Thursday, February 13, 2025

Mars Training Grounds

Do you have plans to travel to Mars anytime in the near future? Looking for a place to train and get in shape before your trip? I have just the spot!!
 
Our friend Travis told us we should check out a remote area in Joshua Tree National Park he nicknamed "Mars Training Grounds" and "Yoni Bridge". Travis is a professional guide and has hiked JTNP more than anyone I know. When he recommends something, it's always worth seeing!
Here's where we start the off-road drive portion of our adventure. It's 10 miles of sandy road to get to where we will start our hike. The recommendations on these signs should NOT be taken lightly! Here's a closer look:
No water. No medical services. No gas. Most importantly, no cell service. Deep sand/4WD high clearance vehicles ONLY. If you can get a tow truck driver crazy enough to come out here and tow you back to the road, it will be over $1000. 
 
Some years back, a 44 year old Dutch music promoter and his 38 year old German girlfriend were in a rental car (2WD) and decided to take this road. Their rental car got stuck in the sand a handful of miles from here (no surprise) so they left their car and started walking back the way they had come. On this day, the high was 106. Someone out exploring came across their bodies along the road later that same day. They were only a couple miles from their car before they succumbed to the heat and dehydration. A very tragic situation.
 
The first 2-3 miles of our hike was flat and followed the base of these rocky hills. Then came the uphill part (photo above). It was quite a bit steeper than it looks. Look very closely and you might be able to make out Mitch and Nadine, my hiking partners for the day. I was in charge of route finding. I used Travis' route as a starting point, but Travis is 30 years younger than me and can cover a lot more ground and vertical elevation. I shaved off a couple miles by finding a more direct route up to the Mars Training Ground. It turned out to be steep and rocky but doable.
 
After a lot of climbing, we manage to make it to the top of a large flat-topped butte covered with rocks. But not just any rocks. Everything up here is volcanic rock. Back or redish in color and full of small holes. It's the kind of volcanic rock you would expect to find around a cinder cone, but I don't know of any cinder cones in the area.
 
This must be what Travis calls the Mars Training Ground, and I can see why. If you wanted to train for a trip to the rocky Martian surface, this would be a great place to do it!
 
NASA video clip of Martian surface.
 
In some areas the volcanic rock is tightly packed and easy to walk on.
 
About the only plant life are some scraggly, half dead creosote bushes.
 

From a distance, we can see another butte (left side of the photo) but it appears it will require another steep descent down and climb up the other side to get to the second butte. As we get closer, we see a bridge of land connecting the two. This must be Travis' "Yoni Bridge", and it makes the hike over to the second butte much easier.
 
Another view as we make our way to the second butte (left).
 
Nadine and Mitch crossing the "bridge". There is a steep drop off to the left that you can't see in the photo. With drop-offs on either side, it really does feel like a bridge!
 
On the second butte, we investigate this pile of rocks. Any guesses as to what it is??
 
If you guessed a Bureau of Land Management benchmark survey, then you guessed right! I checked my GPS app on my phone to see where to proceed next and noticed we were standing exactly on the park boundary. On one side of this benchmark is BLM land, on the other side is Joshua Tree National Park!
 
What a surprise to find Whitestem Milkweed growing up here!
 
Looking back toward the first butte (Mars Training Grounds)
 
Safely down from the buttes and heading back to the car.
 
Made it back just in time to enjoy the sunset!!
Thanks for stopping by!!
Linking with Skywatch Friday.
 
Have a Happy Valentine's Day!!❤️


50 comments:

  1. Unique and superb alien landscape.

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  2. Better you and Travis than me ~ have no desire for Mars or Mars Training ~ but great photos and love the Valentine rock ~ Happy Valentine's Day ~

    Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
    clm ~ A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  3. Love your adventurous spirit, the pictures and especially the stone heart. Sadly, if we don't do what must be done for the environment all of Earth will look like Mars soon enough.

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  4. Just wow. Even though the area looks bland and uninteresting, I don't find it to be that way. The landscape itself is beautiful and enchanting with its curves and features.
    The sunset and the heart rock were surprising.
    I love your adventures.
    I am probably asking a dumb question, but it is better to hike these areas in the winter correct? I imagine the summer months are too brutal.

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    1. Yes, this is an area to be avoided in the summer. Thanks for your comment!

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  5. ...who would want to go the Mars when you can enjoy its beauty here on earth? But let's send Musk there one way!

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  6. That is some kind of marscape for certain! Desolate, barren of life (appearing) and beautiful. Did you see any little green men?

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  7. Those warning signs make it quite clear what folks should expect. Beautiful desolate landscape. I love the lava rock. Very interesting hike!

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  8. You were quite the daredevil! Even if I had the right vehicle, appropriate dress, fluids and first aid, I would have turned around after seeing those warning signs. What a landscape that looks so arid and alien. It's a bit unsettling to see a photographer's lens cap. Hopefully he made it out. That sunset is a beautiful end to this adventurous outing. Have a great weekend!

