Around North View Trail, JOTR

Hiked May 25, 2025. This was just a short evening hike. Originally planned for a little longer, but you can see by my shadow at the start of the hike that it was almost sunset by the time I got started. Even though there was no one checking payment at the entry kiosk, there was a line getting it. I think we were waiting for people who needed to use the restrooms by the west entry station to back out of their spaces.

Despite the late start, and a necessarily short hike, any sunset hike around Joshua Tree means pretty spectacular-looking rocks. I only covered around two miles, starting from the Maze Trailhead, and continuing mostly along the North View Trail, but with quite a bit of off-trail wandering, even in that short section.

Right near the start, I saw a boulder outcropping, and could see what looked like a "doorway," a large, flat boulder that provided a short tunnel. So I headed that way. Walked under the rock, then scrambled around this outcropping for a quite a while.

After that, I generally headed north, back to the trail. Wanted to get a view looking down into the towns of Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley.

The sun set well before I got my view. Figured I'd have another 45 minutes or so before it got seriously dark, though, so I wasn't in a huge hurry.

That gave me time to enjoy the warm afternoon light on a few more boulder piles, as I made my way north and west. As the sun dropped below the horizon, I could see a slice of the valley, and headed that way.

Still stopped for lots of pictures as I made my way towards the cliff. Well, more of a drop-off. Piles of rocks. Could probably be walked down, but it would take some picking.

The view down from the edge is the fifth shot from the last. I took quite a lot of shots near there, but I guess I only stuck one of them in this post.

Heading back, I continued snapping away. Came across a formation that looked a little like a sad bunny. That's the third from the bottom. It's a closeup of the fourth shot from the bottom.

I knew I hadn't traveled far, so I wasn't worried, even as the sky grew darker. Before long, I could see the highway, and the row of cars, mostly leaving. It was still Memorial Day weekend, and that was expected.

In addition, they're building a new entrance station, further into the park than the existing West entrance. The current one (from above the town of Joshua Tree) often has cars lined back, blocking driveways for residents near the entrance station.

The new station will have multiple kiosks, and a longer "runway," so the line should be shorter and move faster. But, at the moment, that means an area with uneven pavement, shifting lanes, and, of course, a lower speed limit.

The expected completion date is "early 2026," so construction will continue for a while. That could mean even longer lines than normal for the West entrance.

The North entrance (near Twentynine Palms) normall has no lines, so the line I encountered earlier that day (blogged in the previous post) was a little unusual. I'm not sure if that was just normal Memorial Day weekend traffic, or due to some people avoiding the West entrance.

Shot a Joshua tree, silhouetted against a darkening evening sky. Those trees are just so darn picturesque!

Probably not making it back here until some time in July. That'll be an astronomy-first trip, so I probably won't manage any morning hikes. Maybe something short, in the afternoon, but I'm not sure. The easiest short north-side hike is 49 Palms Oasis, and that one is closed in the summer, to let the desert wildlife have access to the water when it needs it most.

I support that plan. On a previous trip to 49 Palms in the summer, there were some people who just hung around taking selfies for hours at a time, just them and the palms. On the other side of the trail, a herd of 20 or so desert big horn were hovering. I'm sure they were waiting for a chance to get some water, but couldn't, because of the annoying selfie taker.

Took a short hike last weekend in the local (San Gabriel) mountains. Yeah, it's been a while since I've blogged much local. Still have one or two more Joshua Tree hikes from last year to blog, too. More hikes planned the next few hikes, so I'll have a backlog for a while.

Contact Mine, Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Hiked Sunday, May 25. I had slightly higher ambitions going into the weekend, but a minor medical thing meant I didn't have the inclination to try a longer test of the Yakima roof rack system, and limited my ability to take a longer set of hikes. But I did get a little break in time on the boots.

I first hiked Contact Mine back in 2015. I'm sure I've hiked it once or twice since then, but didn't find them in a quick search of my blog. It's possible I didn't manage to blog those other trips.

