Turtle Rock Walk

/
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!"

Read More

Two Days in April - Joshua Tree National Park

/
Two Days in April - Joshua Tree National Park

It was early April and the wildflowers were everywhere. Sometimes you had to look for them, but they gave themselves away with their bright spots of color against the unusually green desert backdrop. 

Read More

Porcupine Wash - Joshua Tree National Park

/
Porcupine Wash - Joshua Tree National Park

A mid-day drive along an empty Pinto Basin Road, heat waves shimmering in the distance, the unforgiving desert seeming to grasp at both sides of the two-lane blacktop. It was like driving through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of sand. I was on a journey, a journey into a wondrous land. Then I saw the signpost up ahead and knew my next stop was Porcupine Wash. It was time to see the porcupine. This is what happened:

Read More

Traveling Geology Tour Road

/
Traveling Geology Tour Road

August is generally hot at JTree, and the 24th of August, 2015 was no exception. But sometimes it's nice to experience the extremes, as long as you're prepared for them. That said, I think I prefer the cold extremes over the hot ones....

Read More

Wandering while Waiting

/
Wandering while Waiting

So I recently bought a GoPro camera and have been having some fun learning how to use it. I had shot a lot of video earlier this day, and now wanted to try a time lapse experiment. I found an appropriate rock to put the camera on, pointed it towards some other rocks and a portion of Park Blvd., checked the settings and started recording. Which left me with about twenty minutes to wander about while waiting for the camera to do its thing. 

Read More