Go East, Young Man

Day Forty One

Mount San Jacinto looking sublime under a fresh layer of snow.

The mountains were spectacular today with their new coat of fresh snow.  I was already to go up  and spend the day snowshoeing but one thing got in my way: life.  Yes, things do not always work out the way I want them to.  

First, I had to take the kids to school.  Then, the Tram does not open until 10 a.m. so I'd have to wait for that.  Finally, I had to be at work at 12 so my time was somewhat limited.  What to do?  I hightailed it east where I couldn't see all that snow.  I  went out by the Hayfield Dry Lake and I hike out to a little canyon there.  

After a couple of wrong turns I get to  the edge of the wilderness and head up toward the canyon I want to visit.

I see this large boulder with some petroglyphs on it.  Seems like I came to the right place.

Up high on this hillside, it looks like an old mine.  I'll have to come back and check that out another time.

As I enter the canyon I see this little dugout area and wonder if it's a mining test dig or has some other significance.

Just inside the mouth of the canyon is a nice panel of pictographs.  Pictographs are painted onto the rocks rather than etched into the desert varnish like petroglyphs.  They are under a little overhang and so have not been washed off although some have faded.

On this rock in the wash, there are two nice size bedrock mortars.  There is also a lot of sand on this rock.  I wonder.....

After a bit of excavation, I find other bedrock mortar, larger than the other two.

There are also a number of petroglyphs in the area.  Hopefully, when I get more time I can come back and explore a bit more to see what else I can find.

On the drive home, I get a full view of the beauty of our snow covered mountains.  I missed playing in the snow today but I got to explore a special place that I'm looking forward to returning to soon.

Pioneer Days

Day Seventeen

Joshua Tree is more than the name of U2's best album; it's the name of a National Park in the desert about an hour from here.  I drove up via Berdoo Canyon (a 4 wheel drive route) with my son, Nikolas and spent the day there.

We took the Desert Queen Ranch tour which explores how early desert settlers survived in this harsh environment.  Bill Keys was a miner and rancher who settled in Joshua Tree before it was a National Park (and National Monument before that) and lived there until his death in 1969.  He and his wife had seven children who were raised on the ranch.  The tour in a testament of the ingenuity and hard scrabble living of these early pioneers.  

We also took a little hike around  exploring some Native American artifacts, another reminder of the early people living in the desert and how they did it.

Desert Queen Ranch from about a mile away.

This is a school house.  The Keys children and other children of ranchers and miners in the area went to school here.  San Bernardino County School Board paid for the school and sent a teacher.  There were twelve students.

Palm Springs isn't the only place with windmills

I need to go but not that bad.

Seems like I wasn't the only one who got here in a Jeep.

Nikolas discovered SNOW in the shade near the Barker Dam.  It last snowed here over a month ago!

An Indian grinding hole.

Rock Art.

I guess Indians liked football.

More rock art.

Nick, get down from there!  What are you going to find up there anyway?

Uh, how about some water?  A small tank which has held water for over a month.

Our shadows taller than our souls.

Joshua Tree is a great place that I never get tired of going to.  There is so much to discover and I look forward to more adventures here soon.  So much, in fact, that I bought an annual pass on the way out.