GoPro or Go Home - Joshua Tree National Park — Abandoned Places, Gold Rush & Route 66 Travel Photography

Explor Dates: April 1 & 2 of 2023

With the really wet weather this past winter, the rain, the snow, the “precip,” many folks were saying those magical words……super bloom (also spelled as one word “superbloom”, a rare desert botanical phenomenon in which an unusually high proportion of wildflowers whose seeds have lain dormant in desert soil germinate and blossom at roughly the same time in the spring). (just felt like throwing that definition on here) (probably unnecessary) (thought it might be humorful)

And with that thought in mind, I headed out to JT to see what blooms could be found. Since I hadn’t taken my old GoPro Hero 4 on an excursion in quite a while, it too made the trip. As well as a few toys. This post will just feature photos taken with the GoPro.

Most of my Sunday was spent in several sandy washes located a short distance south of Cottonwood Spring. This general area had a huge super bloom in the spring of 2019. Click HERE to see what happened back then.

This year didn’t quite match the blooming ferocity of that super bloom, but there was enough variety to keep me busy most of the day.

First stop was at a large wash, near a service road that heads west off from Cottonwood Springs Road. Funny thing, if you follow this wash west for about five miles, you’ll find Cottonwood Basin (which was news to me), but I only went in a few hundred yards or so to snap these photos.

These next few photos were taken a little farther down the road, where Cottonwood Canyon/Wash really widens out. During the super bloom of 2019, this is the spot that looked like God’s palette of colors exploded over the sands. This year, again, not so much, but still well worth the visit.

Canterbury Bells, one of my favorite wildflowers. The blue is very intense. They seem to like sandy soil 😊.

Purple Mat. These tiny little flowers were quite abundant. They grow close to the ground and most of the plants I saw were in dense, circular patches like this one.

Follow the yellow flower road!

The Smoke Tree is perhaps my second favorite tree in the park. With more time to spend, I would have gone back to the Rav4, gotten my camp chair, and brought it back to this spot (along with a soda and some cookies, of course).

Following below are a few shots from later in the day.

The landing zone.

These interesting rocks are a little south of White Tank. Does anyone else see the sad ghost?

A favorite pile of rocks. Ten points if you know where this is, before looking at the photos below……

And here comes the giveaway shot.

The Ryan Ranch Ruins, always a favorite spot of mine. A lot of interesting things to see in this area, including a great Native American site.

Headstone Rock. There was a climber up there, but he must have ducked away before this shot was taken.

When the young ones don’t listen.

It’s always fun experimenting with the GoPro. I tend to use my Hero 4 more for still shots than video, the super wide angle seems to work well with landscapes. And some interesting horizon curvature sometimes adds a neat flair. Hope you enjoyed this portion of the trip, will be posting the iPhone 13 pro part of the journey soon.

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