BGuthrie Photos: CA -- Joshua Tree Natl Park

CA -- Joshua Tree Natl Park:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. JOSH1_170716_024.JPG: Colorado Desert
2. JOSH1_170716_044.JPG: Viewing Desert Life
3. JOSH1_170716_048.JPG: Cottonwood Spring
4. JOSH1_170716_079.JPG: A Desert Wash: Seen from above, the wash is a river of sand in the midst of a gray-brown desert flat. When heavy downpours strike the desert, you don't want to be standing here. A rainwater rushes downslope into a network of rocky canyons that quickly dump their loads into the flat channel of the wash. A rampaging tide of whitecapped, muddy water roars through the wash, sweeping with it every poorly anchored thing in its path. Almost as quickly as it came, the water subsides and soaks deeply into the sandy sediment of the wash. It is this subsurface moisture that sustains the trees and shrubs that grow here. Plants like smoke tree, desert willow, ironwood, and palo verde drink long and slowly from the wash's stored groundwater. The underground water enables the plants to thrive here. Wildlife congregates in these sandy strips, taking advantage of the abundant food, shade, and shelter.
5. JOSH1_170716_093.JPG: Old Dale and Black Eagle Mine Roads: The Old Dale Road leads to the Dale Mining District, outside the park. The Black Eagle Mine Road dead ends at a barricade just outside the park, beyond which is one of the most extensive mining operations in the area. The chase for gold here began in the early 1880s. Wagons and trucks bumped along these roads carrying supplies and ore. The mining town of Dale -- more a mining camp because it moved with successive ore vein discoveries -- supported 1,000 people in its heyday. Miners and their families lived amid the whir and roar of mining machinery running day and night. Miners dealt with isolation and scarcity of water; you might too, if you chose to venture far along these backcountry roads. Travelers should be prepared, cautious, and self-sufficient -- help may be a long time coming if you break down or run short of water.
6. JOSH1_170716_100.JPG: Pinto People: "In the Pinto Basin there lies an extinct river along whose banks we found, for nearly six miles, camps containing a culture different from anything we had already encountered." -- Elizabeth Campbell (1893-1971) It is hard to imagine the existence of large bodies of water anywhere in this parched landscape, but exist they did. Here in the Pinto Basin evidence of old shorelines lends proof to a colder, wetter period when a shallow river coursed the basin. The river attracted life, which explains the fossil bones of extinct camel, horse, llama, sheep, tortoise, and rabbit found here. It also explains the discovered of a distinct human culture that camped along the riverbanks. Between 1931 and 1935, self-taught archeologists Elizabeth and William Campbell searched up and down this valley. They followed the ancient riverbank terraces for miles, discovering many small campsites and collecting chipped stone tools -- leaf-shaped points, scrapers and choppers. The Campbells recognized that these tools were different from others of the region. When the artifacts were radiocarbon tested years later, they registered more than 9,000 years old and confirmed the existence of a vanished people -- the Pinto Culture. Alarmed by the pillage of desert Indian artifacts, the Campbells dedicated their lives to searching out and salvaging thousands of ancient objects. Much of their collection is preserved today by the National Park Service here at Joshua Tree National Park.
7. JOSH1_170716_106.JPG: Scattered throughout the park, Indian cultural sites are protected by law. Enjoy, but respect them. Leave them as you find them.
8. JOSH1_170716_108.JPG: Only a Visitor: From here, as far as the eye can see, is "designated wilderness" -- park lands governed by the strictest preservation standards. What makes this place so special? Vastness, solitude, wildness, and challenge. It is more than legislated lines drawn on a map. "[A wilderness is] an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." -- Wilderness Act, 1964.
9. JOSH1_170716_114.JPG: Desert Governor
10. JOSH1_170716_132.JPG: Choice Spots
11. JOSH1_170716_151.JPG: Turkey Flats: Turkey Flats is really not so flat. It is in fact a loose extension of Pinto Mountain, composed of rock, gravel, and sand -- called alluvium -- that washed from the slopes and canyons, spreading gradually at the base of the mountain and over the basin. The alluviants or sediment once comprised a mantle of soil that covered the mountain slopes. The soil was anchored by grasses, junipers, and pinyon pines. But when the last ice age ended 10,000 years ago, arid conditions killed the plants, and the soil, no longer anchored, washed downslope with periodic floods.
12. JOSH1_170716_166.JPG: Ocotillo
13. JOSH1_170716_183.JPG: Cholla Cactus Garden: "If the plant bears any helpful or innocent part in the scheme of things on this planet, I should be glad to hear of it." -- J. Smeaton Chase, California Desert Trails, 1919 We humans often find value in other living things only when we see a profit for ourselves. We fail to recognize the value of a thing to itself or other living things. The cholla (choy-ya) cactus is one of these outcasts. If we could ask the desert woodrat or the cactus wren how they value the cholla, undoubtedly they would have an eye-opening perspective to share. Walk the 1/4-mile loop trail through the cactus garden with a self-guided nature trail brochure as your guide. See if the cholla cactus "bears any helpful... part in the scheme of things on this planet." Warning: Unless you are a cactus wren, be careful as you walk the trail not to brush against the cholla cactus. The slightest touch can cause the cactus spines to penetrate your skin. Removing the embedded spines is difficult and painful. Keep children close at all times. Pets are not allowed on park trails.
