Scorpius Arch

I mentioned last week that most of the roads, campgrounds and hiking trails in Joshua Tree National Park are scrunched up into the NW corner. The map below (hopefully) clarifies what I'm talking about.

The circled red area is what people mostly see when they visit the Park. I didn't include Pinto Basin Road in the red circle because there are only a handful of campgrounds and tourist stops and most of the area lacks the iconic boulder formations and joshua trees. The blue-dashed area is more or less inaccessible (Little San Bernardino and Cottonwood Mountain Ranges). The yellow-dashed area, which represents almost half the park (by acreage), is what I think of as "the great wide open"... no roads, no maintained trails, no people. Just pristine desert. Old Dale Road and Black Eagle Mine Road skirt the western end of "the great wide open", but otherwise there are no roads or trails. It's amazing to me how much of the park is never or rarely seen. Photos from last week and this week were taken in the NE part of "the great wide open" (black arrow) which is an area that is rarely visited.

I went in search of something called Scorpius Arch in the NE section of the GWO. I've seen pics of it, but it's exact location is a closely guarded secret. People are very concerned that knuckleheads will do stupid things (trash, graffitti, bonfires...), and rightly so. After exploring the area, I eventually found Scorpius Arch, and I wasn't disappointed. Not only is the Arch amazing looking, but the entire area has beautiful, weird, unique rock formations that make it very photogenic.

An important note of caution. As mentioned, this area is remote and there are no trails to follow. Take extreme caution if you explore the area. Make sure you have a good GPS device, set waypoints in advance, tell people exactly where you are going, etc. I searched the photo sharing site Flickr for "Scorpius Arch" and was surprised that I didn't find more photos. One photo was accompanied by the following comment that I think illustrates my point (a direct quote):

"Do not ask me for the location of this arch. I will not tell you. This arch is in a remote part of the park that is not often visited. If you get lost or hurt in this area no one will find you for days or weeks. I will not have that on my conscience. If you message me asking the location of this arch, I will ignore you."

Scorpius Arch in B&W. It's hard for me to make up my mind if it looks better in color or B&W, so I guess I'll share some of both!

I plan to post once more (next week) on my first hike to this beautiful, remote area. I still have some great photos I would like to share with you. And of course, I'm already itching to go back for a second visit!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.
Thanks for stopping by!!