Around Barker Dam, JOTR National Park

Hiked January 11, 2026. Parked in the Barker Dam lot. Walked around the nature trail to the dam, then headed southwest, nearly back to Park Blvd. I saw a "Cyclops Rock" thing on Alltrails that looked interesting, like a stone arch. But after circling that rock, decided it must be something you need to climb technically to get to. In any event, I don't think I saw it, though I did see lots of caves, so it's possible that was it? Not sure.

Lots of water behind the dam, but it looks like it could fill another eight to ten feet or so, based on where the stones were. Also, I don't see an overflow for this dam, so I don't know what happens as the water rises. Does it just seep through, or is there a pipe or other opening that is breached at a higher height, or is the overflow somewhere else, entirely? Not sure. Also not sure how full it might have been a week or so ago, during the heavy rains.

I got there mid-morning, probably around 8:30am or so. The lot at that time was pretty empty, with maybe three or four cars. I parked at the end of the front row, backing in so I could put my windshield towards the sun. Deployed my sunshade inside my window. Not that it was going to get all that hot, either way.

Temperatures may still have been in the 40s when I started, but warmed into the upper fifties before I was done. I first donned, then quickly removed a shell over my hoodie. The hoodie and long pants were plenty enough insulation, once I started walking.

I've hiked here before, but it's been a while. Might have been as long ago as 2014, when, apparently, the water was low.

I don't recall looking at this inscription at the top of the dam. Apparently, the people who built it didn't call it, "Barker Dam." It says "Bighorn Dam," and was built be many people with "Keys" in their names, presumably the same ones who Keys View is named after.

The photos are in no particular order, and it looks like I didn't pick any from my southernmost reaches. I did pass lots of Joshua tree and rock formations. One Joshua tree looks like it's budding nicely, and I expect the bloom will be good for them, this year. Not sure about the other wildflowers. The early rain could mean invasive grasses get a headstart on the wildflowers. As of today, there are very few flowers, but lots of grasses. The desert floor is greenish, and the non-desert parts of the Inland Empire I drove through to get here were even greener.

Lots of rock climbers. It's a climbers paradise. Lots of rocks, lots of fissures, cliffs, and so forth.

Interestingly, I saw a lot of big "pillows," too. They were maybe eight feet by eight feet in dimensions, and over six inches thick.

That's just for the ground-level, practice pitches, I'm sure, where you're just scrambling over a boulder, as opposed to going up a cliff. I'm not sure, but I imagine once you fall more than six to ten feet, even the cushioned landing has got to be pretty rough.

Most of the cliff climbers were in groups of two to four, and most wore helmets and were tied on to ropes.

Meanwhile, I needed to do a bit of low-grade scrambling as I made my way through the area. I wasn't aiming to rock climb, but my wandering took me off trail and into an area with lots of boulders. Nothing risky, although even on an easy path, a stumble could hurt. I managed not to stumble seriously enough to take a fall.

Mostly, I just walked, and snapped photos of some of the rock climbers I passed. Not a lot of wildlife was seen.

It felt good to walk! Clear, brisk, but not too cold, and walking at a good pace, I enjoyed the moment to clear my head and wander, with no particular goal. My Alltrails recording shows a little over 6 miles for the morning, and a few hundred feet of vertical gain. With the weeks of rain and not a lot of time, I often still manage to reach my step target walking around home, but it's a lot more pleasant to walk in a national park, versus a suburban sidewalk, or even an urban park.

This was following a night of astronomy, which is also usually pretty enjoyable. Out at Sky's the Limit, again. The visitors were grateful, and the seeing was surprisingly good, despite the wind, earlier in the evening. Got some good views of Jupiter, a brief peak at Saturn and Uranus, and some of the regular showpiece objects: Andromeda Galaxy, Pleiades, and so forth. I'm enjoying my just-over-one-year anniversary of using my Skywatcher 350P. Brings a whole new dimension to seeing my old friends in the sky, and brings several "new" objects into range. Last night, I ended with a view of the "Intergalactic Wanderer," NGC 2419, a globular cluster about 300,000 light years away. That's even more distant than the Magellanic Clouds. It is still bound gravitationally to the Milky Way, however, so not actually wandering the intergalactic void.