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    1. I set that lens cap on the lava rock just to give it size perspective. Thanks for your comment!

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  9. A great adventure. That landscape is so unusual. I can understand why you’d want to see it.

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  10. Looks very remote. Definitely worth the trip. Nice warning sign. Sadly, I think those who need the warning the most would ignore the sign.

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  11. Wonderful photos. I'm thinking that it must Bev very tiring to walk on all those rocks!

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  12. Risky adventure worth it. Beautiful photograph. Lucky that you have reliable guide as your friend to explore places

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  13. You find the most fascination things in your desert wanders.

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  14. What an otherworldly landscape! It's hard to believe places like this exist on Earth.

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  15. Für mich eine außergewöhnliche Landschaft. Tolle Eindrücke!

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  16. That's one scary sign! But it's amazing country. Love the lava!

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  17. There should be a large mallet that crashes down on any idiot who disregards the rules. A couple of those images are quite hypnotic!

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  18. Fascinating, Peter, fascinating and impressive.

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  19. I think I'll stay on planet Earth. 😊
    But thanks for the 'card' at the end.
    Happy V-Day to you too.

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  20. That is desolation in the extreme like you say you would not want to be stuck out there with out water or shade

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  21. Barren grounds but what a beautiful landscape that delivers.

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  22. I'll pass on Mars but I think it would make a great training ground. Thank you for taking us along (virtually) on that hike. I'll give a double pass to that road; it gave me the shivers just to read that sign.

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  23. Amazing sites! So fascinating....

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  24. I always enjoy finding those "brass heads" when ever I am near section corners. Sadly they are getting harder to find and generally the ones I do find are in largely untrafficked areas due to an unforgiving terrain.

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  25. Only a little more habitable than Mars. :-)

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  26. Muy interesante conocer paisajes nuevos.
    Feliz fin de semana.

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  27. Beautiful landscape and photos.

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  28. So very easy to believe that you have visited the moon. Stunning landscape and photography.

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  29. So beautiful this otherworldly landscape. Bonus points for the heart-shaped rock. Happy Valentine's Day!

    Worth a Thousand Words

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  30. What an incredible adventure!
    The rugged volcanic landscape certainly looks like Mars.
    Your journey sounds both challenging and rewarding.
    Your photos are incredible as always. I especially love the stone heart.

    Happy Valentine's Day!

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  31. What a desolate area! That’s a beautiful sunset and I like the heart-shaped rock. (Oh, I made a Nirvana reference. Now I feel cool.)

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  32. what beautifully of the last picture with the stone
    have a wonderful weekend

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  33. Looks a bit like Australia´s Moon-Desert (where Mad Max/Thunderdome was filmed) - just there it is not half as dangerous!
    Did you have insects there, too? Back i the day we were happy to have nets to cover our heads- out of nowhere heaps and heaps of "Blowies" attacked us, little flies. Yuck.
    Cute parting pic! Thanks again for sharing.

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    1. No insects, Iris. That's one nice thing about the hot, dry desert, is that insects are rare. Thanks for your comment!

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  34. I LOVE your valentine rock! That's perfect. That place would be perfect for practicing for a Mars landing. I'm always amazed places where you can see far and wide and not see another living soul. This is that kind of place.

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  35. Nothing like the desert for big sky, good rocks, and great views. Balm for the soul.

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  36. Walking through big rocks must have been tough going. I have avoided that if possible (back when I was hiking). Loved your trip, and the photos and comments. As an arm-chair hiker these days, I really appreciate seeing where people can go and what you can see!

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  37. Gosh, that really looks like going for a hike in hostile country. Such interesting volcanic rocks everywhere. I wouldn't survive long on that hike... around 10 minutes in and I'd be whining "I wanna go home".

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  38. Beautiful in its own way. I like the photo after the one with the milkweed a lot.

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  40. All those warnings! You got some great shots.

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  41. Querido amigo, preciosas capturas de tan rústicos paisajes, me encantó visitarte.
    Abrazos y te dejo un besito, que pasen un feliz día de aventuras

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  42. Nice, the heart at the end! 😍 And beautiful photos.
    I think it would have been too risky for me to go there, especially after the story of the two Europeans who died of thirst... But I don't have to train for Mars anyway, I wish from the bottom of my heart that the earth will hold out until the (hopefully distant) end of my life... and beyond that, so that my daughter and grandchild can also see and experience some of all the beauty.
    But we have already been to a "moon landscape" - in Namibia (if you're interested, in the second half of this post: https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2017/01/namibia-teil-6-sandwich-harbour-und.html )
    All the best, Traude
    https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2025/02/winterurlaub-in-bad-mitterndorf-und.html

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  43. That's an incredible post! Looks so dangerous, but I know you know "your" dessert. Mars is the right name for this spot.

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  44. Beautiful skies. I always wonder where all the broken rocks came from. Scary sign!!

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