Joshua Tree National Park, near Heart Rock, April 30, 2022

Hiked on April 30, 2022, the afternoon and evening before my previous photo, of the Venus/Jupiter Conjunction. I was mainly scouting out the area for potential foregrounds for the next morning, and also for possible Milky Way shots, later in the summer. I hiked from the Twin Tanks parking area to Heart Rock, then cross-country north, then slanting to the northwest, joining the California Riding and Hiking trail for about a 1.5 to 2 miles.

I found two windows, which I photographed, and are definite possibilities for later in the summer.

I also found numerous large boulders and protrusions along this path, which might also be interesting foreground objects for skyscapes.

Other things probably wouldn't make a good foreground for a skyscape, but were still interesting. Some rocks almost looked like they had been fitted together as a wall.

Not a tremendous amount of walking, but enough to give my legs a stretch. And very happy with at least a few of the shots I got the next day, too.

I took several Joshua Tree NP hikes last year that still need to be blogged. Not sure if I'll get to them.

Still many other, more recent hikes to blog, even though I've only managed a few hikes in May.

Going to go ahead and post this one as it is. Don't want to keep falling further and further behind.

Joshua Tree, Venus/Jupiter Conjunction, May 1, 2022

Used some long-held AAdvantage points for a free night's stay at the Motel 6 in Twentynine Palms. Did some hiking the previous afternoon and evening, to scout out possible sites to shoot the conjunction. Closest approach between the planets was actually the previous morning, but I worked on Friday night, so couldn't head out until the Saturday, to shoot, Sunday morning.

Continuous morning fog the previous few days here in the LA Basin, so I was pretty sure I would need to head to the desert to see this, and I did. Hiked just around Arch Rock and Heart Rock. I saw lights around Arch Rock in the morning so I headed elsewhere.

Hope to get my previous night's hike, and other hikes from the past six weeks posted, soon.

TTFN

Bowl of Fire, Lake Mead NRA, NV

Hiked on Sunday, February 20. This was Presidents Day weekend. I drove up on a Saturday, and goofed around some with my cell phone. Those are the last two shots of this post.

Parked at Hole 29 and stuck my cell phone (Samsung S21) on a tripod. Used Pro mode to take 30 second exposures at ISO 800. Decent results, if you view it on a cell phone. If you zoom in, things are pretty grainy, though.

Sunday morning, I had chores to do, and didn't go hiking until the afternoon. Still got a good bit of walking in, enough to hit my step target.

Parked the same place as for this hike. That was from just under a year ago.

Funny thing is, if you download the Alltrails route, then just want to wander, it keeps sending you a notification to check to see if you've lost the route.

But I wanted to wander, to see different areas from last time. I think I could do a number of more wandering trips in the area. It's not very large, but there are lots of protrusions to separate the Bowl of Fire into smaller chunks.

It's a great place to wander. Lots of narrow fins of sandstone to see. Small arches. Overhanging rocks. Very cool.

There are some slot canyons among the sandstone. I leaned over the edge and snapped a picture down into one small tank. Used my voice-activation on the shutter.

Helpful if you don't want to risk fumbling your phone while holding it over a big drop!

Hadn't realized that Samsung has had that feature on a lot of their phones for quite some time.

I used the same feature when I had the phone on my tripod. That let me take photos without inducing any vibrations.

First night sky shot is looking north, with the Big Dipper and Cassiopia on either side of Polaris. The second is a tighter shot, with Orion to the left and the Pleiades to the right. Fun toy, but obviously not as shart as a dslr. Some Lightroom for mobile processing, to darken the sky.

Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Warm Springs Natural Area, Nevada

Visited on Saturday, January 15, 2022.

Located about one hour north of Las Vegas, these two adjacent properties protect the headwaters of the Muddy River, and comprise restored habitat for two native fishes: the Moapa White River springfish and the Moapa dace.

Both were endemic to these watersheds, but became endangered to exotic species introductions. They are mostly isolated to these headwaters, now, where warm water springs seep to the surface.

Near the very headwaters, themselves, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has built some glass-sided viewing areas, where you can see these fish in their restored habitat.

The available walkable area, even between these two sites, is pretty minimal, so you probably don't want to build your entire day around a visit out here. But if you're already heading to other wildlife refuges to the northwest of Las Vegas, or coming back from Valley of Fire or points northwest, this is a nice stop. Vault toilets and picnic tables are available, here.

It's usually pretty lonely around here. When we arrived, there was only one car in the fair-sized dirt parking lot for the wildlife refuge, but the small paved lot for Warm Springs (Southern Nevada Water Authority, SNWA) was overflowing. By the time I finished walking around Warm Springs, however, that lot was completely empty.

