I Saw No Sheep - Joshua Tree National Park
Explor Date: November 22 of 2020
The rocky jumbles behind Sheep Pass Group Campground had been on my radar for a number of years. There’s an old road that leads out from the camp area into the desert, but appears to peter out after about a half mile. As it’s still visible on Google Earth, it must have gotten quite a bit of use at some point, so it seemed like a good place to see what I could find. That road must lead to something, right?
So roughly 3 miles of zigzagging through rock piles and up and down dry washes, approximately 2-1/2 hours of wandering and looking at many nooks and crannies, and supposedly burning 432 calories (I think it was much more than that), what did I find? I found no sheep, no gold mines or abandoned cars, no signs of Native Americans, no Yucca Man, no desert torti, no bones, nothing but beautiful landscapes, amazing rocks with cavities, pretty skies and desert solitude. I call that a great Sunday afternoon, time well spent.
Parking at an area that seemed to not be associated with any campsite, I gathered my essentials and hit the trail. Looking at my trackmap, it appears a return trip is in order. Most of the day’s hiking was over relatively flat terrain, except for many excursions up into piles of boulders to see what might be hiding in them. The first squiggly involved quite a bit of that. I was mainly searching for any areras of Indian habitation, as I just have a hunch there are some signs of that somewhere in this area. None found on this trip, but maybe next time.
Here are some of the high sights from the day’s exploration:
So many spots to explore in just this shot.
Many places like this, with hollowed-out openings. Does anyone else see a slanting skull in this one?
It’s funny how each new interesting place to explore seems to always be just a bit higher than the one just visited. “Oh look, what’s that up there?”
“With so much desert varnish on these rocks, it should be a prime area for some petroglyphs,” I thought to myself.
Lots of vertical happening with this group.
This area was really amazing. The rocks, the light and the skies couldn’t have been better. Note: rocks in photos are much larger than they appear.
The main formation in the center of this image is called Wailing Sax Wall. If you can spot the climber, I believe he’s using the “Take Five” route to the top. “Jo Mama,” “Holy Cross,” and “In a Silent Way” are other routes that lead up as well. Can you spot his spotter?
Throughout this trek the only other folks I saw besides the rock climbers were one couple hiking in this same area. Yet on the other side of these piles of rocks there were probably a hundred folks camping and wandering about.
The Sad Sock Monkey
We had a nice conversation.
Leaving the rocks, I set out to try to find the old road I had seen from Google Earth. This is it, looking back towards the campground.
Try as I might, there was no desert gold to be found, but lots of areas like this with scattered, sharp rocks. Did they wash down from the nearby hills? Are they waste rock from a mine up there somewhere?
After reaching the point where the road no longer seem to be present, it was time to turn around and head back to the truck. There were a few formations off to the east of the old road that I wanted to checkout along the way.
While the approach to that cave up on top seems relatively smooth and easy, it was actually steep enough that (while tempted) I did not investigate.
This group is pretty cool. Check out the next image to see its arch.
It kinda looks like a baby elephant sitting down with his head pressed up against the rock in front of him. Which kinda looks like a ghost holding his arms up. The other side of this formation is interesting as well.
It’s almost like an amphitheater, a gathering place in front with the tall pillars behind. I want to come back to this one earlier in the day to catch this side in the sun. It seems to have a power about it that might really jump in early light.
I’m pretty sure those are Jumbo Rocks on the left and the long sloping pile over to the right is the Crown Prince Lookout. By now the light was fast fading, even though it was only around 4:00 or so, and I wanted to hit the road to find a spot to try to catch some sunset. I had a hunch that the clouds might really light up in a bit. But still a long way to hike back to the truck.
Almost back to the truck and the sun was going down quick, but it hadn’t yet started making those clouds really glow. I made it to the Grey Taco and started following the sun as the skies began to turn some pretty colors. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s never a turnout when you need one…. But I did make it to the parking lot for Hall of Horrors and found a spot. I’ll post a few images soon, I think I got some good ones.
This short hike shows one of the great things about Joshua Tree that I enjoy so much. You can park your car somewhere, hike for ten to fifteen minutes and then be in a wonderland of rocks away from the crowds and usually never run across another trekker while you’re wandering. And even without making a grand discovery on this explor, I had a grand time and learned that I need to hike more, because my legs were worn out after only three miles.
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