Sunday, September 27, 2015

Wandering Amongst the Manzanitas

The Manzanita is one of my favorite trees in Joshua Tree National Park and you only find it in certain places, so it's always a treat to run in to a group of these stately and beautiful trees with their gorgeous red and silver limbs. The other morning I decided to stop at Hemingway pull out and just walk along the edge of the hills to see what I could find. I meandered over towards Hidden Valley in this nice little canyon where I discovered my trove of Manzanitas. I spent about two hours there, just crawling around amongst and under the trees and came away with a few shots you might like.






Sunday, September 20, 2015

Exploring Headstone Rock

Last Sunday, on the way out to Ryan Adobe, we noticed Headstone Rock in the distance, so we decided to investigate and explore the area. The most fun was discovering a cave on the underside of this fascinating rock formation. You can just imagine how the original native americans would use this for shade from the heat of the day. It's a perfect, protected area with views out to the surrounding desert and up to the sky. Sitting there, for a moment, you could almost hear their quiet voices.






Monday, September 14, 2015

A n Early Morning Hike to Ryan Ranch Adobe

I finally got Margie to get up early Sunday and take a walk out to the old Ryan adobe at the base of Ryan Mountain. The Ryan brothers, Jepp and Tom worked the Lost Horse Mine, which is up the road a piece towards Keys View. They built their adobe here because at that time, there was a running spring and they could get a constant source of water to help run the mine. At one point, they had 60 head of cattle grazing here, can you imagine?! I must say though, it's pretty nice spot to have a spread, the sunsets must have been 'awesome' as the young folks say. The original surface of the adobe was plastered over a few years ago to protect the original adobe bricks and now shows signs of age along with some graffiti left by those kindly folks who just can't leave well enough alone. Oh well...