Hiking and exploring backcountry locations of the Western United States.
Pecked rock art
Pipes Canyon is a pleasant and easy hike. The trail heads out from the visitor center at the Pioneertown Mountains Preserve and follows the canyon up into a riparian habitat. Some of the plants you will see along the way are willow, baccharis, white sage, and mugwort. The canyon is usually dry, but water does occasionally surface to support this isolated oasis.
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With a tip from a friend, I went out searching for a remote set of petroglyphs in the backcountry wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park. I had a few clues in my search. I was looking for petroglyphs that were near an old campsite and hidden on the backside of a large boulder. That’s not a lot to go on in the vast wilderness of Joshua Tree but I had a couple of other hints as well.
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I recently followed an ancient Native American trail out to a water tank and petroglyph site. What got my attention to this site was the report of historical inscriptions and the fact that it is way off of other Native American trails I knew about.
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The Nampaweap petroglyph site is a large site in a basalt canyon next to Mount Trumbull. The name Nampaweap is a Paiute phrase that means “Foot Canyon”. It’s probable this name refers to the canyon being a natural passageway
On a cold January day, I hiked out into the wilderness of the Old Dad Mountains in the Mojave Desert. Just driving out there was a bit of a challenge; the roads were long and rocky.
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