Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Cool pix! Also, glad to see you're learning with the fine print. A lot less misleading than when I "won."

At the risk of giving away your level of commitment (which I find impressive) to the trees, this will serve as my internet-wide broadcast that you and I and @mrs.turbodb (assuming you bring me that RC Cola, or, apparently now an enthusiastic high-five) will be there on THIS Friday morning Nov. 1, to help with the Joshua Tree planting.

It would be super cool if others who frequent this thread that I've not had a chance to meet wanted to show up as well! Afterall, it's one of the few times that the letdown of meeting ME could be offset by meeting YOU!

We'll be quite the team. You in your cowboy hat, and me wearing my LLBean cover shot. We're destined for fame I tell you.

 

You just need one of these:



I wish I could make it down there but it's a bit of a hike and I have some weekend things

 

We'll be there next week to care for the baby trees. Always a good excuse to visit the Shell Station at the interstate for one of their date shakes.




Unrelated, have you seen the plaque where the photo of the Joshua Tree was taken for the cover of the U2 album? Back when we had "covers" and "albums."

 

Man, you are always pointing out random interesting things in the middle of nowhere! Got my hopes up that this was in Mojave, but I guess it's actually up by Darwin? I'll try to find it next time I'm up there.

Love those date shakes, but... God Dammit Bobby, I wish they sold some dang propane and propane accessories.

(Nights are getting colder these days!)

Some additional pictures and ramblings:



Between late arrival on the first night, and subsequent unfavorable atmospheric conditions, I didn't spend any time stumbling around in darkness trying to get a nice night-sky composition this trip. Don't worry, I'll be back!


God Dammit, Bobby!

Camping at more-popular sites, one can expect to be accosted by fearless rodents at the campfire. I find this frustrating, and wish that people would stop gleefully hand-feeding the wildlife everywhere they go. (Moab is the worst for this -- they will climb up your leg to hop into your car the moment you open the door and set foot on the ground!)

Now that we're all in agreement that this problem is caused by "those other people," here's a photo of a kangaroo rat eating popcorn next to my campfire. Didn't mean to feed him, but we made up some popcorn, and there's no way to exuberantly fist popcorn into your mouth without dropping some of it. He bounced in at mach-four and nabbed several kernels before we could frantically start picking up after ourselves.

We named him 'Bobby' and jokingly cursed at him for the rest of the night... long after the popcorn was gone. Dude was waiting for that last handout, I almost feel bad for leaving him hanging.



Here's Carlos... still mad at myself for botching a close-up shot. Snuck up ever-so-carefully, only to trip on a cactus just as I was bringing the camera up. Dude was in flight before I had even started screaming expletives.

I'm not mad at you, Carlos.... I'm mad at myself!


Not a particularly great photo, but where better to watch the golden hour unfold than here on Cima Dome?

The ice halos were so fascinating, I finally just bought myself a crazy fisheye lens. 6.5mm, supposedly. If I'm blessed to see such bizarre skies ever again, hopefully I can focus a horizon-to-horizon circle of sky onto the camera sensor. That would be pretty neat. Hoping it arrives before I head back up there!

 

This sounds like a fun event. I'll in the joshua tree area on Friday and Saturday I was thinking about heading north. I'll have my stepsons, 10 and 16 in tow. How strenuous is this tree planting?

 

No more strenuous than you want. Pretty much everyone is there to have fun and enjoy each other's company, just as much as they're there to plant trees.

You can choose which group to join, and which site to plant. Some planting sites are strenuous day-long hikes, but many more are within a quarter-mile of the road. Some groups are ambitious, seeking to hit multiple sites on the same hike... but most are laid-back and will hit one at a time. There are no trails, but the terrain is easy and gently sloped.

If you prefer to take it easy, just state that when groups are forming and sites are being selected. If you join a larger group, say, 6 or more people, then nobody has to carry a great deal of weight either. Sometimes I wind up carrying two bags of water, and have to stop frequently to rest my hands. Other times, I have to stubbornly insist I be allowed to carry so much as a shovel, after everything else has already been loaded or strapped to folk's backpacks.

You can work all day, or tackle an easy site and bow out by mid-morning to go explore other parts of the preserve on your own.

My two key recommendations are (1) to show up by 8AM for the briefing, and (2) join the group that best matches your vibe and ambitions. For example, assuming you'll arrive in a 4x4 -- don't feel compelled to join a 4x4 group. (That is the typical initial criteria for splitting the crowd.) I'll be honest... sometimes the Prius crowd is more fun to hike with.

I personally think this would be a fantastic experience for you and your stepsons, especially on the heels of seeing the spectacular scenery of Joshua Tree. No pressure, of course... but I'll pick up some extra cans of RC Cola just in case our paths cross -- I'm not giving beer to a 10-year-old. (And I'm suddenly hoping that RC Cola actually exists... I haven't seen it since like the 90s?)

 

I was watching something and reminded of a cool distribution method for seeds. I think it’s Africa that people cut down trees to make charcoal. It’s illegal to do so. Rather than waste the charcoal, the government mixes seed with it and turns it into little balls. Those get bagged up and handed out. Kids use slingshots to distribute them. They also dump crates of them from the air.

The beauty is they don’t waste the charcoal and the balls protect seedlings since most animals won’t eat them. The rains soaks the balls and the seeds germinate and eventually, grow in the soil.

No idea what the success rate is but it does help reforest the area.

 

If you join our group, that would be RAD. Unless you want things to be too strenuous. Then, don't join our group. Also, Mike is bringing cold drinks for us all. He promised. Many times. And even if he didn't, he should have.

 

Anticlimactic?

 

LOL. I live on top of the 17th largest caldera in the world. Earthquakes aren't that big on my worry list. Unless it's the one that precedes said caldera popping it's top.

 

Thanks to all the guys planting the Joshua trees. A combination of circumstances, and then getting a dog which makes things more difficult, have kept me from coming back since my first time in March 2022.

 

I was always concerned more about the calderas down that way and also in Yellowstone. Earthquakes can make things uncomfortable for a time and we may lose a (relative) few people but volcanic activity has the potential for a lot more severe damage.

 

*pops Dante's Peak into the old VHS player*

 

Snorkels

 

We're doing our trip on November 8th...not this upcoming weekend. Thank you for the information about the various levels of intensity for the tree planting.

 

Normal temp in AZ summer.

 

Death Valley

 

Can’t wait to get back out there. We go every February. This years trip got cut a day short due to a lower ball joint failing

 

Nice shot
Having a hard time placing this...where might this be?

 

About a mile from the end of White Top Mountain rd.



Any geologist who can explain this strange phenomenon?
Looks like fossilized or petrified bacterial growth.… ?