Peace in the Desert

The wind finally quit blowing after a couple days of staying in the trailer.  We couldn't wait to get out and into the sunshine to do ANYTHING.  We can see the mountains from our trailer.  The snow capped peak is Mt. Charleston.

Zoomed in from the trailer to feel the texture of the front mountains... That mountain is about 4 miles away from the trailer as the Crow flies.  Mt. Charleston is behind that and is about 15 miles from the trailer.  Mt. Charleston is darker in the background in the shot below; it was a cloudy and windy day.

Since today was so nice, we decided that we would walk to the water storage tank out behind the RV park.  It is a short walk of about 1/2 mile across desert terrain.  We thought it would be good exercise, we may see some interesting things and get a few pictures, so off we went.  The shot below is from the back of the RV resort, and you can see the water storage tank at frame left, Mt. Charleston is frame right with its' snow capped peak mostly occluded by clouds.

Getting out in the desert is nice and peaceful, and gives a much different perspective of the surrounding area and world for that matter.  Gari with her hiking vest over light jacket, in front of snow capped  Mt. Charleston is ready to go.

The mountains look so close.

Looking back, we crossed the service road that leads out to the water tank.  You can still see the RV park in the distance.

...and arrived at the water tank.  Nice facility.  Nothing too exciting.

The shot below is looking ENE toward Mt. Charleston.  Being 1/2 mile out in the desert now, we don't seem any closer to the mountains.

AS we looked at our surroundings, we spotted a Yucca plant, frame right.  It was the only different plant in sight, so we decided to walk over there to check it out.

It was a short distance across the desert terrain, and looking back you can see that we are not too far from the water tank.

We even received a bonus at the Yucca, a nice tight little cluster of Barrel Cactus.

Once out at the lone Yucca plant, we noticed many more Yucca looking plants seemingly at the foot of the front mountain range.  So we decided, we can probably walk over there and check it out.  Maybe we will be real close to the mountain!  OK, let's go!

We made it to the Yucca patch, yep it was more Yucca.  Steve checks out a typical specimen below.

As we are walking along, Gari calls out is that Karen?  Me: What?  Where, Who?  What she was asking me, is that a rock cairn?  A trail marker.  Oh, right.  Sure enough there was a line of stacked rocks.  I see two smaller cairns leading to the granddaddy cairn in the shot below.

Gari checks out the granddaddy cairn below.

As we approach the front mountain range, Mt. Charleston starts to disappear behind.  We also notice several other things; the rock cairn line continuing on toward the mountains, the nodule at the top of the front peak, and is that a Joshua Tree in the distance?  Since we didn't seem to be a lot closer to the front range, we decided to follow the rock cairn line a little farther and see if it led to an interesting opening in the nearby mountain and perhaps check out the suspected Joshua Tree.  Off we went again...

Sure looks like a Joshua Tree.

Steve checks out the Joshua Tree below.  It seems to be a pretty mature specimen.  Often as we observe the Yucca increase in number in the desert, it usually isn't too long before we start to see Joshua Trees too.

The Joshua Tree had bark similar to an Oak Tree at the base...

...but as you went up into the branches, the trunks were covered with the dead palms and looked like a covering of hair.  Magnificent.

As we plodded along the cairn line, we noticed a large hole.  Oh my gosh!  What lives in there?!  It looked like a basketball would fit into that hole.  After a little thought, we decided it was a Desert Tortoise den.  What do you think?

Steve stands next to a very young Joshua Tree and points to the last rock cairn marker that we would reach that day.  According to Gari's handheld GPS we we 2-1/4 miles into the desert.  We reckoned that we were still about 1-1/2 miles from the base of the front mountains.  We can barely see Mt. Charleston from here.

Last shot before we head back....

We followed the rock cairn line back, and we stopped at the granddaddy so Gari could put a marker in her GPS.

While going out into the desert, it turns out, we just stumbled onto the rock cairn trail somewhere in the middle.  As we followed the cairn line back toward the RV park, we came upon a fancy cairn that we did not see going out.  It was a rock stack circled by a ring of rocks.  Very fancy cairn.

Close up of fancy cairn.

Since the day was so nice we decided to go back out to the desert after our little water tank hike.  We set up a little champagne, cheese & crackers complete with bluetooth music party in front of the scenic mountains.  It was a total hit with both of us.  We sat out there for an hour or more.

Gari is a HAPPY camper.

We went back and had some of the homemade soup, then took a walk after dinner.  As the sun sets, it really sets off colors and textures in the mountains.