Yucca brevifolia - Joshua Tree National Park — Abandoned Places, Gold Rush & Route 66 Travel Photography

Explor December 20 of 2021

At 163 years of age, I try to avoid driving to, and home from, JTree on the same day. Just too many miles for this old exploratographer. My preferred MO is to drive to the park in the morning, explore while there’s light, then spend the night at a cheap hotel in Twentynine Palms. The following morning, a few more hours in the park and then hit the road for the drive back home. It’s worked for me so far, but this last trip, the pillows at the place I stayed were truly pillows from hell. I’ll be sure to bring my own from here on out.

The 19th of December was a great trip with Mitch, Peter and Mark, check out the recap by clicking HERE. And since I survived, I had a few hours on Monday morning to explore. Heading into the park around 9:00 am, I drove to a likely looking spot, parked the RAV49 and headed in the opposite direction that most folks would take. This is the story:

No trail, just open JT environs with cholla, yucca, cactus, sticker bushes, Joshua Trees and rocks. You never know what will turn out to be the focus on a hike like this, one with no real planning or destination in mind. So I set out to see what I could find.

There were some interesting rock piles along my wanderings, but as I only had a few hours, I didn’t check each pile out as I normally am wont to do. What got most of my attention on this trip were some nice sized Joshua Trees, tall ones with lots of branches, and a good number of them in this area. After returning home and looking through the SD card, it seems like the Joshua Trees won out over rocks and views.

A four-trunker! No trick shot here, with angles or mirrors. What caused this tree to split and form these four large trunks? Pretty amazing.

And then, I wondered how that shot might look in black and white, so this happened.

Yucca brevifolia rami - a study with sol.

And a look in black and white.

Continuing along my morning journey, I followed a pleasant wash to some interesting rock piles that demanded visitation. A bit of scrambling up and over revealed a series of small clearings surrounded by tall piles of rocks. Very picturesque valleyettes, one of which is home to “Choo-choo Rock.”

I scrambled and climbed my way up the side of one of the rock piles, not all the way to the top, but high enough to get some nice views of the surrounding areas. Off to the left you can see the Comic Book rock climbing area, and back behind that and a bit to its right is Saddle Rock. Just peaking in a bit at the far right of this image is Mount San Gorgonio, southern California’s tallest peak.

Some really interesting spots to explore in this image, unfortunately, not enough time to do so on this excursion. And the crazy thing is, there are so many spots like this in the park that beg exploration and there just isn’t enough time to do so. Unless you happen to live a lot closer to JT than I do.

It looks like it would be so easy to climb that rockpile….

The few hours flew by and soon it was time to head back to the car. “Heus! Accipe imaginem meam,” the Joshua Tree called (they speak in latin). So I did.

“Me quoque!”

The shadow knows.

Another view of the four-trunker. I think that’s his wife over on the right.

So, roughly three hours wandering about without encountering another person, but pretty much always within sight of where I parked my car. Hiking off the beaten path isn’t for everyone, but if you’re comfortable doing so and have a good sense of direction (along with a map, compass or GPS and the knowledge of how to use them), why not go where the crowds don’t? You’ll see things they don’t and have a great time. Unless you get lost and die, so don’t do that. :-)