Playing Hooky at Little Hunk

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Playing Hooky at Little Hunk

If 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.

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The Candy Bar - Joshua Tree National Park

/ Joshua Tree National Park/
The Candy Bar - Joshua Tree National Park

When I say "Candy Bar," do you think about yummy sweet treats or giant quartz monzonite rocks with crazy names? What if I added, "Snickers, or Mounds, or Big Hunk?" I guess it would depend on whether or not you're a rock climber, a confectionery connoisseur or had recently view Murbachi's 3D imagery of a group of climbing rocks in Joshua Tree National Park known collectively as "The Candy Bar."

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Lower Ivanpah Tank

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Lower Ivanpah Tank

I know what you're thinking. "Lower Ivanpah Tank? What the heck is that?"

It's a newly-named tank/dam I recently located. Well, I had help. Whilst studying Google Earth, the fabled 3D photographer, Murbachi (Joshuatree3d.com), had spotted what appeared to be a man-made dam a short distance east of Ivanpah tank. I had no idea there was another tank in the area, so we set forth to discover it.

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Hi-View Nature Trail

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Hi-View Nature Trail

he Hi-View Nature Trail is located up in the hills behind the Black Rock Campground, in the northwest corner of JTree. If you're looking for a family-friendly campground, Black Rock can't be beat. Numerous sites, each with a picnic table and fire ring. Restrooms and actual, real life WATER are available here, something most of the other campgrounds in JTree do not provide. Tents, campers, RVs, even an area for horse owners to camp or stage a ride. There is also a nature center located in the middle of the campground.

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Golden Bell Mine

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Golden Bell Mine

The day was perfect, mid-70s with clear skies, the slightest breeze and no one in the area. Once you've been in the desert long enough, you get a feeling of how "visited" an area is. The Golden Bell Mine is a seldom visited place. Hidden behind a low hill, there's no evidence from the road that there's something interesting behind it. Like many of the awesome places in JTree, you gotta get out of the car and do some exploring (and of course, pre-trek research always pays off, and helps keep you from getting lost, breaking a leg, dying of thirst and being eaten my coyotes and turkey vultures, but that's another story).

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