Thursday, June 9, 2022

Clark's Pass Boulders

 Ever see a road and wonder where it goes? That's pretty much the premise of today's hike. The road less traveled (or in this case, almost never traveled!). This particular road was used by campers and explores prior to the Desert Protection Act (1994). After the act was passed, this part of the desert was designated as Wilderness Area, and no vehicles of any kind are allowed. The road has been closed since 1994, but I couldn't help wondering where it led.

The road is located within Joshua Tree National Park, and is just a little east of Clark's Pass. Compared to the NW end of the Park, which is at a higher elevation and gets more rainfall, this area is extremely barren, and gets crazy hot. Small, stilted creosote bushes dot the landscape, and not much else can survive here. It's an area that gets very few visitors, and it has it's own desolate beauty and big open skies.

Off we go. The first part of the hike was easy, as it followed the old road. It wasn't long before I spotted some interesting looking rocks off to the left of the road. Here's a closer look:
Let's go check out the rocks. To get to them, we need to leave the road and hike the open desert. The soil is sandy and full of critter burrows, which makes for slow going. Take 2 regular steps, on the third step fall 6" into a burrow, and repeat 1000 times! Hiking poles really help here.
 
Ya, these rocks look interesting!


I found a couple small petroglyphs on the rocks, but something makes me think they are not genuine. They look a little too recent. Hopefully I'm wrong.
 


Yup, desolate. Even the creosote are having trouble surviving out here!
 

An unexpected find, and a nice view through the middle of this boulder!
 
A beautiful piece of quartz!

I like this distinctive pyramid of rocks.

This boulder appears to be all tied up!
 
This was an interesting find. I posted here about an old WW2 bombing range. Who would ever guess that target practice with bombs dropped from airplanes (not live, fortunately) occured in what is now part of Joshua Tree National Park?! Anyway, the photo above shows a squished up practice bomb I came across on this hike, but it's almost two miles away from the actual range. Whoever dropped this bomb was waaaay off the mark!! Below is a photo of what these practice bombs looked like before being dropped out of the airplane. I read that they were filled with sand so the weight and handling would be very similar to a live bomb. Fascinating!!
 
Let's continue onward. Shortly after discovering the WW2 practice bomb, I come across this shallow alcove. Let's climb up and take a closer look...
That's interesting. Just inside the alcove is a small fire ring and a couple old rusty cans. Someone camped here, and by the looks of those rusty cans, it was many years ago!
 
Not far from the alcove, I see more evidence of camping.
 
And then I came across this, which was well hidden in the rocks. It's quite large and has a lot of wire attached to it. If it was used for cooking, then they were cooking something big! Perhaps the wire is to hang it over a campfire? 
 
And then this. A home-made BBQ! Put your coals or firewood underneath and you could cook most anything! Someone put some work into this, making a nice rock structure that surrounds the grill. There's an old beat-up children's toy car in the upper right of the photo. Probably some family used this spot as a favorite place to camp on a regular basis.
 
A nice little arch, not far from the "campground" site.
 
Last stop on today's hike is a large, deep wash I would like to explore (straight ahead). On my way I spot this lone red barrel cactus... the only one I've seen during the entire hike. I call him "The Loner".
 
It took some work, but I'm finally down in the wash. Total solitude, and not a single human footprint anywhere!
 
The wash makes a bend here, and the rare rainstorms have done an impressive job of carving this sheer wall of sand over many, many years.
 
I've exited the wash, and heading north in the direction of the car. You can just barely make out the rocks we visited at the start of the hike (top center). I'll hike back to those rocks, and then pick up the old road back to the car. 
 
Nice to have the moon for company on my hike back!
 
Now we know where the road goes, and I'm glad I followed it, at least for a little ways. Looking at Google Maps, I can see the road continues much, much further, well down into the Pinto Basin. So if you see a road and you're wondering where it goes, I would encourage you to follow it!
 
Linking with Skywatch Friday.
Thanks for stopping by!!


33 comments:

  1. Dang! Thanks again. Did you take the quartz home with you?

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    1. Nope, National Park. Not allowed to remove anything. A pretty piece of quartz, though, with a lot of golden color mixed in.

