Skip to main content

Day 13 - Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree was a let down at first but it came alive when the sun went down. I arrived at 10am and scurried around to find a campsite. Most campgrounds are first come first serve at national parks so arriving early allows for an easier securing of campsites-- I found a nice one at Big Rocks. I setup my uncles tent (struggling at first in the howling wind) in order to mark my spot and set out for a climb up Ryan Mountain. 

Joshua Tree is known for their famous Joshua trees and slabs of rock. This first hike was in a section of the park short on these two items. The second hike was much better-- a 6 mile round trip to the Lost Horse Gold Mine set deep in the mountain hills. Pic 1.


 The sun was starting to go down so I thought I would drive around and look for a good spot to watch the show.  I found a large slab of rocks overlooking a field of Joshua Trees with the mountains in the background and a range of rocky peaks to the north and climbed up. Pic 2

Just kidding. I'm a very good climber and Joshua Tree rocks are sticky-- they aren't flat but pointy. And my shoes are very rubbery. The sun was slowly setting as I was scrambling around the rocks maybe fifty feet up.  

Sunset at Joshua Tree is a almost spiritual experience. Whereby during the day the trees and rocks and hills blend together to a dullish ground color, at night the trees became dark pillars tilting in reflection, the rocks light up a haunting white-grey and the moutains keep the sunset for hours. Tonight was a full moon so I decided to go for a night hike before heading to camp. I have a light that attaches to the brim of my hat making night hiking safe. I rounded a rock corner and heard th faint beat of drums and Indian chants in the distance-- towards the fading horizon line. I contemplated walking over but the sound was too far off and I wasn't prepared to get lost and camp outside tonight, so turned back and headed to big rocks camp for the night. See pics 3-5 below. 







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 82 - Yellowstone to Montana

My alarm sounded at 5:30am, a time early enough for me to arise before someone found me secretly camping. The geyser prediction said Grand at 6:15am so I set out toward it.  I ran into geyser gazer Jim there and he said it likely erupted at 4:30-- missed it. Early morning eruptions are hard to predict as someone needed to have seen the previous overnight eruption in order to make a prediction. I walked on toward Artemesia, an unpredictable geyser at the far corner of the basin. I had seen her erupt from a mile away and wanted a closer inspection. The early morning setting was momentous, yet I didn't see a geyser erupt up close until Grand at 10:30.  Then Sawmill erupted with its twirling thirty foot action (pic).   The only remaining geyser left to experience on my mental list was Beehive up close. With a predicted window of 810 to 1210, I arrived at 1030 and waited until 1pm, before giving up. The sun was hot, I had read the geyser book cover to cover, and while seeing e...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 78 - Yellowstone Old Faithul Geysers

See Old Faithful, Grand, Lion and Beehive geysers erupt in 60 seconds:   http://youtu.be/tv7BPXW4x5g This morning was one of the most exciting mornings of my trip. It started off when I decided to take a long solo hike through the geyser field, leaving at 630am. Mist was still covering this dense geyser field as I walked from geyser to hot spring (20% of the world's active geysers reside here in this one square mile area).   Following a boardwalk, so not to get burned, I saw a man sitting on the boardwalk staring at an empty geyser hole. I asked him if he worked for the park service and he responded no-- he was an amateur geyser gazer-- he watched the geysers and recorded eruption times. He mentioned that we were quote "entering the window for Grand" -- geyser gazer speak for Grand geyser is about to go off. I walked a short ways to Grand and waited, one of a few at first and then one of a few dozen as a quick hour passed. The Geizer Gazer, Jim, instructed me on how to wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 25 - Aravaipa Canyon part 2

The nice thing about Canyons is that they look different going the other way.  Having hiked from the west to the east end of Aravaipa the previous day, I got up early  at 6am , had some coffee and protein bars for breakfast, packed up my gear and headed back to my supervan.  The sunlight hitting the top of the canyon walls made the east hoodoo-like section human-like (pic 1).  The cool spring water on my feet was delicate as I sped down the creek. After about three miles I look a right turn to explore Hell Hole Canyon, a dry side canyon that I had read was stunning. The walls were towering and winding and narrow. Being in the narrow dark canyon so early in the day was a bit creepy feeling for some reason. Like other animals I felt safer when I was close to the water. After thirty minutes I turned back around and left the Hell Hole Canyon (pic 2 shows the entrance of Hell Hole) and returned down stream.  It wasn't until noon that I ran into another human being. T...
Post a Comment
Read more