Thursday, May 5, 2022

Rocks, Arches, and an Old Truck

 My goal for this adventure was to hike to one of my favorite arches in Joshua Tree National Park and photograph it as the sun was setting. It turned out to be an awesome hike, and I took close to 100 photos, so I'll split the hike into two or three posts. Let's see how far we can get today!
 
This old truck wasn't too far out of my way, so I decided to drop by and say "hi". It's a couple miles from the highway, and how it came to be partially buried in this remote wash must be an interesting story indeed!
 



The rocks and boulders in this area are eroded into fantastic shapes!
 

 
A very long, low arch.
 
Here's the arch I had come to photograph. Can you spot it? Middle of the photo, upper third.
 

What a beautiful arch! It's been called Confusion Arch and Ojo Oro Arch (golden eye in spanish). The Ojo Oro name seems to have stuck, and that's how the handful of people I know of who have seen this arch refer to it. I'll continue my hike, with the goal of coming back and taking more pictures of this beautiful arch around sunset (future post).
 
Back side of Ojo Oro Arch.
 

Someone is watching me!!
 
Nooks & crannies!
 
This is such a wonderful place to wander, camera in hand, and enjoy these weirdly eroded rock formations. 
 
Thanks for joining me, and we will continue on from here on my next post!
Linking with Skywatch Friday.


40 comments:

  1. Wonderful shapes and pictures
    the truck was delicious to see alone in the desert

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  2. Rock formations always amaze me!

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  3. The rock formations - be it in the desert or on the beach - are always amazing.

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  4. Dang! Thanks so much for sharing these!

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  5. Dearest Peter,
    Love the 3rd photo, it looks like a big frog's open mouth...
    One can see so many different images in those washed out and eroded rocks.
    Love the Ojo Oro!
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  6. What a great place to photograph. All so interesting.

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  7. Another great hike, Peter.
    I've enjoyed it and I'm looking forward for the next post.

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  8. 100 photos? Wow - I'll look forward to the future posts. Is the desert sky always so bright and blue? Does it ever rain? Just wondering as I've never lived close to a desert.

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  9. This place of the desert contains some real nature made statues. Great to see in those glorious photo's of you.

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  10. ...that old Ford sure did a nose drive! Thanks for taking me along.

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  11. They look a little creepy. I bet at night they'd look way creepy.

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  12. Some strockunning shots there, I like the third, it reminds me of a mouth about to eat that, the roack formation with the sun star it another one I like. The eyes remind be of something from starwars

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  13. Wow! What an amazing series of wonderful shaped stones and great photo ~ Yes, I bet that truck has a great story if it could talk ! Xo

    Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,

    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  14. The arches are amazing and the last picture shows an incredible rock. All these mineral forms sculpted by wind and erosion are fascinating and I understand you always come back there.Thank you for sharing your visions and your desert’s passion.

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  15. Nature’s art is beautiful as seen through your lens.

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  16. ! 100 pics - wow! You have so many of those "looking-through" rocks - you should coin a term for it - can you think of something? You could well add a new word to the English language!! Emille

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  17. As ever, never disappointed in your photography, I have to smile at the captions, and they fit well, expecially the eyes watching.. ;-)

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  18. Another great set of photos. I like them all. Very interesting rock formations, they make your imagination fly.

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  19. Haha, watch out for that Rocky Monster with the big eyes. It was a bit spooky :)

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  20. I keep repeating my superlatives each time I come to visit here, because your shots are so awesome.

    Worth a Thousand Words

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  21. Nature as an artist is miraculous.
    And you have an eye to find all those special creations. Wonderful photos.

    Greetings from orvokki - http://orvokki4.blogspot.com.
    I have a problem commenting. So now I am anonymous, and sometimes I cannot comment at all.

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  22. It must be fun to play with camera among those rocks! 😄

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  23. Exceptional rock formations and a mysterious car...

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  24. Love all the arches, beautiful landscapes and views. Someone is watching is cool.
    Take care, enjoy your day and happy weekend.

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  25. You find such fascinating shapes! I wonder how long that truck has been there and how that story ended.

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    1. It won't let me sign in with Google... "anonymous" only. -Divers and Sundry

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  26. Me encanta la cabecera de tu blog y lo bien que muestras las imágenes de la Naturaleza.

    Feliz fin de semana.

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  27. Fantastic shapes indeed. I was seeing animals in some of them and that "looking at you" formation was so spooky.

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  28. Greetings and Salutations! Tickled at seeing the big mouth with the small rock inside. As always I look forward to seeing your adventure. Never disappointed!

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  29. What fantastic photos! The "watching you" formation was a show stopper =)

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  30. Thanks for the tour. It was the truck that caught my eye. Looks like someone has been using it for target practice.

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  31. Beautiful photos. I can't get over all the shapes and images. That first photo would fit in beautifully in the current "Desert Rider" exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum. The third photo looks like a giant mouth about to swallow a grape.

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  32. The rock formations are so interesting and it is hard not to try to anthropomorphize them into creatures! That car ruins must also have an interesting story.to tell!
    .

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  33. The eyes have it in this beautiful post! When I located the arch in the first picture of Ojo Oro, I thought 'oh it looks like a lovely eye' (and now I am unduly proud of myself for noticing that 'all by myself' before I read on). Only as I think about it now I'm pretty sure I recognize that iconic old truck (I'm thinking it might have been your header shot for a while?) and realize you must have talked about that arch in a post some long time ago so I may have stored the knowledge about the name Ojo Oro in the back of my weak mind somewhere. Whatever, the important thing is I loved this virtual hike and look forward to more.

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  34. Beautiful arches! I wonder how old the stones are...

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  35. Other worldly . . . Those rocks spark stories - It would be easy to start making new things up - just looking at the fabulous photos you share. - AND, I'm really glad you made it clear at the get go - that truck was already there . . . not some incident you had some part in - (a very long time ago - it would have been natural for any of my chums to return from an adventure - leaving their transportation behind - just like that . . . 😏) Thank you again & again for sharing with us/me.

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