14. JOSH1_170716_196.JPG: Warning This cactus is hazardous. Do not touch for your safety and the protection of the resource. Travel is restricted to the trail. No pets.
15. JOSH1_170716_292.JPG: 5 bees. The bees were all over. I didn't mind them on my shoe but a hundred or so were in the car. They didn't bit until I found one crawling up my leg and I swatted it.
16. JOSH1_170716_293.JPG: 6 bees
17. JOSH1_170716_302.JPG: Silver Bell Mine: On the slopes to the south you can see the remains of the Silver Bell Mine, with its tipples still standing. These ore bins held and fed rock to a stamp battery that crushed the ore into a sandy watery pulp and pushed it onto an amalgamation table where the precious metals were extracted. Though the mine operated some 40 years, ownership and details about the mine's riches are sketchy. Nevertheless, it was a versatile mine: gold in the 1930s, lead in the 1940s, and copper in the 1950s. Prospectors began staking claims in this desert region around 1865. Gold fever gave rise to mine names like Fore Aces, Big Bozo Claim, Lucky Turkey #2, and Hard Digging. Mining reaches its peak here by 1917 and tapered off by the 1960s. Ore was hoisted from the Silver Bell Mine by the skip and dumped into the grizzly, which sorted ore into the tipple. A 1958 assay report showed the Silver Bell Mine as having low gold and silver values but high copper values -- about $90 a ton.
18. JOSH1_170716_320.JPG: Where Two Deserts Meet
19. JOSH1_170716_329.JPG: We Have Contact: It's our tendency to view the Earth as unchanging, static. But here engraving upon the face of this mountain is a story of change. The dark mountain rock is Pinto gneiss (pronounced nice). The lighter color rock is granite -- monzogranite. The granite crystalized from magma deep within the Earth, which forces its way into the gneiss 85 million years ago. Here, where the two rocks touch, marks the edge of the magma chamber -- the contact zone. The granite, over millions of years, broke through the surface of the ground by mountain uplifting, underground chemical weathering, and, finally, surface erosion. Now exposed, the granite reveals to us eons of geologic story. Surface erosion exposed the already deeply weather granite. During an earlier, wetter climate, the valley you are standing in was cut by the action of flowing water. A stream knifed through the overlaying gneiss, widening it and flushing sediments away. Today, when a dryer climate and no stream to carry debris away, sediments are deposited and remain in the valley.
20. JOSH1_170716_353.JPG: ... 1853
21. JOSH1_170716_410.JPG: Tree of Life: "When you try to pick out anything by itself, you find it hitched to everything else in the universe." -- John Muir The Joshua tree is to the Mojave Desert as the giant saguaro cactus is to the Sonoran Desert -- both plants are host to many animals dependent upon them. Both illustrate how intertwined desert life truly is. For the Joshua tree, it all begins with a moth. The blossoms of the Joshua tree are pollinated only by the yucca moth. The moth collects the flower's pollen to help nourish her expected offspring; she taps the pollen into the funnel-shaped pistil. At the base of the pistil are undeveloped seeds; it is here that the moth lays her eggs. Now fertilized by the pollen, the seeds grow and provide foot for the hatching larvae. The larvae grow and emerge, and ample seeds are left to scatter.
22. JOSH1_170716_440.JPG: A Distinguished Yucca
23. JOSH1_170716_449.JPG: The Intruder: You can't put time in a bottle, but how about in a rock? The granite formation you are looking at, and that supports the ground you are standing on,represents 85 million years of time. It's called monzogranite and is one of two predominant rock types found in the park; the other is Pinto gneiss (pronounced nice). The gneiss is 1.6 billion years old, making it nearly half the age of the Earth. The granite formed from magma and forces its way into the overlaying gneiss. The magma cooled into a crystallized mass of hardened granite some 15 miles below your feet -- equal to the distance from here to Keys View. The hardened granite, squeezed and shaken by earthquakes over millions of years, split and cracked. Groundwater flowed down the cracks etching the granite. Mountain building lifted the granite, and erosion exposed it to the surface. Once the granite was exposed, weathering action continued to sculpt the rocks into their present forms.
24. JOSH1_170716_472.JPG: The Bighorn's Domain
25. JOSH1_170716_555.JPG: Apostle of the Cacti
26. JOSH1_170716_572.JPG: Rapid Fire
27. JOSH1_170716_591.JPG: What's Wrong with this Picture? The answer is haze. Haze comes from such sources as water vapor, dust, and air pollution. Air pollution can come from locations many miles away. Southern California industrial plants, power plants, wood stoves, and automobiles belch soot, dust, and smoke into the atmosphere. Prevailing winds direct the air east and funnel it through Banning Passing, where it is dispersed throughout the Coachella Valley. Some pollutants that form haze are linked to serious health problems and environmental damage. Occasionally, air pollution exceeds national health standards here in the park. On very hazy days, it is difficult to find Palm Springs, 20 miles (32 km) away, nestled at the foot of Mount San Jacinto. The haze hangs around the longest when winds are calm, humidity is high, and temperatures are hot.
