life WATER are available here, something most of the other campgrounds in JTree do not provide. Tents, campers, RVs, even an area for horse owners to camp or stage a ride. There is also a nature center located in the middle of the campground.
Read MoreThe day was perfect, mid-70s with clear skies, the slightest breeze and no one in the area. Once you've been in the desert long enough, you get a feeling of how "visited" an area is. The Golden Bell Mine is a seldom visited place. Hidden behind a low hill, there's no evidence from the road that there's something interesting behind it. Like many of the awesome places in JTree, you gotta get out of the car and do some exploring (and of course, pre-trek research always pays off, and helps keep you from getting lost, breaking a leg, dying of thirst and being eaten my coyotes and turkey vultures, but that's another story).
Read MoreThe Contact Zone, so-called by fellow JTree explorer and intrepid 3D photographer, Murbachi. For purposes of this post, the area referred to as the Contact Zone is the demarcation between the light tan monzogranite on the left and the darker material on the right in the Google Earth image above. The CZ stretches for about one mile and after seeing some of Murbachi's pictures (click HERE to see for your ownself) of this area, I knew I wanted to visit, regardless of the danger. The views of the far eastern edge of the Wonderland of Rocks are simply spectacular.
Read MoreJoshua Tree National Park, the California Gold Country, forgotten places in the Mojave Desert. These are a few of my favorite things.
