Is it that time of the year again?

Yep, it's Xmas again, here's a few seasonal images, all taken somewhere along a road trip - hope you enjoy viewing as much as i did in discovering.

"Ah'll be back" - to quote the Terminator.
Happy new year, too.

Revisiting two most interesting places - Bonk's and Moby's

I come back to old film (or pixels), road trips taken long ago, and i have two reactions:

1 - I am soo, soooo glad i did these trips, all the bad motels, lousy breakfasts, gas station coffee.

2 - In retrospect, i think much differently of a few places than i did when i first took them in.

Bonk's Jaw-Bone Canyon Store

When i first came upon the place was in... uh.... 1996...'97.... i think.

It was an oasis of sorts, had everything you could possibly need in a place like this.

The proprietor was a master marketeer - it was all here - sunglasses, hats, drinks, sandwiches, maps,.........

He sat behind the cash register, said nothing, not a talkative soul I guess.

If you didn't see it here, you probably wouldn't need it.

Why was it called '....jawbone canyon store'?

Not too far away was 'jawbone canyon', so named for some well known dirt-biking hills, enough to rattle your jawbones, and maybe a few more bones.

Moby's - Somewhere along Rt 247, headed south towards Joshua Tree -

Moby made art from rubbish.

A number of the frames I took there found their way into my darkroom.

I call this one 'Desert dervish'

It was marvelous art, in the style of Robert Rauschenberg circa 1970 or so, i remember walking into the MOMA in NYC and seeing a goat with a tire around it - i laughed out loud.

Moby was a quintessential desert rat if there ever was one. His place was sprawling and impossible to miss as you drove by. He was ready to come out to meet visitors, press the flesh, and tell you as many stories as you could listen to. He also invited one to meet his 8th wife - yes *8th*, that's not a typo. Any guy who's had 8 wives definitely has some stories to tell.

Lord knows where he collected the stuff he used. For one thing, he knew that people would show up to check out his amazing collection of BMW motorcycle wheels, especially tourists from Germany. How the news spread, i have no idea, this was "pre-internet babble" times.

The thing that gets me about both places now is that when I went by sometime after my first visit, both places were gone, what was, was demolished, just a big 'for sale' sign.

Progress can sometimes suck, big time, but you knew that already.

I guess what I'm trying to get around to saying is that whatever happens to both pieces of real estate, it couldn't possible have but a bit of the personality of what once was. Bonk's was a few miles northeast of Mojave, Ca - a town that has seen a spurt of growth in recent years thanks to the growth of the aerospace industry. It had a museum of sorts for all kinds of planes, and a huge graveyard for old planes. 

When i first drove thru, it was like many desert towns, the road just turned into the main street of town for a while, then turned back into just a 2 lane road thru emptiness. 

Last time round, a beltway had been built which routed one around the town, bypassing the town itself.

To back up - or maybe 'move forward' with this train of thought - there is much discussion (and much discension) recently about western lands, and how to manage them.

The BLM? they have their own ideas. 

So does Clive Bundy. But he is extreme, and obnoxious.

Westerners don't like Washington telling them what to do.... On the other hand:

Obama did some good things ..... but Trump is doing his damndest to undo it all.

We didn't miss that, we are reacting, and won't let too may people past us.

"Don’t trim Grand Staircase. If anything, expand it.

The Utah monument is sustaining small town tourism, a good substitute for extractive industry."

http://www.hcn.org/articles/opinion-save-grand-staircase-if-anything-its-too-small

'It had been a decade since our last visit, so I relished every moment in the monument’s otherworldly landscapes. What amazed me most, however, was the increased number — and diversity — of visitors. There were more than 10 times as many people on the trails than I’d ever seen before.'

'So how did all these people from across America, Europe and Asia, find out about this place where I used to hike for days without seeing a soul? Everyone I asked said they “saw photos on the internet.”

The internet is a blessing and a curse simultaneously.

Try and have a Merry 'Christmoose' in spite of it all.

Ready or not, here comes 2018!

Food for Thought Part 2

Let's continue on the paradoxical ('we're loving them to death') thread from the last post: How ridiculously overcrowded some Nat'l Parks have become.......

Photo: Brian Van Der Brug, TNS

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Traffic-jams-choking-Yosemite-11821383.php

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/us/national-parks-overcrowding.html

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-spots-ruined-by-social-media-9297876.php#photo-8182852

........And the ugly abuse of nature that some witless idiots perpetrate:

They have since apologized, but should really have had the brains to never do what they did in the first place.

https://www.kcet.org/shows/earth-focus/updated-parkour-team-apologizes-for-joshua-tree-spree

John Muir would be thunderstruck.

All the above VS: 

The fact that there is still a whole lot of empty space out there, where, as the saying (borrowed from the movie 'Alien') goes: 'no one can hear you scream'. At least no one human.

How tough is this land to travel over?

I've tried to climb up, and into places like the above, and spent several hours getting... a few hundred feet.

If i scream as loud as i can in the desert maybe some birds, lizards, jackrabbits, rats and mice, coyotes and rattlesnakes will wonder what boisterous vociferous beast has wandered their way.

All these critters keep low profiles, food (= nutrition/energy) is scarce, so is water. Weather is extreme (both hot and cold) so one and all conserve their energy. They steer clear of each other, and from humans.

I encountered a rattlesnake once in Joshua Tree, walking along a 'sort of crushed naturally' rocky  trail. Never heard that rattle before, but once one does, it's immediately recognizable and forever memorable. I turned in the direction of the sound, it took more than a few seconds to spot the snake, it's skin color and texture are a perfect camoflauge.