Sadly, the remains of the mining activity have been somewhat reduced in just those ten years since my first visit. The rail tracks have moved, and some of the machinery seemed missing.

It's still a nice, conveniently-located hike. This being Memorial Day weekend, I anticipated pretty good crowds on the main trails and roads. Contact Mine has the advantage of being just inside the North Entrance (which is usually much less crowded than the "West" entrance), and it's not one of the other major destinations in the Park, though better publicized now than it was when I first walked it.

There were about six other cars in the small lot when I got there. Saw three people hanging out in the parking lot, maybe 3-4 people on the way in, then maybe 8-10 people on the way out. Also, had a line of about a dozen cars at the entrance station as I arrived there, as I got a later start than I wanted.

Temperatures were in the low 80s when I started, and low 90s when I finished. Nice breeze, too.

The trail still starts along the broad wash, with occasional signs on poles, to assure you that you're on the right track. Eventually, you head up to the right (north). Some people go up or down the actual wash, but the higher route is probably easier going, walking on a solid surface rather than sand, although I've never actually walked up the wash to compare the difficulty.

Relatively dry year, so not a lot of wildflowers. A cactus was just starting to bloom, and a few tiny flowers were hugging the ground, as well. But that was about it.

In terms of wildlife, I saw one fair-sized chuckwalla. He's at the top of this post, and, again, in the second shot, which shows him (or her) admiring the landscape. I saw a few other lizards, but I only had my cell phone camera, so the longer ranged shots were pretty fuzzy.

Enjoyed the walk. On the way back, the alternate old dirt road diverged from the trail on several occasions. Scattered old cans and what not, in addition to the few pieces of larger machinery, up at the mine.

Alltrails gave my walking distance on this hike at just about four miles, roundtrip. Despite the proximity to the boundary, you do have a hill between you and Twentynine Palms for the entire hike, so you may not have regular cell phone coverage. My T-Mobile Starlink satellite texting icon showed it was activated, and I sent a few texts, just to try it out. Texts made it out and back in pretty good time, so it was nice to have the backup, in addition to the Personal Locator Beacon that I was carrying. Didn't need either on this hike, of course, but that's why you bring them: Back up!

Took a short hike that afternoon, which I'll probably blog, next. There are also a few Joshua Tree hikes from last year I need to blog, but I think I've already moved those pictures to my laptop, so that may take a while.

Schabarum Extension Trail, Schabaram Park, Rowland Heights, CA

Hiked May 12, 2025. Two goals for the day (well, sort of three goals); did not accomplish them all. Goal one was to do another short test run with the roof rack; goal two was to get a short hike in, with boots I bought in the winter, to get them more broken in and my feet properly calloused. Unfortunately, I forgot to toss my boots into the car before I drove off, so I got some walkinig in, but not the boot break-in I wanted.

I've had a Yakima Rocketbox since the early 1990s. It's a modular system, so you have the actual box, which attaches to crossbars, which attach to towers, which attach to clips. The clips latch on to the inside of the car door frame, and the towers sit atop the roof. Generally, the clips should be the only part that needs to be replaced to fit a different car. However, because they keep changing their standard tower, you often wind up needing to but both new towers and new clips to fit your new car.

I've owned three additional cars since I first bought my Yakima system, and, on two of those occasions, I had to buy new towers and new clips to make the system fit. First were "SST" towers, then "Q" towers, and now, "Baseline" towers. So that's a pretty significant additional cost, but still less than starting with scratch, just because the crossbars and Rocketbox, alone, are so expensive. Well, the fairing (the plastic "Yakima" wind deflector) is also original, so there's that.

I bought the new towers and clips within a month or two of buying the new car, but only got about halfway through the setup before getting distracted. Finally decided a few weeks ago to finish the damn thing.

