“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.
The main objective of the morning was to summit a hill I've had my eye on for the past couple of years. A bit of research and some judicial use of Google Earth led me to believe there was something worth seeing atop the steep, craggy and dangerous-looking hill.
Read MoreThe first thing I noticed was, how green was the valley. The substantial amount of rain this past winter has really changed the look of JTree. Two months from now, this picture will look a lot different. The second thing I noticed was, lots of colorful splashes along the way, partly responsible for tuning a 3-mile hike into a 5-mile hike.
Read MoreIf you're wondering what or where Little Hunk is in Joshua Tree National Park, and why I would want to play hooky there, read on. Little Hunk is a popular rock formation in the Echo Rock area of JTree, with at least ten main climbing spots and over 175 different routes to complete the climbs. It's accessible from a number of different spots: the Barker Dam parking area, the Echo Rock parking area, and even from several turnouts along Keys Ranch Road. The later two routes are the shortest, both traipsing in at less than 1/2-mile, one way.
Read MoreWhile driving along a stretch of open road, something off in the distance catches my eye. Hmmmm, that demands investigation. T Red finds its way along a dirt road and up a slight hill to what appears to be the ruin of an old milling operation.
Read MoreAs with many of the mines in J Tree, few details are known about its origin, ownership and production over the years. The scant records so far discovered reveal that on May 27, 1895, a lead ledge that became known as the Eagle Cliff mine was located by Robert Muir. My hat's off to him. Back in the 1890s, it would have taken a true explorer to discover this claim.
Read MoreJoshua Tree National Park, the California Gold Country, forgotten places in the Mojave Desert. These are a few of my favorite things.
