Ryan Ranch Sunset

 Ryan Ranch in Joshua Tree National Park has a fascinating history. Here's a quck snippet:

 

The Ryan brothers homesteaded at this loction to take advantage of a natural spring that was once active here. The water was essential to the Lost Horse Mine, which they co-owned. Ryan Ranch supported the mining operation, pumping water 3.5 miles to the mine, in addition to processing ore and serving as a mining office and home. The cattle raised here helped feed the family and workers. Some 60 people lived at the ranch and mine during the gold boom. By 1908 full-time operation of the mine had ceased and the Ryans turned their attention to cattle ranching, until the establishment of Joshua Tree National Monument halted grazing.

 

Walking around Ryan Ranch is like stepping back in time. These old adobe walls are all that remain of the original ranch house. 

 

 

 

 

Close up of adobe wall. It looks like there is straw in the mixture!

 

A second, smaller adobe structure was once here.

 

Anyone missing a motor?

 

 

Looks like a storage structure of some kind.

Largest water tank at Ryan Ranch

A newer structure, probably built in the 50's.

 

Joshua tree "forest".

 

 

 

 

Imagine sitting among the Joshua trees in total solitude, watching the pastel sky slowly and silently deepen. The transition is subtle; before you know it, darkness takes over, shifting the horizon to a rich, deep blue as the stars begin to spark to life.

 

Side note: These last 4 photos (two above, two below) were taken with my cell phone. All were taken 30-45 minutes after sunset when things were getting quite dark. They were taken without a tripod, and I was expecting a blurry mess, but somehow they turned out quite nicely and relatively sharp. Amazing! Related note: The Hasselblad X2D II 100C has 10-stop in-body image stabilization. Hasselblad claims you can take perfectly sharp images in the dark!! I'm not throwing out my tripod yet (the Hasselblad camera body alone costs nearly $8,000), but the technology keeps getting better and better. It won't be long before a tripod is no longer needed except for special circumstances like astrophotography.

 

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Linking with Skywatch Friday

Strawberry Moon

 I happened to be out in the Joshua Tree area during the nearly full moon in June (AKA Strawberry Moon) so of course I had to make time for some photography! I was a day or two early, but to my eye, the moon looked pretty full. There's a large rock formation out near Ryan Ranch called "Headstone Rock", and that was my destination.

Headstone Rock is hard to miss. It juts up high above the Joshua trees, and is just a short hike from the main road. It's a massive boulder, and the pictures don't do it justice (unless you get lucky and get a photo that includes a crazy rock climber in the process of climbing it). In addition to trying to get a picture of the moon rising next to Headstone Rock, I also wanted to scope it out as a possible Milky Way foreground.

 

I decided to make this my home base. I like the way the Joshua trees frame Headstone Rock. I set up my tripod and didn't move it for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I was hoping the moon would rise adjacent to and over the top of Headstone Rock. And if I had the patience, I could get some shots later in the evening of stars overhead.

 

8:45PM: Well, not bad, but as the moon rose higher, it also moved off to the right, away from Headstone Rock. I guess that's why they call them "plans"! In this photo the moon looks more like a sunburst for some reason.

 

 

 

 

The two photos above: Strawberry Moon, June 2024

 

Not my best selfie. Weird diagonal horizon!

 

 

The stars never really made much of an appearance. Should be no suprise, since a full moon will make the stars much less visible. So I decided to head home, feeling satisfied with my Strawberry Moon photos. Driving through the park, I couldn't resist a little detour. Have you ever wondered what driving the backroads of Joshua Tree National Park would be like at night in an open air Jeep with a full moon? If you answered yes, be sure to check out my video below. What the heck, go ahead and watch it even if you didn't answer yes! Oh, and I don't drive the back roads this fast. The video speed is set to 2X.

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

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