Turtle Rock Walk

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Turtle Rock Walk

Adjacent to the parking area for the Hidden Valley Nature Trail is a massive rock formation known as Turtle Rock. If you're a rock climber, you've probably heard the stories of Turtle Rock, and maybe climbed to the top via one of the numerous routes on either the south or east face. Perhaps you chose Wandering Tortoise or Give a Mouse a Cookie, or maybe Turtle Soup. Atop Turtle Rock you surveyed your kingdom, and proclaimed in a majestic voice to your Joshua Tree subjects, "Follow me!"

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Quail Springs - Joshua Tree National Park

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Quail Springs - Joshua Tree National Park

Sure, I started out strong and in the right direction. I knew that the spot I was looking for was up a canyon, along a wash, just a walk in the park. Unless you miss the wash coming down from that canyon over there, just as you round the corner of that mountain on the north and then continue down the main drainage until you get to the next big wash coming down from the south and then climb a rise to look around and realize that you've hiked way too far.

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Return to Samuelson's Rocks - Joshua Tree National Park

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Return to Samuelson's Rocks - Joshua Tree National Park

The weather was perfect, the air was crisp and clean, my parking spot was open and the desert sand was scrunchy. Gathering my possibles, I set out to see what I could find on the way to Samuelson's Rocks.

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