Aiguille de Joshua Tree

Aiguille - noun - A sharp pinnacle of rock in a mountain range.

Cousin Scott and I were out looking for something called the "Aiguille de Joshua Tree", also called the "Finger of Hercules". It's a rock climbing destination in Joshua Tree National Park. Neither of us are rock climbers, but I thought in might be fun to photograph this rocky pinnacle. It wasn't hard to find, and after a little exploring, there it was!

I decided to challenge myself and see how far up the "finger" I could climb.

So far, so good.

Starting to feel a little wobbly at this point!

Pretty good, but also scary.

OK, you guessed it. The photo above it totally photoshopped. There's no way I'm standing on top of that rock! I only got as high as the photo before it, and even at that I felt like I was pushing my luck.

I found a somewhat comfortable place to sit on the rocks and took a couple photos with my phone.

A wonderful view, and pretty late afternoon golden light! Look really closely and you might be able to spot Cousin Scott in the two photos above.

A couple more photos of this beautiful aiguille.

Impressive, wouldn't you agree? Let me leave you with some wild and crazy shots of climbers on the Aiguille de Joshua Tree. I didn't take any of the photos below. Just Google "Aiguille de Joshua Tree" and these are the images that come up. I'll do my best to give credit to the photographer or web site. Enjoy!

Photo credit: https://www.fitssock.com/blogs/the-perfect-fit/in-the-wild-aiguille-de-joshua-tree

Photo credit: https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/115149645/eric-catig-on-aiguille-de-joshua-tree

Photo credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/a35ml3/aiguille_de_joshua_tree_56/

Photo credit: https://climb-every-day.tumblr.com/post/117452518023/twol-instagramphotoleslietimmerz-enjoying

According to Robert Miramontes' excellent publication Joshua Tree Bouldering, the Aiguille de Joshua Tree has a "horrible landing". That's climber speak for a jumble of sharp rocks below the pinnacle. That means that if the young lady's hand slips in the photo above, it's very likely to result in her death. I just can't get my head around how people stand upon, and hang off of, this rocky spire. I'm pretty sure you have to be under 30 years of age, and still have that good old feeling of invincibility, to do this sort of thing. A feeling that left me many years ago!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Thanks for dropping by, and be careful out there!!

Lost Horse Valley Hike

A few months back, Cousin Scott and I wandered around the Lost Horse Valley area of Joshua Tree National Park. We had never hiked the area so we were both looking forward to seeing something new. One goal was to find and photograph a rocky spire called Aiguille de Joshua Tree (click here to see that post). So join us as we continue to explore this beautiful part of JTNP!

Cousin Scott capturing some of the areas natural beauty!

Perhaps a little shelter or cave under those rocks? Hard to tell, so let's go check it out.

Come on in, Scott. Make yourself at home! Turns out this rocky shelter is much larger than it appears from the outside.

Birdbath rock? Looks like this spot might hold water for a week or two after a rain, which I'm sure the local critters appreciate. I think there's a name for these water-holding depressions: Tinaja. If you google it, you will find out more information.

Scott captures this shot of me taking a pic of this... weird rock formation. Kind of reminds me of a giant sock puppet!

Another view.

This Joshua tree appears to be propping himself up!

Can you spot the hole in the rocks?

This might be a good time for me to mention that there are "in-holdings" in this area, meaning property within the national park boundary that is privately owned. Who knew such a thing existed, right??Randolph Ranch is one such in-holding. This property is clearly marked, but some of the others are not. I've made the mistake of assuming these properties are part of the national park. I've explored some of them, even taking photos and posting them on this blog. One of the in-holding property owners somehow managed to come across my post. As you can imagine, he wasn't too happy so see pictures of me tromping around on his private property! Long story short, please stay away from these locations. They are in fact privately owned and the property is private, so please respect that. OK, back to our hike!

A nicely balanced rock!

The sun is low on the horizon and the shadows are long... my favorite time of day for photography!

Scott should be fine as long as that huge boulder doesn't shift positions!

UFO Cloud!

Thanks for joining me on this beautiful desert hike!

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Linking with Skywatch Friday