A Day in the Park
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Joshua Tree National Park
“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.
Desert Queen Well
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The Desert Queen Well is located along the same trail that will take you past the Wonderland Ranch, Worth Bagley's stone marker, and finally to the Wall Street Mill. The well sits on land that was located and developed by William Morgan sometime between 1905 and 1908. Morgan had hopes of erecting a mill on the site, but those plans never came to be.
Read MoreLive Oak & Ivanpah Tanks Wildflower Report
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After locating Surprise Tank in Queen Valley, and seeing the significant amount of water behind the dam there, I decided to drive to the Live Oak picnic area and hike down the wash to see if either Live Oak Tank or Ivanpah Tank held any water behind them.
Read MoreThe Tank with No Name
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Sometimes you just have to be in the right spot at the right time. I credit Murbachi, the intrepid 3-D photographer, with being in the right spot at the right time. While wandering around what he likes to call "The Towers of Uncertainty-North," he found this hitherto unknown (to me at least) dam.
Read MoreWhite Tank & Grand Tank
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Ok, so I enjoy wandering around the desert and finding stuff. Who doesn't? Could be giant rocks that look like sea monsters, or dried-out, sun-bleached bones of dead animals. Could be a forgotten gold mine or the remains of an old ranch truck. Could be shards of Indian pottery or a hidden petroglyph in a box canyon. Or, like today, it could be remnants of the cattle ranching days in Joshua Tree National Park. Because that's what White Tank and Grand Tank are.
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