Reconnaissance Hike

 Wow, it seems like forever since I've posted about the desert! Way back in mid-May, I was racking my brain for ideas on locations for Milky Way photography. A place I hadn't been to in years called the "Pinto Wye Hideout" came to mind, but I doubted that I would be lucky enough to have it align nicely with the Milky Way. There's only one way to find out: Go hike the area prior to the new moon, and reconnoiter. So off I went!

 

 

 

 

This area has a lot of these cute little cacti. They are only a few inches in height, and most commonly grow as a single cactus, although sometimes two or three can be seen together. When they bloom, the flowers are a beautiful magenta color. I've done two AI searches to identify them, and gotten two different answers: Fishhook cactus (Mammillaria dioica) and cushion foxtail (Escobaria alversonii). If I had to choose, I'd go with cushion foxtail.

 

See the little hole at the base of the large boulder?

 

Inside the hole there's trash. Old trash! Miners once worked this area, hoping to strike it rich. There are mines and even an arrastra (used for crusing ore) nearby. Using this hollow area as a trash site seems better than tossing your trash out into open desert. Evidently a tidy miner lived here!

 

It wasn't long before I came across the Pinto Wye hideout. The above photo was taken 5 years ago. Fortunately, it looks about the same with hardly any degredation. Someone spent a lot of time and effort building rock walls to enclose this shelter. I doubt it goes back to the time of the miners, but that's certainly possible.  It's a very cool little spot.
 

The PhotoPills app tells me I'm going to have to shoot from this location to get the Milky Way to align with the hideout. I would prefer to shoot more centered directly in front of the hideout, but then things don't line up. Oh well, it still has potential.

 

Inside the hideout is the interesting little fire ring with some metal bars to set a pan on over the fire. I can image a miner sitting around a small fire in the hideout, heating up a can of beans for dinner! This gives me an idea: When I come back for my night photography, perhaps I can put a red-tinted light in here to give the appearance of a little camp fire!

 

Another view of the "kitchen" area inside the hideout.

 

The hideout isn't huge, but room enough to put down a tarp and sleeping bag and spend the night here. 

PhotoPills shows the Milky Way directly over the hideout at 12:47AM. This is just an approximation, but I would be very happy if it actually worked out. Even so, it would be nice to have a backup plan. I know of a big, healthy Joshua tree about 1/2 mile from this location that would look beautiful under the stars. Of course, wandering around in total darkness by headlamp to find a single Joshua tree sounds like it might be problematic!

 

 

Here's my back-up plan. Isn't this a beautiful Joshua tree? One of the biggest and healthiest in the area. Now imagine this photo at night, under the stars!

 

PhotoPills says it will look something like this about 1AM.

 

Desert mistletoe, which is a parasite. It often has these bright red berries. Interestingly, the AI program Copilot totally mis-identified this photo when I requested identification. Trying a different approach, I asked "Is this desert mistletoe?", and it responded "Good eye! Yes, this is desert mistletoe". The moral of the story is AI does a mediocre job identifying stuff.

 

This rock looks like a giant potato!

 

Broken nose. There's a huge alcove on the other side.

 

What looks like spilled paint is actually lichen. 

 

 

By late afternoon, these little cactus flowers are all starting to close for the night.

 

By the end of the day, I was enjoying this beautiful golden hour. Most everything was in shade; just the Nolina flowers were lit up. It's been a productive hike, and I'll be returning in a couple weeks for the new moon and some Milky Way photography, using the Pinty Wye hideout and/or the big Joshua tree as my foreground. Stay tuned!!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Soccer Practice

 Not for me; for Lilly. I just watch. This one was informal, with just a handful of the girls wanting to get together for some practice (it was Labor Day, so formal practice had been canceled). I was thinking about helping out by shagging balls that miss the net, but then the sky started putting on a show, and that became my new priority. I guess that shows you where my priorities lie! Off I went, looking for the perfect shot!

It started out with blue skies with a mix if really interesting clouds.

 

It's generally a good idea not to stand behind the goal. See the ball coming in?

 

 

 

 

Searching for the perfect shot included a walk on the RR tracks.

 

Sky daggers.