In the Wildlife Refuge, there's a short trail to an overlook, as well as a board walk and trail among the headwaters and palms. There are wider and longer trails among the SNWA lands, that winds among the creek, and passes several points of interest. There's a slight change in elevation as you go away from the parking lot and return. Still, altogether, it would be hard to spend more than an hour walking, unless you're really there to try to bird watch.

Not a lot of birds to see when I was there. I assume there are specific seasons when they visit, or maybe more when it's hot, and the water is more welcoming to the local birdlife.

To get here from Las Vegas, you'd take I-15 north, to exit 90. That's NV-168. Head west for 7.1 miles to Warm Springs Road (sign for the Wildlife Refuge -- The other brown signs along this road were for entering or leaving the Moapa Indian Reservation). Turn left. Low speed limit, here, and pretty narrow, but still paved.

The entry for Moapa Valley Wildlife Refuge will be on your left. The entry for Warm Springs is on the right, just a bit further down the road. You can easily leave your car in one lot and walk to the other location, though you may choose to drive, if you want your car and ice chest near where you are, when you decide to picnic.

Rubio Canyon, Dec 31, 2021

My last hike from last year, first post of this year. Still have numerous hikes from last year I need to blog. Kind of annoyed that my current life pattern doesn't give me time to edit photos and post, except on those rare long weekends where I don't have to work and I don't have to travel.

If you're local to southern California, you know it's been a pretty wet past few weeks. Probably six inches or more in the foothills in the past week, and more in the mountains. Figured this made it a good time to go check out some waterfalls.

The Rubio Canyon falls, all the way up to Leontine, were among my first few years of hiking adventures. However, my last two attempts to get to Leontine ended in failure. Just couldn't find the way to that descent into the gorge to Leontine.

Turns out this hike was largely the same, initially. My first attempt, I stayed lower, and did not find Leotine, but did find myself on the creek, above the last dropoffs, leading to Thalehaha. First time there, I think. So I went down there, snapped the small waterfalls in this gorge, snapped a shot of some people, preparing to rapel down Thalehaha, then worked my way back up to the "trail."

From there, my numerous attempts kept ending in impassable thickets, and led to much backgracking, ascending, descending, and more deadends. Kind of frustrating. I finally admitted I needed help (the first step!), and pulled out my phone and launched the Alltrails app.

I was convinced I had gone the wrong way because I did a lot of vertical climbing, and I did not recall having to gain so much altitude on my successful gos. Pulling up the map, the app showed a trail heading towards a point marked for Leontine some distance back below. So I headed the way my phone indicated, until I neared the trail split, then turned back north. This put me on to an overlook, where I could finally see Leontine.

Along the way, I passed another hiker, heading up, who I think was also looking for Leontine, and I'm pretty sure he didn't find it.

Even from the overlook, I was not entirely sure of the way down. But I followed the logical descent, and found myself with some ropes, which told me this was the place. Some of those ropes even looked familiar. :D

The descent seemed steeper, and with fewer handholds than I recalled. I think erosion has made the descent more difficult, to the point where the ropes are almost a necessity, and not just a handy assist.

I'm not sure if a similar fate (erosion) caused my former route to the Leontine overlook met a similar fate, but it did seem like it took a steeper ascent to reach the more or less lateral trail to the overlook.

However, once at the bottom of the gorge, it did seem like some changes had occurred here, too. From the bottom of the gorge, the path upstream is blocked by a boulder, wedged into the "V." There's a fair waterfall shooting out under the boulder when it's wet, too.

To get around this barrier, you need to attain the height of that "V." You do that by heading straight across the gorge and climbing that up about ten feet, then turning back upstream. The rock closer to the "V" is grippy enough that you can safely traverse this section, despite being on the edge of that aforementioned ten-foot drop.

There used to be a log leaning against the opposite side of the gorge that made attaining the height easier. It's still definitely doable, but now it's a short class 3 pitch. It's pretty easy going up, if you're of average height and strength, unless the prospect of needing to go class 3 (which I think of as "no feet on solid ground, pull yourself up," even if it's a very short pull, and with a pretty small drop if you slip.).

Going past the next falls is somewhat similar, in that it may a longer "tightwire walk," where you're leaning into the side of the gorge and have your feet on a narrow shelf. In theory, its not big deal, since, on this one, if you fall, it's a short slide into a mostly smooth-rock and sand landing. But if the fear of falling gets into your head, it's just long enough to let you freeze up.

That put me at the base of Leontine, for the first time in several tries (albeit tries I didn't put too much effort into, since I was pretty sure there wasn't going to be much water coming over Leontine, then). It was flowing at least as nicely as the first time I saw it. Lots of pictures, and some video.

