Geology Tour Road, Revisited

/ Geology Tour Road, Revisited/
Geology Tour Road, Revisited

I recently found an old, 1975 edition of the Geology and Man Motor Nature Trail Guide on my bookshelf. I must have bought it back it back in the day, probably on a trip to the Monument with my brother and parents. I can remember traveling along the bumpy road, stopping at the points indicated while someone read the description of what we were looking at. Those were fun trips and as I haven’t done that since, I thought it was time to revisit the Geology Tour Road to see what I could find.

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Samuelson's Rocks

/ Samuelson's Rocks/
Samuelson's Rocks

Samuelson’s Rocks. Chances are good that most visitors to Joshua Tree National Park have never seen them, let alone even know they exist. And of those who do set out to find this elusive and evocative site, many of them never return. Just kidding. But in reality, not everyone who tries to find them succeeds. As the Rocks are not an ‘official’ National Park site, there is no sign on the road, nor marked trail to the site. And maybe that’s a good thing.

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Contact Mine

/ Contact Mine Joshua Tree/
Contact Mine

There are trillions and trillions of rocks at Joshua Tree National Park and I hiked over many of them on my way to the Contact Mine. At least it felt that way. Big rocks, little rocks, sharp rocks, moving rocks. I also discovered a new sport I call “Rock Surfing.” It’s a spontaneous and unexpected event that occurred several times when I stepped or jumped onto large, flat rocks along the trail that I assumed would not move when I landed on them. Depending on the angle of the trail, I sometimes caught a pretty good scree wave and “surfed” the trail several feet.

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