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  2. ...once again, barren beauty. In Hawaii they bombed a small island during WWII. They began to clean it up and when they ran out of money, they declared the job done!

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  3. Looks like one of your more barren expeditions. But as always with some unexpected finds. Very nice again.

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  4. Such an extreme environment you are bringing to us today!

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  5. You are one of the few people who would get out of the car and hike in a closed road. I might want to know why the road closed and what's there, but I'd stay in my car. You make a barren desert look beautiful.

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  6. Quite an interesting cluster of rocks. Finding a practise bomb is quite a thing. When they were building the place I last worked which is on an old RAF station they came across practice bombs but had to call in the bomb squad to clear them. Works stopped quite often while this happened.
    Not sure I would want to hike there on my own, if something happened they might never find you

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  7. Thanks, for the road and rock tour ~ quite the variety of nature and other items to see ~ the rock formations and the carved out ones are always fascinating ~ Xo

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

    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  8. Wow, what an adventure you had and the finds you found. Amazing stuff. Whenever I see an old road like this I just have to follow it just to see where it goes. Flying over the west on commercial airlines I could see many roads winding through the desert and I just would love to go see them.

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  9. I'm just wondering how hot it was that day. Interesting hike.

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    1. I don't recall the exact temperature, but it was hot. This is an area you absolutely cannot hike in the summer months.

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  10. Beautiful images. So the difference between petroglyphs and graffiti is how old they are?

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  11. Wonderful place, Amazing shots.

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  12. Road Closed means an adventure. Park the car, grab your camera, and off you go with the moon following you. The hike showed you the "loner" plant, arches, practice bombs and BBQ equipment plus a child's forgotten toy.

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  13. Interesting story about these bombs....

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  14. The red barrel reminded me of Animal, the Muppet I've been seeing a lot of in Geico TV spots. Wonderful pictures, as always.

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  15. I followed a "mystery road" recently - it led to a gate that said "No Entry" and, from the barbed wire wrapped around the top of it, looked as though it meant it. I only wish it had said so sooner.
    I'm glad that your exploration was more fruitful. The rocks look really interesting. Funny place for a family picnic though.

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  16. I would be inclined to follow that road too. I used to love hiking on old roads. I always wanted to see what around the next bend. Great photos as always.

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  17. The camping site was an unexpected surprise. I liked the way someone made an area for cooking along with the home-made BBQ. The practice bomb part was interesting to see.and read about. Wonderful photos and narrative. Enjoy your weekend.

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  18. Thanks for visiting my blog, Peter :)

    Great photos of an incredibly fascinating landscape - and they bring back memories .. in 1998 we stayed in Joshua Tree National Park. The night in the tent was unforgettable.. and really cold :)

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  19. What finds along the road not traveled? The practice bomb was totally new to me, although it makes perfect sense that you would need to practice that skill. The BBQ intrigued me a little, too. The "nice arch" looks like two extraterrestrials nuzzling. Enjoy your weekend!

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  20. Buenos paisajes has tenido a la vista. Espero que en el tiempo en que lo has visitado, no hiciera demasiado calor.
    Feliz fin de semana.

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  21. You have captured so much of history! Beautiful!

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  22. You always show us the coolest places. I like the quartz and the "loner" barrel cactus!

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  23. I am glad you got out of your car and checked out where the road leads to and found the interesting rocks, the site used for camping and the practice bomb.

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  24. I like that BBQ camp site and toy car. It shows that other people enjoyed that area very much, too. Gigi Hawaii

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  25. Dearest Peter,
    Wow, those animal burrows make it very tricky to walk there!
    Gad you used poles and made it safe back to report to your readers about this fabulous adventure.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  26. I'm so glad that wilderness areas still exist. It looks very hot and dry in this section from your photos. This was an interesting area with left behind artifacts from long ago-- the bomb was a surprise!

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  27. What a wonderful, beautiful and interesting post.
    You make me "home-sick" every time. And... I enjoy it! Thank you.

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  28. That piece of quartz is beautiful, I'd sure like to see a rainstorm in the desert.

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  29. The loner cactus adds a splash of color. You ALWAYS find something out there in the middle of nowhere. That amazes me. Fun finds.

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  30. I wonder how that "tied up" rock got that way.
    Thank you for taking me along . . . 💙

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