I then tried an alternate way back up to the Leontine overlook, that would bypass the two short "scary" segments, but that was stymied by cliffs. So I made my way back down, navigated the two difficult sections with relative ease, and completed my climb up the ropes. Happily, there was no oncoming traffic. No one else coming or going down to Leontine while I was there.

From there, it was back to the Leontine overlook, back to the Thalehaha overlook, then, on the way back to the main trail, I diverted to the Grand Chasm waterfall. That one used to be easier to get to, but erosion took out the more direct route to the landing, above Ribbon Rock/Moss Grotto (I'm actually not sure which one is which). Hadn't been here in a while, so it was a fun diversion. Shot a few photos over the edge from here, too.

Then it was down to the base or Moss Grotto and Ribbon Rock, then back to my car. My app insists I walked only about 3.5 miles, which seems way low, considering how many deadends I tried. My fitbit put my step total for this part of my day up around 12,000 steps, which seemed more like it.

Really beat, and soaking wet, by the time I was done, regardless of the official distance. Part of the wet was from the water, since the bit near Leontine does include some splash-zone scrambling. Also some splash in the area above Thalehaha, when I contemplated scrambling up the next level (I elected not to). I also scurried under lots of brush, probably still wet from the recent rains. Fortunately, I think the recent cold weather put the ticks to bed, so no ticks found, when I got home. But soaking wet. The shower at home felt good.

May try to hike Bailey Canyon in a bit. That waterfall hasn't been running the last few times I went, even after some significant rains. I'm wondering if erosion upstream has shifted where the water flows? May find out, today or tomorrow.

Table Top Mountain, Mojave National Preserve, CA

Hiked Sunday, November 7, 2021. Been thinking about doing this hike again for quite some time. I'm somewhat surprised to discover I first hiked this over ten years ago. Hiked it again about two years after that.

In the interim, there had been at least one major fire and at least one major flooding event, which resulted in a regrading of Black Mountain Road. For a while, I couldn't find the turnoff. The place I stopped the first time doesn't seem to exist, any more. But, being a crosscountry hike, that doesn't matter too much. I mainly just needed a wide spot to park my car.

About five miles past the turnoffs for Hole in the Wall visitor center/Black Canyon Equestrian and Group Campground, a jeep trail crosses Black Canyon Road. From the left (as you are heading north), the road comes up from the wash. To the right, it climbs steeply away from the road. I backed my Prius up, with its tail towards the wash and its nose pointed in my direction of travel.

Followed the jeep trail up out of the canyon, and continued forward for about a mile. (I'm ignoring my 45 minutes or so spent circling the boulders near the crest, as I climbed up towards them, removed my backpack as I scrambled, then couldn't find it for quite some time). Ran into a small herd of cows as I did this. Not wanting to tempt them into charging, and knowing I needed to go north, I left the jeep trail and turned left, up a sandy, slightly eroded seasonal waterway.

A quarter mile or so later, I reached the familiar water tank and windmill. Then I turned right, and walked along the boundary fence for the next two miles.

Slid under the fence near the "final" rocky outcropping before coming parallel to the west face of Table Top mountain, and headed up towards the ridge.

While the trail along the fence is pretty clear, there are numerous intermittant trails heading up and along the ridge, towards the west face of Table Top Mountain. Some are "ducked," and some are not. I probably take a different route each time. Somewhat steep in places, and very slippery on that final pitch towards the lava rocks that are the face of Table Top Mountain. I usually wind up heading near the boundary fence that runs along that ridge, crossing slightly over the line after the fence ends, and head towards an approachable notch that faces mostly west.

Those rocks are unstable, so you should take extreme care as you pick your way up. Also, try to avoid damaging the plants as you climb the slippery way towards that notch, and avoid damaging the lichen on the rocks near the top. Obviously, if this trail were more heavily used, this would quickly become an issue. But, in practice, this is a somewhat rarely-walked route, despite the prominence of the mountain, within sight of the campgrounds in this area of the Preserve.

Because of all that wasted energy around those boulders near the start, I was pretty tired making my way up to the summit. I had no appetite for continuing across the top of the mesa, as I had done, in the past. Instead, I took a number of photos right near the register, then scribbled my blog and handle name in one of the notebooks, there.

Drank and ate a bit, took a few more shots, then headed back down. Wound up taking a different route back than I had taken up, which is not unusual.

My Alltrails app says I walked 7.5 miles, so maybe 7 miles, if you subtrack my wandering. Add close to another mile, if you walk across the mesa and back. Thirteen hundred feet of elevation gain. Pretty rare to see anyone else on this hike.