Scott's Arch

"East of 29 Palms, CA, Highway 62 passes into the wide-open spaces of the Mojave Desert and becomes one of the loneliest and quietest highways in southern California. In fact, you will see scant evidence along much of the route that anyone has ever made a mark on the land"

 Roadside Geology of Southern California 

by Arthur Gibbs Sylvester and Elizabeth O'Black Gans

So off we go, Cousin Scott and I exploring one of the most remote areas of Joshua Tree National Park, looking for alcoves, arches, and whatever else we might find. The few people who hike this area usually begin their hike from one of two pull-out areas where parking is safe. Since we're driving the Jeep and not worried about soft sand on the shoulder of the road, we start our hike further east where no one (but crazy people) hike, so we can access seldom seen areas. I've previously posted about some of the alcoves we found on this hike.

The area is a huge jumble of rocks, with the rugged Coxcomb mountains to the east. It makes hiking a challenge. If you can follow a wash, that makes things easier. But washes often dead end or get choked off by boulders. It's critical to map out your hike in advance using GPS because it's very easy to get turned around. On this day the sky couldn't make up it's mind about what it wanted to do, but it looks like it would mostly be a dull and drab gray sky. I remember being disappointed because the sunset would probably be less than impressive. As it turns out, I was wrong!

The rock formations are always interesting in this area.

And it's nearly impossible for me to pass up an alcove without crawling inside to explore and take a photo. I remember telling Scott that if we could find an arch at some point, it would be the icing on the cake for a perfect hike. Most of the arches in this area are unnamed and uncatalogued by the NPS.

Smoke Tree in a desert wash, without another human footprint to be seen anywhere. The sense of quiet, solitude and open space is wonderful!

Exploring the Joshua Tree outback. Photo credit: S. Wessel

As the day moved into late afternoon, the sky was getting more interesting.

On the rocks up ahead, I hear Scott calling me: "I found an arch!!"

Sure enough, as Scott leads me up a ravine, I get my first partial glimpse of "Scott's Arch"!!

There it is... in all it's glory: Scott's Arch!!

Climbing up and over to view Scott's Arch from the opposite direction, it looks very different. The rocks are flat instead of rounded. You wouldn't know it was the same arch!

Viewed from a distance, and looking NE, Scott's Arch is impressive! It's also well hidden because it wasn't visible to us as we were hiking south (the direction hikers would be coming from).

As we continue beyond Scott's Arch, we come across this trio of alcoves. At least that's what they appear to be. Let's hike a little closer to check them out.

Wow... another significant discovery! The left-most "alcove" turns out to be a double-arch. How cool is that!!

A wider-angle view of "double arch" alcove. Very impressive! My first thought was how can I climb up into it to check things out?

Unfortunately, there is no way up the sheer rock walls to explore the double arches. But I managed to get up high enough on the rocks to capture this photo of the surrounding area. A beautiful desert scene!

As I was taking the overview photo, Cousin Scott was taking this photo of me. The double arches were directly above me, but the vertical rock wall made it impossible to climb up.

I'll leave you with a couple of desert sky shots. These were taken in the late afternoon, but the best skies were yet to come, and I'll leave those for a future post!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

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Thanks for stopping by!!