Once set up, I drove to work and back, maybe 12 miles of freeway speeds. At the end of the day, one of the towers was lifted about 1/8th of an inch off the roof. That didn't seem right, even though the clips still seemed to have a secure hold on the door frame, so it didn't seem likely the thing would fly off. Nonetheless, I removed the clips and towers from my car, adjusted the towers inward on the crossbars (further from the doorframe), and tried again. Drove with just the towers and crossbars (no Rocketbox). After a day of driving, one foot still didn't seem flush on the roof, so I adjusted the separation again, then I fiddled with the rotation of the towers a bit, to make sure they were aligned with each other. This time, after maybe 16 miles of freeway driving, it seemed to hold pretty flush to the roof. So, tentatively, I'm calling this a success.

I had fitted the Yakima on my Prius (immediate previous car), but ended up never using it on an actual trip, because the liftback design of the car gave me plenty of hauling capacity inside the car. But now that I'm driving a sedan (Camry), I feel like if I took a longer trip with my wife and my telescope stuff, there might not be enough hauling capacity while still having an empty passenger seat (for her), without the external storage.

As for the actual hike: Shortly before arriving at Schabarum Park, I cursed at myself for forgetting the boots. But I was wearing athletic shoes, which I knew would be fine for just hiking. The trails out of Schabarum aren't steep or rocky, so the boots, as I said, were to be broken in, and not actually necessary for the hike.

It's been a few years since I last came to Schabarum Park. There's an entry fee on weekends, and on County holidays. But this past Monday was neither, so it was free, and relatively empty. Wasn't exactly sure where I would park, but eventually reached the area near the equestrian stables, where I knew various trails were reachable.

I wandered somewhat aimlessly from my car until I found the trailhead, south of the parking area. The trail headed mostly southward, before splitting into either the main Schabarum (Skyline) trail to the right, or the Schabarum Extension trail, to the left. I took the Extension trail, which trended eastward.

In these lower areas, there were a LOT of squirrels. A mix of small oak trees provided some shade. But, soon, the trail began climbing through numerous thick stands of wild mustard. Some wild raddish, mixed in. A few sacred datura/Jimson weed. A few pearly everlasting. Oh, yes, and one checkerbloom.

The mustard stands buzzed with busy bees, which is always a little unnerving, but they did not seem to mind my walking amongst them on the trail.

The mustard and raddish were why I picked this trail. Even though I figured it was a little late in the season, it's also been pretty cool, except for a few day last week. So I figured the raddish and mustard would be in good shape, and they were. Lots of color, even if composed of non-native plants.

Did not see any raptors; just a few raven, I think. Lots of lizards. One very small rattlesnake, the smallest one I ever saw.

He's in the second to last photo. Maybe a foot long, less than an inch across. But his jaw was distinctly wider than his body, and he had a stub of a rattle forming at his tail. So, yes, rattlesnake.

He was stretched across the trail, just laying there. I took several pictures, then hopped over him. I mean, he was small enough that I wasn't sure if he could even reach my ankles if he tried, but I didn't want to test that theory. On the other side, I turned around. The snake just sort of raised his head and tasted the air with his tongue, but didn't really move. So I shot a few more shots, then continued on my way. Hopefully, he eventually moved off the path.

When my Alltrails recording showed two miles of distance covered, and the trail appeared to be on a downward trend, I decided it was time to turn around. Because I did so much wandering before getting on the actual trail at the start of the hike, my final distance when I returned to my car was only 3.75 miles. Still, enough, even if I didn't get to break in those boots.

Once back at the car, I took a few roof rack shots, for Facebook. I had posted my previous test mounting, but that photo was taken inside my garage, which is a cluttered mess. My wife did not approve.

All in all, a decent walk, and a fair test for the Yakima rack. I'll take it again on my next weekend trip to Joshua Tree, mainly just to see if the mounting remains stable in use. Assuming no surprises, after that, I'll feel comfortable using it on a longer trip, if necessary. I may have mentioned we're hoping to hit Chaco Canyon this summer. Not sure if I'll bring a telescope, though. Even with a smaller telescope setup, I think we can fit a tent, other accessories, and four or five days of clothes just within the car, but it would be cozy. If things start feeling a little too cozy, well, the roofrack then comes into play.

Black Canyon Loop, Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, NV

Hiked March 30, 2025. This post got pushed back a bit because of my recent comet adventures.

