Some Black and White Views of the Twin Tanks Area

I got up early the other morning and drove out to the Twin Tanks area to do a little hikin' around. It's a great area to explore with interesting terrain and lots of gullies and canyons to investigate. The early ranchers built a couple of cement and rock tanks to capture water for their cattle, taking advantage of and improving on the many natural tanks that were formed by the rocks in the area. These natural tanks were used by the early Native American inhabitants of the area before the cattlemen arrived. You can easily spend the whole day out there, so pack a lunch.

Winter Trees at Big Morongo Preserve

It was an overcast Sunday, with a gunmetal sky, a typical winter day. After reading the paper, we decided to take a walk through the Marsh area of Big Morongo Preserve. It's our little bit of 'New England' here in the desert. The trees were barren of leaves, open upward to the sky, with a few scattered clouds. The air was not too chilly, but enough to keep you moving forward. In the background, there was the soft burbling of water underneath the boardwalk and the tiny Bushtits, twittering and flashing amongst the silver and black limbs to keep you company. A lovely day.

Interesting Sights On My Morning Walks

I like to get up around 6 a.m. and head in to the Park, pick an area to explore and just walk about, to see what I can see. It's so nice that time of the morning, the air is crisp, it's quiet and it seems you have the whole Park to yourself. A nice way to start the day.

A flowering bush surrounds a young Joshua Tree like a wreath.

Windswept

The skeletal remains of a Joshua Tree flower, looking like a 'Lego-like' reptile.

This Joshua Tree seems to be exploding up and out of the ground in every direction.

Joshua Tree pointing skyward to heaven and downward to...