Amboy Crater

 During the hottest summer on record, and one of the hottest days of the year, I'm hiking at one of the hottest places in the US. Crazy, right?? The area around the small town of Amboy is significantly hotter than the Joshua Tree area where I usually like, and I'm not taking any unnecessary chances. I'm using the buddy system, hiking with my friend Mitch. We have lots of water, ice, cooling towels, appropriate clothing, and all the other safety gear recommended. We have two sun umbrellas to keep our bodies shaded as we hike. In the back of my mind, I'm recalling that it was this same month (August) back in 2017 when two hikers from Yorba Linda died from dehydration at this exact spot. On that day, it was 113°F, and their bodies were found only about one mile from their car. The husband and wife team had become separated and were unable to find each other (early signs of dehydration can include confusion). Their bodies were found just 100 yards from each other. Their water bottles were empty.

As we pull into the Amboy Crater parking lot at about 4:30 in the afternoon, Mitch's car thermometer registers 114°F. Not surprisingly, the parking lot is completely empty.

 

On the drive to Amboy from 29 Palms, you go over the Sheephole Pass. For some odd reason, knuckleheads can't resist painting these boulders at the top of the pass. Taylor Swift is a new addition. The view from the pass of wide open desert is impressive.

 

Amboy is mostly famous for Roy's Motel. It's a semi-ghost town, with just a couple employees to run the gas station, which also sells cold drinks and souvenirs. One of the employees told me they probably get close to 50% of their summer visitors from Europe! That's likely due to the fact that locals know it's way too hot to be in Amboy in the summer. The motel isn't open, but is a cool remnant from the 1950's when people would "motor west" on Route 66! I took this photo in October of 2022. As I exited Roy's and headed west on Route 66, I noticed the moon was rising over the Roy's sign. Of course, that required another stop for a quick photo!

For more info. on Roy's, click here.

 

Old postcard of Amboy when the town was thriving. Date of photo unknown.

 

Leaving Roy's, Amboy Crater is just a short distance west on Route 66. You can't miss it! It's formed of ash and cinders, is 250' high and 1,500' in diameter. It is situated in one of the youngest volcanic fields in the US. I'm wondering if that means it could blow it's stack at any moment!?

 

Amboy Crater trail marked with lava rock.

 

Looking NE (away from the crater), with light filtering through the clouds and even some rain on the horizon. If you enlarge this photo, you can see a train, the town of Amboy, and Route 66 disappearing off into the distance. It was still well into the triple digits at 5:40PM when I took this photo, and I was feeling really hot. I had put some ice water in a plastic bag at the beginning of the hike and decided now would be a good time to soak my cooling towel in the nice cold water and cover my head. When I reached into the bag, the water felt like it was about 100°!! Dang, no cooling towel for me!

 

6:38PM: Golden light and increasing clouds to the NE.

 

The semi-ghost town of Amboy, CA, can be seen in the distance.

 

This is about as close as we got to the crater. The trail continues on and eventually takes you to the top of the cone, but it was much too hot to attempt it on this day.

 

 

 

7:06PM: Clouds appear to be erupting out of the crater!

 

So you may be wondering: Why would we choose to hike to Amboy Crater on such a ridiculously hot day, risking life and limb?? Well, blame it on (or give credit to) Mitch. He came up with the creative idea of trying to take a photo of the Milky Way over Amboy Crater, positioning it so it would appear the stars are spewing out of the volcano. Cool idea, but one problem: The MW is only in the correct position during the crazy-hot days of late summer. It was almost as if we had no choice. We had to try it!

 

I look forward to sharing what I captured with you on my next post.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Harvest Moon

 A not quite full Harvest Moon, taken September 15, 2024 (95% full) from my backyard. So named because the bright moonlight would help farmers harvest their summer-grown crops. What caught my eye, and required me to grab my camera, was the way the moon and clouds were competing with each other for center stage!

Thanks for stopping by, and happy skywatching!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

On This Day...

 I'm at a bit of a crossroads. This blog has always been about desert photography (well, mostly) and a place to document my hikes. I want to stay true to that purpose. However, I don't get out to the desert nearly as much as I used to, which means I either need to post less often, or post from the archives. Going forward, I will probably do a little of both. We will see...

I have a program on my laptop called Microsoft OneDrive. I was using it to back up my photos and other files to the cloud. In theory, it would keep me from losing any files in the event of a laptop meltdown. Unfortunately, OneDrive was an abysmal failure. It would take too long to go into details, but trust me, it's bad. About the only good thing I can say about OneDrive is it sends me a daily email titled "On This Day." If I click the link, it shows me all the photos I've taken over the years on that day. Pretty cool! I have many thousands of photos on my hard drive, so it's always fun to review photos taken over the years. Today's post is just a couple favorites from September 12 (give or take a day or two). 
 

"Get out of the way, Grandpa!!" Lilly was 5 when I took this photo. Before long, she'll be driving for real!😟

 

Out by Stirrup Tank in Joshua Tree National Park, and one of the most dynamic skies I've seen. There were curtains of rain on the horizon, all lit up in yellow from the setting sun.
 

A little later in the afternoon on the same day at Stirrup Tank, the curtain of rain had moved a little east and was losing its yellow color and picking up some pink color. I was so lucky to have the silhouette up on the rock to give perspective to the photo. A very memorable afternoon!
 

I'm curious what people are using (if anything) to back up files? I no longer subscribe to OneDrive, so just doing it the old fashioned way (backing up to an external drive when I can remember to do it). The weak link in this approach is me remembering to do it!

 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Cholla Milky Way

 So it turns out I'm still alive. We DID survive the dreaded jumping cholla and scorching temperatures while stumbling around in the dark trying to photograph the Milky Way. I did have to pull out a few barbed cholla harpoons during the course of the evening, but I guess that's to be expected. It's really a small price to pay in exchange for the opportunity to be out in the desert under the sparkle of Milky Way stars!

In my "Milky Way a month" attempt, this is my August entry. I had my doubts about using cholla cactus as a foreground subject for the Milky Way, but pretty happy with the way this one came out. I just finished up a trip to the desert for the September Milky Way, and will post that soon. Not sure about October yet. At some point, the Galactic Center will drop below the horizon and MW season will be officially over. It's been a fun challenge, and I'm looking forward to sharing all my 2024 Milky Way photos in a single post.
 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.