I took this hike right after the early morning hike at Cathedral Gorge, and breakfast in Panaca. We then started the long drive back to Henderson. Early in the drive, we passed a sign for the Oak Springs Trilobite Site. Sort of figured actually finding anything there would require some digging, which I wasn't willing to do. But we made a U-turn, drove down the dirt road, and walked around the site, a bit. It was just a short hike, for me. No photos, and no digging. Lots of broken shale. No obvious visible trilobites. Then, back in the car, and continued south, on to Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge.

We had stopped here once before, last April, during the time I was supposed to see the total eclipse, but cancelled various plans due to forecasted clouds in TX and NY.

It's about 90 minutes north of Henderson, so doable as a long day trip, which is what we did, last time.

Since that trip, on my various facebook and what not scrolling, I learned that there was a recently-reopened trail in Pahranagat NWR, with petroglyphs you could see with binoculars. It's the Black Canyon Loop, about 1.5 miles, if you take the spur trails. AFAIK, all trails in the Refuge that are open are open dawn to dusk. During hunting season, you may wish to revise your hiking plans.

The small parking area is on the opposite (east) side of US-93 from where you'd turn towards the Refuge visitor center. If you are driving from the visitor center, you cross directly across the highway to get to the dirt road. The dirt road is the start of an off-highway route, but there's the small parking area with swinging gates, on the left side of the dirt road. Some informational displays are there.

The trail itself is a narrow oval loop, which passes by several clusters of petroglyphs, one the far side of the loop, and another where the loop turns back towards the south, with a short spur to view Pahranagat Man, and other petroglyphs adjacent to him.

You're not adjacent to the water/lakes, though there are some vernal ponds and an intermittent stream, but not much water, so few or no waterfowl, unless they're flying to or from the lakes. Some sizable raptors were cruising above the volcanic areas, however. The turkey vulture, in particular, made a number of low loops around me. The red tailed hawk also got pretty close to me, but not as close as the turkey vulture, and he's quite a bit smaller. That shot was cropped by about half, while I only slightly cropped the turkey vulture shot, to center the bird.

Most petroglyphs were pretty faded, and not strikingly bright. But they're always nifty to see, as it's a way for long-dead people to talk to us, today. In this case, we're looking back one or two thousand years, which is a long time, for humans.

The star of the show is Pahranagat Man. He's apparently specific to this general area and that general time period. He's supposed to be a watchful, benign figure, overseeing his people. The Shoshone and Paiute consider themselves to be descendants of these people.

Pahranagat Man is visible in the picture adjacent to this paragraph, with a slightly wider view directly above this paragraph.

A stylized Pahranagat Man is also on the NWR visitor center building. That's the last picture in this post.

Along the various trails, there are metal representations of some of the local widlife -- squirrels, frogs, whatever. The one here made me jump back somewhat when I first saw him.

In speaking to the (volunteer?) in the visitor center, she mentioned that there are several other areas in the refuge with petroglyphs, if you were willing to walk around and find them on your own. I may try that on my next visit.

I didn't spend that much time looking at the exhibits in the visitor center. I was mainly there at Pahranagat for my specific goal of hiking Black Canyon, and, before and after that, making use of the flush toilets and running water at the VC!

But I do seem to recall from my previous visit that the migratory bird season is earlier, so if I want to see more migratory waterfowl, I should come earlier in the spring, or during late fall. That'll be something to keep in mind for fall or for next spring.

I will note that there were a LOT of turkey vultures we saw flying around while driving between Henderson and Cathedral Gorge. Most seemed to be flying north.

By itself, this morning in Pahranagat NWR alone wouldn't qualify as a "hike" under my old rules of three miles, minimum. Probably even adding the wandering early that morning in Cathedral Gorge wouldn't bring me up to that total. Maybe adding the walks to and from the visitor center? At any rate, it was a nice bonus reason for visiting Cathedral Gorge that weekend. And I do plan to make additional trips up here, maybe for the petroglyphs elsewhere in the refuge, and maybe for the ones on BLM land further up, near Hiko or Caliente.

