Interpretive Hiking (continued)
As I mentioned in a previous post, there is too much of Joshua Tree National Park to squeeze into one entry. So I decided to dedicate a post just for Wonderland of Rocks and Barker Dam. This was such a great adventure, and I’m glad that we allotted 6 hours for exploration! If you’ve ever gotten lost in Joshua Tree before, you probably understand why.
There was maybe one sign pointing us in the general direction of the parking lot leading to Wonderland of Rocks. Other than that, we were on our own. Luckily, GPS helped guide us until we were deep in the wonderland. There are plenty of climbing rocks at different grades here, and those were valuable landmarks for our return. After walking for about 30min, we found ourselves isolated with just the landscape around us. No signs and trails were unmarked, save for some footprints going in all directions. Talk about interpretive hiking! It was truly a unique experience, and we loved every moment of it!
Geological Formations
Unique rock formations are what sets Joshua Tree apart from other landscapes. From the elusive Hall of Horrors to the Wonderland of Rocks, no two areas in the park are the same. Geologists think that the process of these rock formations began over 100 million years ago. Volcanic activity pushed magma to the surface and as it cooled it formed rocks that cracked. Over time, water and erosion from wind uncovered these complex rock formations and rounded some of the corners of these rocks. Flash floods moved the rocks around and they eventually settled into the rock piles that can be found all over the desert today.
Fun fact: water has more of a long-term effect than wind on rock formations!
Wonderland of Rocks
I’ve been looking forward to writing about this part of the trip for a long time! Exploring this area is by far my favorite daytime activity at Joshua Tree. We climbed some rocks to have lunch and discovered some grinding holes in the rock that were still stained black. It was surreal eating lunch at the spots where previous communities prepared their food. The beautiful panoramic views of the rock formations made the area that much more special.
Just for scale, in the next photograph you can get an idea of just how vast the place is. Imagine this view all around and you’ll see why this is one of my favorite areas to visit. When framing the shot, I wanted variety in the rock piles, as well as a denser patch of Joshua trees. I used the Rule of Thirds by placing the rock formations in the bottom third of the frame to help demonstrate the vastness of the landscape.
Barker Dam
We needed to head east to get back to our car, but we ended up going south instead (GPS was very spotty!). On this path, we started to hear other people and realized how far we were from our car. We had trekked all the way to Barker Dam! But since we were already at the dam, why not check it out first? To our surprise, the water levels were actually pretty high.
I love shooting water. There are so many ways to get creative with water photography that completely changes the final image. For example, I didn’t do anything special while shooting the above image. I just framed up the shot, checked the histogram and focus peaks, and took the image. You can see the ripples in the water caused by the wind gusts and distant ducks landing in the water.
Some Improvisation Needed
In the next image, I wanted to smooth over the water and get a hazy reflection of the rocks. I forgot my tripod in the car and used a towel and a rock to rest my camera instead. I slapped on a ND x400 filter to reduce the light by ~9 stops, which allowed me to increase my shutter speed and smooth over most of the water. However, it was very windy that day, and the tree on the right was moving and got blurred. I liked the green that it adds to the shot and decided to leave it in, despite the blurriness. The clouds were also moving relatively fast and got blurred in the sky. I actually like the resulting effect in this image as I think it makes the rock piles a little sharper.
The next shot was a little complicated. The dark water and rock shadows in the foreground and the bright sky and rocks in the background threw off the dynamic range. To try and balance all of the tones, I attached a circular polarizing filter to my lens. This allowed me to remove some of the reflection in the water and slightly darken the sky, adding a bit of depth to the image. I also exposed to the right (ETTR) with the intention of darkening the image in Lightroom later to reduce the exposure and highlights and bring out the shadows to make the exposure more even. Here is the final image:
Final Thoughts
This will definitely not be the last post highlighting Joshua Tree. There is so much more to the park, especially at night, that I’ll save for another post. Joshua Tree has some of the darkest night skies, and it offers some awesome opportunities for astrophotography. Stay tuned!
If you’ve got a favorite place in Joshua Tree for photography, feel free to drop a comment below!
A Bit of History of Stories of Joshua Tree
Click here to read my first portion of the history of Joshua Tree National Park.
For this post, I’d like to highlight a couple of unique historical stories about Joshua Tree:
Matt Riley – in 1905, Matt Riley and his friend Henry Kitto set off on foot from OK Mine to Mecca to celebrate the 4th of July. They planned to stop at Cottonwood Spring, which was about 25mi from where they started. However, they only brought one canteen of water between the two of them. Kitto turned back at the 12mi mark after feeling sick, but Riley pressed on. Unfortunately, he never made it to the spring. His body was found a couple hundred yards from the spring and his tracks indicated that he had circled around aimlessly. This is a side effect of extreme dehydration, and there is a sign that marks the grave site of Riley. Be sure to pack plenty of water when you’re out in the desert!
Oasis of Mara – if you’ve been to the east side of Joshua Tree, there’s a chance you drove through Twentynine Palms. The Oasis of Mara (Mara meaning “the place of little things and much grass”) was first settled by the Serrano tribe. A medicine man told the tribe to plant a palm tree there each time a boy was born and in the first year, 29 boys were born (hence the name Twentynine Palms). These palm trees provided the tribe with food and material for building and clothing. The Serrano also cultivated corn, beans, pumpkins, and squash around the oasis.
As usual, comments, conversations, feedback, and messages are always welcome!
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