 

The later it got, the more colorful the sky became.

 

 

 

 

The girls just kept playing, even in semi-darkness. Finally, the automatic sprinklers came on and that stopped them! I tried to time the photo to catch this water arch.

 

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you had a chance to get out and enjoy some pretty skies this week!

 

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

The Sturgeon Full Moon

 The so called "sturgeon" full moon occurred on August 9th. I decided to trudge up into the local hills with my DSLR and 300mm lens and see what I could see. It turned out to be a beautiful evening, and well worth the effort. In case you were wondering, the sturgeon moon got it's name because it coincides with the time of year when sturgeon fish were most abundant and were being harvested in the Great Lakes and other major lakes. 

 

For moon photos, it's nice to have something interesting in the foreground. A photo of the moon in the sky is OK, but something in the foreground makes it even better. I'm always racking my brain for composition ideas. The moon rises in the east, and you can check websites for the exact compass heading in your area, so that will help you with composition. I had scouted the trail a few days before the full moon to pick out possible photo locations.

 

If memory serves, moonrise was at about 7:30pm. The mistake I made tonight was to be in position about 10-15 minutes ahead of the scheduled moonrise. Most often, there is haze on the horizon, so thinking you will see (and can photograph) the moon the moment it rises above the horizon is often incorrect. It's obscured by the haze, and probably won't be visible until about 15 minutes after the scheduled moonrise. That means I had about 1/2 hour to twiddle my thumbs on this particular evening, waiting to see the moon.

 

One final tip, and it's an important one. Usually the night before the full moon (called the "photographer's moon") is when you want to be out taking pictures. Moonrise is usually too late (well after sunset) on the actual full moon night, so you can't get good foreground shots because it's too dark. 

Something about old gnarled trees in front of a full moon appeals to me. The b&w version is below, which gives it an even creepier vibe.

 

A nice bonus is that sunset is happening about the same time the moon is rising, so it can be very productive for photographers.

 

Basque shepards roamed these hills with herds of sheep back in the 1800s.

 

 

Hiking back to my car in near darkness, I came across this huge gopher snake. Initially I thought it was a tree branch lying on the trail, but then the branch moved! This trail is heavily used by both hikers and bikers, and Mr. Snake was taking his sweet time crossing the trail. I was worried he might get run over by a biker (see all the bike tracks?) so I decided to hang around and direct traffic just in case. The snake safely made it to the other side of the trail and I went on my way.

 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Gone Surfin'

 Surf Camp, summer of 2025, for granddaughter Lilly. I was getting tired of driving her and her friend back and forth every day for a week (about 45 minutes each way), but I love the ocean and enjoyed all that beach time. And it gave me lots of time to get creative with my iPhone. Here's one of my first attemps to add music to a video. I tried to sync the beat to my footsteps. Fun stuff!

 

I guess you could call this a "vertical pano". Usually you pan horizontally, but this was an attemp at panning vertically. Makes for a long, skinny photo!

 

Flotsam and jetsam: I did long walks on the beach a couple of mornings, and couldn't resist taking pictures of some of the stuff that had washed up on the sand. The textures are really interesting. Technically, I think it would all be considered "flotsam" since jetsam is defined as something deliberately thrown overboard by a ship in distress (had to look that one up!).

This brown algae is kind of alien looking! The round part is called a float, and is filled with air. It keeps the fronds up near the surface of the water and closer to sunlight for photosynthesis. The long tentacle-looking thing would have a "holdfast" at the end (not visible) that would anchor the algae to the ocean floor. Technically not classified as plants, algae are fascinating! The scientific study of algae is called phycology.
 

We had overcast skies every morning, clearing to blue skies in the afternoon. Perfect!

 

The most interesting sky of the week!

 

Lilly's becoming a good surfer and loves being in the water!

 

There was the occasional wipeout!

 

Strange to see a military helicopter flying along the beach. Maybe following the coastline down to the marine base at Camp Pendleton?
 

Another low-flying aircraft. This guy was so low I could see the pilot's face! He was pulling one of those banner adds behind the plane, which seemed to be slowing him down.
 

Thanks for joining me for this week at the beach!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.