Wow, it seems like forever since I've posted about the desert! Way back in mid-May, I was racking my brain for ideas on locations for Milky Way photography. A place I hadn't been to in years called the "Pinto Wye Hideout" came to mind, but I doubted that I would be lucky enough to have it align nicely with the Milky Way. There's only one way to find out: Go hike the area prior to the new moon, and reconnoiter. So off I went!
This area has a lot of these cute little cacti. They are only a few inches in height, and most commonly grow as a single cactus, although sometimes two or three can be seen together. When they bloom, the flowers are a beautiful magenta color. I've done two AI searches to identify them, and gotten two different answers: Fishhook cactus (Mammillaria dioica) and cushion foxtail (Escobaria alversonii). If I had to choose, I'd go with cushion foxtail.
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| See the little hole at the base of the large boulder? |
Inside the hole there's trash. Old trash! Miners once worked this area, hoping to strike it rich. There are mines and even an arrastra (used for crusing ore) nearby. Using this hollow area as a trash site seems better than tossing your trash out into open desert. Evidently a tidy miner lived here!
It wasn't long before I came across the Pinto Wye hideout. The above photo was taken 5 years ago. Fortunately, it looks about the same with hardly any degredation. Someone spent a lot of time and effort building rock walls to enclose this shelter. I doubt it goes back to the time of the miners, but that's certainly possible. It's a very cool little spot. 
The PhotoPills app tells me I'm going to have to shoot from this location to get the Milky Way to align with the hideout. I would prefer to shoot more centered directly in front of the hideout, but then things don't line up. Oh well, it still has potential. Inside the hideout is the interesting little fire ring with some metal bars to set a pan on over the fire. I can image a miner sitting around a small fire in the hideout, heating up a can of beans for dinner! This gives me an idea: When I come back for my night photography, perhaps I can put a red-tinted light in here to give the appearance of a little camp fire!
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| Another view of the "kitchen" area inside the hideout. |
The hideout isn't huge, but room enough to put down a tarp and sleeping bag and spend the night here.
PhotoPills shows the Milky Way directly over the hideout at 12:47AM. This is just an approximation, but I would be very happy if it actually worked out. Even so, it would be nice to have a backup plan. I know of a big, healthy Joshua tree about 1/2 mile from this location that would look beautiful under the stars. Of course, wandering around in total darkness by headlamp to find a single Joshua tree sounds like it might be problematic!
Here's my back-up plan. Isn't this a beautiful Joshua tree? One of the biggest and healthiest in the area. Now imagine this photo at night, under the stars!
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| PhotoPills says it will look something like this about 1AM. |
Desert mistletoe, which is a parasite. It often has these bright red berries. Interestingly, the AI program Copilot totally mis-identified this photo when I requested identification. Trying a different approach, I asked "Is this desert mistletoe?", and it responded "Good eye! Yes, this is desert mistletoe". The moral of the story is AI does a mediocre job identifying stuff.
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| This rock looks like a giant potato! |
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| Broken nose. There's a huge alcove on the other side. |
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| What looks like spilled paint is actually lichen. |
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| By late afternoon, these little cactus flowers are all starting to close for the night. |
By the end of the day, I was enjoying this beautiful golden hour. Most everything was in shade; just the Nolina flowers were lit up. It's been a productive hike, and I'll be returning in a couple weeks for the new moon and some Milky Way photography, using the Pinty Wye hideout and/or the big Joshua tree as my foreground. Stay tuned!!
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