A less pleasant part of the night was one of the other volunteers backing his truck into my parked car. It made a terrible noise, but, in the dark, I did not see damage so I didn't try running the guy down to get insurance info. Upon closer examination, I could see some damage to my grill, and I'm concerned that the loud noise may mean that some of the compression material inside the bumper has been compressed. At the moment, I'm just hoping the cosmetic damage is it. Not sure when I'll have time for a collision specialist to take a look at it.

Little thing like that just put a damper on my otherwise-enjoyable night, followed by a day of good hiking.

Debating on if I'll be heading out again, this weekend. Got some other stuff going on, including, possibly, trying to get my car looked at.

Sturtevant Falls, Angeles National Forest, CA

Hiked January 5, 2026. Wow, another year! It's been a long time since I last hiked Sturtevant Falls. The last hike I can find in my blog was in 2017. That's owing to repeated fire closures, then time constraints, and needing an Adventure Pass or federal lands pass to park at the top. It's been reopened since last October, which is also when my annual federal lands pass expired, and I wanted to make it to December, when I could buy my lifetime senior pass. Also, it's such a mess up there on the weekends, I usually only go on weekdays when I'm off.

I tried loading a few videos of the waterfall, but they don't properly display, so I had to come back re-edit this.

Things have changed since my last visit. It seems like a few of the formerly standing cabins did burn in recent fires, although most seem to have survived. Some "boundary walls" were collapsed, apparently from fallen trees and branches. Also, a bridge that used to cross a tributary was washed out, I think. In any event, it did not cross the tributary, but was laying adjacent and below where it once crossed. Instead, a wooden plank-bridge provided a dry way across.

Lots of mulched wood around, presumably chipped on site from fallen trees and branches. In other places were stacks of firewood, also presumably from fallen trees and branches. So the understory seemed more open than I remembered, which is good for fire control.

Obviously, with all the recent rain, the water was running high. In one spot, you had to leave the trail to walk along a cabin base to get around and still stay dry. Also, Fiddler's Crossing was high. Would have required removing boots, and stepping ito pretty deep and moving water. Not necessarily dangerous, but uncomfortable. So I diverted to the trail to the top of the falls, instead.

Incidentally, for years, the cabin at Fiddler's crossing had an American flag displayed. Didn't see a flag on this trip, but I did see a "United Federation of Planets" flag, displayed from a nearby cabin.

It was twisted over on itself, but also behind a wall. It's not clear to me if the areas around the cabins are actually private or not. My assumption is that the cabins are leased, but the actual land is still national forest. So, as much as I wanted to unfurl the flag properly, I left it as it was.

I hiked a bit past the top of the falls, taking many pictures as I did. Debated whether to descend to the base, or not, and eventually did. I moved slowly and carefully down the non-trail. This is not recommended, both because you'll speed erosion, and the fall risk. I carefully grasps branches or protruding rocks going both up and down, being careful to avoid any slides or dislodging or rocks that would speed erosion, and would make the non-trail steeper for the next person.

At the base of the falls, I was disappointed to see a lot of food wrappers and orange peels. But I had no trashbag with me to pack that junk out. Just pissing me off that you can carry stuff out there to eat, but won't carry out your litter.

It's about 3.8 miles roundtrip, and about 800 feet of vertical gain the way I went. Dogs are permitted, but they'll have a rough time if you take the non-trail down to the base of the falls. I expect in a day or two, assuming no more rain, Fiddler's Crossing will become passable, again. Parking in the lot at the trailhead requires an Adventure Pass or federal lands pass, hung from your rearview mirror.

North Side Trail and Canyon Trail Loop, JOTR National Park

Hiked December 21, 2025. Last post of the year. Also, likely, the last hike of the year.

After returning from the Living Desert Zoo, back to the motel in Yucca Valley, we ate lunch and rested up a bit. With this being the shortest day of the year, I knew it was going to get dark early. But I also wanted to get my Interagency Senior Lifetime pass. They used to call them, "Golden Age" passports. Once you reach age 62, they're $80, and cover basic entry fees on all federal lands for the rest of your life. Alternatively, you can buy an annual pass for $20. Since I hope to be traveling on public lands for more than five years, I wanted to buy the lifetime one.

