“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.
Park you vehicle anywhere (safely and legally), grab your hiking gear and start hiking in the direction that no one else would go. That's what I did and here are some of the things I found (in no particular order).
Read MoreHaving explored many regions of the park over the past few decades, I thought I'd put this post together about some of my favorite sites and sights. Narrowing it down to only 101 was challenging....
Read MoreThe name of the horse that gave Lost Horse Valley its name is one of the many missing pieces in the jigsaw puzzle known as Joshua Tree National Park. Back in 1890, Johnny Lang and his father drove a herd of cattle into this area and set up camp. The next morning, they woke to find their horses gone. Johnny tracked them to the McHaney brothers camp (local cattle rustlers), and was promptly told "yer horses ain't here, ya better git lost." Johnny heeded their advice and returned to his camp. It's more than likely the McHaney brothers had stolen their horses during the night. At some point, the valley became known as Lost Horse Valley.
Read MoreLet me start off by saying, we didn't find the horse. But that's ok, Once you start getting close to the Lost Horse Mine, there's so much stuff to find that you completely forget about about the horse. And in any case, it's probably roaming that endless range up in the sky now anyways. But why are we talking about this horse, anyway?
Read MoreNext time you're out hiking around Ryan Ranch, checkout some of those boulder piles on each side of the trail. I did recently and was excited to find at least two Native American habitation sites.
Read MoreJoshua Tree National Park, the California Gold Country, forgotten places in the Mojave Desert. These are a few of my favorite things.