28. JOSH1_170716_607.JPG: Coachella Valley: The Coachella Valley stretches 50 miles before you, an extension of the same Colorado Desert found within the boundary of Joshua Tree National Park. The difference between the Colorado Desert here and the Colorado Desert there is largely human influence. Entrepreneurs at the turn of the 20th century began diverting water from the Colorado River to irrigate the fertile alluvial soils of the Imperial (south of Salton Sea) and Coachella valleys to grow dates and citrus fruits. Today, a system of canals supplies water to farms, golf courses, cities, and residential communities -- monuments to the life-giving power of water.
29. JOSH2_170716_004.JPG: Cottonwood Spring
30. JOSH2_170716_009.JPG: Cottonwood Spring
31. JOSH2_170716_014.JPG: A Desert Supermarket
32. JOSH2_170716_030.JPG: Mesquite
33. JOSH2_170716_048.JPG: Area Closed No off-trail public use or travel is allowed in this area. Soil contaminated with heavy metals including arsenic, lead and cobalt is hazardous to health.
34. JOSH2_170716_055.JPG: Bedrock Mortars
35. JOSH2_170716_060.JPG: A Desert Supermarket
36. JOSH2_170716_080.JPG: Yeah, I tend to fixate on any living thing I see
37. JOSH2_170716_238.JPG: Excessive Heat Warning
38. JOSH3_170716_022.JPG: Wood Rats
39. JOSH3_170716_032.JPG: Paperbag Bush
40. JOSH3_170716_045.JPG: A Mojave Desert Oak
41. JOSH3_170716_053.JPG: What a Difference a Little Water Makes
42. JOSH3_170716_070.JPG: A Desert Pine Tree
43. JOSH3_170716_079.JPG: A Delicate Balance
44. JOSH3_170716_094.JPG: Red Top Buckwheat
45. JOSH3_170716_107.JPG: Goatnut, Deernut, Coffeeberry
46. JOSH3_170716_121.JPG: Rocks and Plants
47. JOSH3_170716_132.JPG: Cactus Propagation
48. JOSH3_170716_140.JPG: Cotton in the Desert
49. JOSH3_170716_158.JPG: A Most Successful Desert Plant
50. JOSH3_170716_169.JPG: The Mojave Yucca
51. JOSH3_170716_176.JPG: Skull Rock Trail
52. JOSH4_170716_001.JPG: Hidden Valley Trail
53. JOSH4_170716_006.JPG: The Lure of Hidden Valley
54. JOSH4_170716_026.JPG: The Opening of Hidden Valley
55. JOSH4_170716_033.JPG: A Relict Population
56. JOSH4_170716_049.JPG: The Pinyon Pine
57. JOSH4_170716_069.JPG: Scrub Oaks and Chipmunks
58. JOSH4_170716_088.JPG: Humans and the Pinyon Pines
59. JOSH4_170716_097.JPG: Introduction of Exotic Species
60. JOSH4_170716_129.JPG: Mountain Quail
61. JOSH4_170716_167.JPG: Pinyon Jays
62. JOSH4_170716_186.JPG: Rock Formation and Rain
63. JOSH4_170716_207.JPG: Rock Climbing
64. JOSH4_170716_237.JPG: Loopholes for Lizards
65. JOSH4_170716_265.JPG: Yuccas and Nolinas
66. JOSH4_170716_278.JPG: A Transition Zone
67. JOSH4_170716_287.JPG: Conclusion
68. JOSH4_170716_293.JPG: Woodland Bounty
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Joshua Tree National Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joshua Tree National Park is located in south-eastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994, it had previously been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It includes 1,234 mi� (3,196 km�) of land. A large part of the park is designated wilderness area; some 914 mi� (2,367 km�).

Straddling the San Bernardino County/Riverside County border, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation. Below 3,000 feet (900 m), the Colorado Desert encompasses the eastern part of the park and features natural gardens of creosote bush, ocotillo, and cholla cactus. The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of the park.

The higher, moister, and slightly cooler Mojave Desert is the special habitat of the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia), from which the park gets its name. In addition to Joshua tree forests, the western part of the park includes some of the most interesting geologic displays found in California's deserts. The dominant geologic features of this landscape are hills of bare rock, usually broken up into loose boulders. These hills are popular amongst rock climbing and scrambling enthusiasts. The flatland between these hills is sparsely forested with Joshua trees. Together with the boulder piles and Skull Rock, the trees make the landscape otherworldly. Five Washingtonia fan palm oases in the park are the few areas where water occurs naturally and wildlife abounds.

At least 240 species of birds have been observed in the park. A good place to view wildlife is at Barker Dam, a short hike from a parking area near Hidden Valley. Desert Bighorn Sheep sometimes stop by the dam for a drink. Tours of the Barker Dam area are available.
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