So I swung by the Joshua Tree National Park visitor center in the town of Joshua Tree (on the way to the west entrance) and bought my pass. Got wished a happy birthday, and was informed that the pass would also cover "Adventure Pass" fees in the national forest of southern California (which I already knew), and half off on camping (which I sort of knew, but wasn't really thinking about). I think it may also get me be half off on various tours and what not, too. Of course, this got me thinking about where to go camping and what tours to take. Mind you, I don't camp often, but I did spend two nights camping in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, just this past June.

At any rate, having gotten a later start than I wanted, I knew I wouldn't have much time before sunset, and I wanted to be on the trail to watch the sun set and the clouds change. So I was pretty sure I'd just stop at the Maze Loop trailhead, and walk from there, which I did.

The trailhead is on the left (east or north) side of the road, a bit over a mile from the new entry station. The lot is pretty small (maybe 6-8 cars), but I was figuring it was late enough that there'd be space, either in the lot, or along the road, near the lot. Roadside parking is usually available, unless the road hasn't been graded after a flooding incident, in which case there would be very little space on the shoulder. On this day, there was lots of shoulder space, so I parked, there.

I thought I had just been here the previous month, but apparently it was way back in May! Nonetheless, since I had walked some of the North View and North Canyon trails last time, I wanted a variation off of that. On this day, I headed north, on the North Side Trail, which runs somewhat parallel to the road as you go north. After passing through some rocks, the North Side trail then bends to the right, more or less paralleling the north boundary of the park.

After about a half mile, it intersects with the North Canyon trail, some of which I hiked, back in May, but from the other side. This trail heads back to the south, climbing steeply in parts, as it does. It then heads up a wash before eventually reaching more open space, just before you're back to the trailhead.

The sun set before I reached the right turn, but the sky was still pretty bright and I had flashlights, just in case. I wasn't worried, and I didn't need the flashlights, although it was fairly dark by the time I got back to my car.

Got some nice cloud coloration as the sky darkened. Warm color on the rocks, at first, before everything turned greyer. Nice Joshua Tree outlines, later in the hike.

In the last 1/2 mile or so, I could see a thin crescent moon, low on the horizon.

So I accomplished my goal: Bought my pass, and got a short hike in before it got too dark.

Three miles total for this hike. Three hundred twenty-eight feet of altitude change, according to my Alltrails recording. Obviously, the criss-crossing trails here give you multiple options for hikes of as long or as short as you want. And the rocks and elevation give you a variety of views during even a short hike.

Northshore Summit Trail, Lake Mead NRA, NV

Hiked October 12, 2025. I was scrolling through pictures on my phone a few weeks ago, and saw photos of a hike I hadn't yet posted. I hiked the trail prior to one of my comet shooting trips in Lake Mead NRA. I've also hiked it on numerous prior occasions.

It's a nice little hike, only about two miles roundtrip, but with pretty views over parts of the Bowl of Fire, and also with Northshore Peak, in the other direction.

To kill additional time, I also walked some along the area west of the parking area, trying to get my three-mile minimum, and also waiting for the sky to get dark enough to try to photograph comets.

Because it was late afternoon, the lighting was shadows were great.

Despite the many previous times up this way, I hadn't really noticed what kind of looks like a segment of lava tube near one of high points along the way. That's in the second- and third-to-the last photos of this post.

I don't know that this is what I'm seeing, but I have seen similar "wave" structures all around the Bowl of Fire.

This is one of the relatively few "official" trails listed in Lake Mead National Recreation Area publications and website. Nonetheless, it's not that heavily visited, and/or, because it's a short hike, it's not uncommon that I have the place to myself.

There's a vault toilet at the trailhead.

In addition to being the start of the trail to Northshore Summit, the trailhead can also be used as a jumping off point to head to Northshore Peak, on the other side of the highway, or into the Bowl of Fire.

Both are definitely worth checking out if time permits. But even if you only have time for Northshore Summit, espcially near sunset or sunrise, the view is outstanding.

Last shot was on the way down, after sunset. The dark band then lighter band along the horizon is called "The Belt of Venus." You get that after sunset or before sunrise, when the sunlight hits the sky well above the horizon, but you and the lower part of the atmosphere at a distance are still in shadow. Dark area is in shadow, lighter part is illuminted by the low sun.