Just for informational purposes, I can say that pets (mainly dogs) are allowed on trails, if they are leashed. Different rules for hunting dogs during hunting season.

The information on the website says pets, not dogs. So, I suppose in theory, if you have a well-behaved, leash-trained cat, he or she can come, too. But my cats aren't trained, and I did not ask.

Around Arch Rock trail, Joshua Tree National Park

Hiked April 12, 2025. Moved this one up in the publication queue because of its timeliness.

A recently discovered comet had me itching at the chance to get out somewhere dark to have a try at it. Its name is C/2025F2 SWAN. It's called "SWAN" because it was discovered by the "Solar Wind ANisotropies" instrument, about the European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Most comets nowadays are being discovered by these automated imaging observatories, once someone gets around to reviewing the data. NEOWISE and Tsuchinshan-Atlas were two other recent examples of that.

On March 29, this comet was observed on data collected by SWAN. On April 8, it got the current official name. Unfortunately, it may have been undergoing an outburst right about when the first photographs were taken following the announcement. It apparently got dimmer after that, so, unlike some previous comets, it has really been pretty quiet on my facebook feed and news stories for this guy. Most are still using the first photos following the report, which showed a long and thin tail. The more recent photos look more like what I got on April 13, which was a small and undefined fuzziness.

As I write this, Comet C/2025F2 SWAN is in the morning sky, rising a little before sunrise. It gets less than five degrees up (ten apparent moon diameters) before dawn starts brightening the sky.

On the morning I viewed, it was in the east-northeast. It's moving further north each night, but also getting lower in the sky. It'll be hard to catch as we get towards later April, unless it gets a lot brighter.

I had two ideas for where I might view: Ryan Mountain trailhead, or Arch Rock Trailhead. I've done viewing from both locations in the past, and visited both sites the afternoon of the 12th. Ryan Mountain works better for things to the west, but, to the east, the land climbs in altitude, and there are rocks and hills, so for a low in the east-northeast comet, it didn't look like it would work well.

Meanwhile, although there is a slight hill to the east and northeast of Arch Rock trailhead, it's far enough away that it doesn't take too long for objects in the east to rise above them. I confirmed this while parked in the lot, and picked my spot within the lot for the next morning. Then, with about 90 minutes before the end of civil twilight, I went hiking.

No particular destination. I've seen the major attractions here many times (Arch Rock and Heart Rock), and also wandered, in the past. Did the same, this evening.

Late afternoon and early evening is a great time to go hiking in the desert. The sun is low, and the soft, warm light makes the desert look rather magical. Everywhere I turned, I saw somethng photogenic.

Began my return trek as the sun went down. Atop several different outcroppings, my fellow hikers sat, watching the sun set over the Joshua trees.

Not sure of my hiking distance, because I forgot to shut my Alltrails recording when I got back to the car. The actual Arch Rock trail is given as 1.2 miles roundtrip. However, I wandered a lot before looping back to Arch Rock. I also made the spur to Heart Rock. So I would estimate somewhere near three miles for the afternoon.

The next morning, I got to the parking area around 3:45am, and assembled my 8" dob, and two photographic setups. But I forgot the setting to let me take longer exposures with my Nikon D3500 (you need to change a video setting if you're using Liveview to take exposures longer than 1/60th of a second, even in photo mode), so I only took photos with my refractor system, and visually searched with my Dob.

It was somewhat cloudy to the northeast, and a practically full moon was off in the west, so the sky was pretty bright, even before dawn. That limited the exposures to only 8-13 seconds. Good for limiting star trailing, I guess. But not good for picking up comets.

I did get images of the comet, but no tail was visible. Just a greenish smudge.

I'm going to try again on April 20. As noted above, the comet may be brighter, but it will also be lower in the sky. Also, while the moon is smaller (waning, last quarter), it will also be closer in the sky to the comet.

Unfortunately, the latest news is not encouraging. Sounds like the comet may have disintegrated, which would explain the brief outburst early last week, then the dramatic dimming after that.