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300 posts

Joshua Tree Car Wash

Joshua Tree Car Wash

Our National Parks aren’t known for their collections of old junked cars, but Joshua Tree has one. I heard there were a few wrecked cars in the vast expanse of the Pinto Basin, but I didn’t know how many, what to expect, or even if they were really

Mojave Car Wash

Mojave Car Wash

This is an interesting little corner of the Mojave. I was surprised to see so many old junked cars out here. It is pretty unusual to see so many in one place, but why are they here? They all seem to be missing their engines and drive-trains. One engine could

Blue Sun Pictograph Cave

Blue Sun Pictograph Cave

My friend Don Austin coined the name "Blue Sun Cave." The Kumeyaay people once lived here. And even though there is no water nearby, the shelters created by the massive granite boulders provided a welcome home in this harsh desert. The pictographs are considered to be the La

Spoked Wheel Geoglyph

Spoked Wheel Geoglyph

At the end of a long day exploring pictographs around the badlands of Anza Borrego, we made one last stop – the Spoked Wheel Geoglyph. This ceremonial site is a twenty-foot diameter rock alignment consisting of two circles with spokes connecting them. A native trail runs nearby. The spirit of the

Monolith Alcove Pictographs

Monolith Alcove Pictographs

In early 2016, I met up with DarthJenni and JP to do some exploring in the backcountry of Joshua Tree. We went on a slightly longer-than-normal hike into a seemingly endless maze of granite boulders, arches, and spires. It was almost enough to get lost in. We wandered through an

Circle Sun Valley Pictographs

Circle Sun Valley Pictographs

While hiking in the backcountry of Joshua Tree over the winter, the good folks over at Peregriff and I came across this small pictograph site. There isn’t much to the site, just a simple rock shelter with a handful of red pictographs on the ceiling, but it is an

Sky Cross Pictographs

Sky Cross Pictographs

Deep in the wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park is a site that I call the Sky Cross Pictographs. This is a rather large rock shelter with unusual red lines painted across a domed ceiling. The lines form arches across the ceiling, reminding me of the night sky. There is