Living Desert Zoo, Palm Desert, CA, 12/21/2025

As noted several times in the past five months or so, I've been coming to the Living Desert for quite some time. I actually became a member in July, after being tempted by repeated appearances of these cute bobcat kittens on my facebook feed, and have returned several times, since then.

The last few times, the cheetah has been a no-show, but with the cooler weather, the two of them were pretty active on my last visit, on the winter solstice. Got plenty of shots of them, only two of which I am posting here.

As I think I have noted several times, the Living Desert is a smallish zoo, but there are several relatively expansive (or at least expansive-appearing) animal exhibit areas that provide the opportunity for photos that look like they were taken out in the wild. I love it, here.

I suspect the sand cat is a new arrival; I don't remember it being here on my last visit. He seemed pretty unhappy, and walked continuously while we were there. Hopefully, he'll aclimatize, quickly. Most of my shots were a blur as he moved past, and it's hard to focus through the glass or chainlink. But I did manage a few shots I'm happy with.

Meanwhile, the cougars, who I have seen on each of my visits this year, have been sleeping on their little ledge every time I've come. That's the opposite extreme of the continual pacing of new arrivals.

Their exhibit is a few to the left of the bobcat habitat, so my photos are out of order.

One dramatic-looking bird, which was in an outside exhibit area. Can't remember for sure if I came across him before or after the sand cat, but he was somewhere between the cheetah and "Eagle Mountain," where the North American species are shown.

Then, many pictures of bobcat. I'm pretty sure they are all of Joann. David is the male bobcat, and greyer, but less often posing for me.

Joann, meanwhile, was on the rocks, standing or sitting, and making her way in the tree, which she's been playing in since she was a wee little kitten. She's redder on the back, and has a red tuff on her chest, so all three of the shots I posted here have that coloration, which is why I think all three shots are of her.

The two have grown a great deal; I suspect they're about full-grown size, by now. They arrived back in April, so about nine months old, now. David is substantially larger than Joann, and has been since they were tiny.

They are not quite as constantly in motion as before, but they do still spend a lot of their days trying to ambush each other, and running around the enclosure. I can't help but laugh out repeatedly as they dash about. Makes me think we'd all be happier if we could just sit around and watch them for good chunks of each day.

Immediately to the right of the bobcat habitat is a smaller habitat for the tiny Channel Island fox. That's him, on the rock. He's about the weight of a small house cat.

I saw but did not photograph a Channel Island fox on a past birthday hike on Santa Catalina Island (back when they had free trips to Santa Catalina on your birthday), and got plenty of shots of one or more on my hike on Santa Cruz Island. They're as cute in the wild as they are in captivity.

Immediately to the right of the Channel Island fox exhibit is the kit fox exhibit. He's slightly larger, lighter in color, and with bigger ears than his Channel Island relative. Channel Island fox are decendents of grey foxes (explaining their coloration), but after getting isolated on the various Channel Island, became smaller, to more successfully survive on the small islands.

By contrast, the kit fox lives in deserts, and are also smaller than their grey fox relatives, but, as noted, larger than a Channel Island fox.

Right after leaving the indoor-outdoor exhibits of Eagle Mountain is an aviary, which I have also visited before. Just walked through quickly, this time. Took a shot of the great egret, who was sitting near the "stream."

We actually started our day on the other side of the park. It was "World Giraffe Day," honoring the longest-necked creatures on the shortest day of the year.

They let us wander into the exhibit area (before the giraffe were released into the area). Various experts were there to talk about giraffe. I discovered giraffe like leaves, normally from things like acacia or willows, or palo verde. Their tongue and saliva cover the thorns, and they pull off the leaves off to eat.

I also saw giraffe poop, up close. :D

One of the people we talked to was a "trainer," by which they mean they get the giraffe (and other animals) to learn behaviors that help them receive care. They use a tennis-ball tipped stick to keep their attention, and first get them to poke their nose on it for food, then use the tennis ball to lead the animals where they need to go, then learn behaviors that allows for caring for their feet, drawing blood, doing ultrasounds, etc.

They needed to do the ultrasound-thing recently prior to the birth of several giraffe babies. They're still "babies," but not small by any means.