"OK dude, i am outta here, no need to mess w/ you".

In contrast to Yosemite there are some spots the US Park service and the SP admin. has provided that see very little action:

"Camp retirement" is what i call this one. It's at the east end of Valley of Fire SP about an hour north of Las Vegas, the west end has the most easily accessible petroglyph viewing, it's well traveled. 

The east end? Kinda gets ignored.

There was one guy who tried to settle in Joshua Tree - Bill Keys.

He did his best to establish something out here - what 's left behind is some testament to his efforts, he named the mill the 'Wall Street Mill' thinking he would get rich somehow, here. Didn't happen.

https://www.desertusa.com/desert-people/bill-keys.html

"In 1943, in an incident straight out of a western dime novel, a former deputy sheriff named Worth Bagley ambushed Keys just outside Keys' ranch. Bill returned fire and shot Bagley to death. The trial was a mockery of justice, with some powerful cattle ranching interests twisting the results against Keys. Bill was found guilty of murder and sent to jail".

Read more: https://www.desertusa.com/desert-people/bill-keys.html#ixzz4qK5a2WJu

http://www.joshuatree.org/

Trees need to be protected, Each and every one. Thanks, NPS.

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After years of writing about various journeys, it's time to switch gears - at 66 YO now my days of road-trippin' are over. Sciatica makes sitting in a car seat torture, walking is difficult and painful, i just can't do what i did before. I accept it all (gracefully, methinks) and will revisit all previous ventures w/ a much more philosophical bent. 

I have a huge amount of images, film and digital, plenty to ponder.

There is much to be learned from what i've seen, I've just got to look at it thru a different lense.

One thing i keep thinking about is desert vegetation, how tough it is. Joshua Trees take many decades to grow, saguaro cactus can live well over 100 years. They are all well adapted.

I grew up back east, lived there 'til i was 40 YO (25+ years ago).

Vegetation back there is pretty much homogenous, tall trees most everywhere, no horizon visible. Even if there's a field of low grass, it's bordered by trees, no horizon to be seen.

Out west? Not so.

Sure, you got great redwoods at the coast and it's mountains, but then beyond is the rain shadow to the east, you got desert. 

And some *really tough cookies* that survive on next to nothing.

They survive snow just as well as 100 degree heat.

This lack of vegetation of any significant size totally warps one's perception of distance - you can see for many, many miles in any direction, you are in the middle of a very vast space, not in the limited space of a forest.

---------------------------------

I live in a big apt. complex, 120+ units, and what i see passing by only a dozen or so is interesting, says a lot about the tenant inside. 

One interesting thing is... the welcome mat at the front door. My favorite has 'hola' and 'adios' separated by a diagonal line - the 'hola' is upright walking in, the 'adios' is at 180 degrees, oriented correctly when one leaves.

I've seen another version, a thousand years old in Valley of Fire SP.

I'd like to put this one at my front door.

The rough translation would be 'the people are here'.

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A few links really worth your time:

https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/06/06/photography-and-public-lands-seeing-yosemite/#

boomcalifornia.com/2017/05/24/the-deserts-of-los-angeles-two-topologies/

Have no doubt, i will be back :-)

Food for thought is a healthy diet - eat up! Feast on it!!

I've been using Wordpress cloud software for years, but recently they have changed their code to the point where i can't use it at all. 

I am on an old Mac Mini - 10.4 OS, Safari 4.1.3, Firefox 3.6....something.

(Did i hear someone say 'dinosaur'? They lived for millions of years, way longer than humans have, so maybe that's not such a good comparison.)

Everything works just fine.. except for these blogs.

Grrrr!!!!

I am pissed, i can't do anything w/ WP blogs now.

Here's the previous blog, many years of good posts and photography there.

https://roadtripsamericanwest.wordpress.com/ 

But there is always a work-around isn't there?

I will redirect all blog pages, just once, using a newer computer where i work, to a blogspot continuation.

I have often quoted 'Ah-nold' the Terminator's now famous line - "Ah'll be back" - I will!

And I should add a Don Henley song - "I will not go quietly" - I won't.

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Road trips definitely supply much food for thought!

SundayReview | Opinion | NY Times

Are We Loving Our National Parks to Death?

By DAYTON DUNCAN - AUG. 6, 2016 

"The tension between access and preservation has become ever more strained today."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/opinion/sunday/are-we-loving-our-national-parks-to-death.html

Yosemite - a place for contemplation of nature's majesty?

Or the theatre of climbing the face of Half Dome w/ no ropes or gear whatsoever?

'Frustrated Mavericks surfers long for simpler times'

What Mavericks has become:

http://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/jenkins/article/Frustrated-Mavericks-surfers-long-for-simpler-10900825.php?t=c780042880

I first visited the place - the town is called Princeton Harbor, Pillar point is the name of the beach, Fitzgerald Marine Reserve the name of the stretch of the beach for about a mile north of that - in..oooh... 1993. I felt like i had the place to myself, i rarely bumped into anyone there. Maybe one lone fisherman, it was just me and the sea and the sand (and rocks!) ((and seaweed)) (((and the seals basking on strips of rocks off the beach, they eyed me warily...)))

There was a small rough and raw seafood market at the end of a row of retail places just behind the harbor piers selling all kinds of stuff only asians buy or know what to do with - like urchins.

 

Now it's a 'destination' - bring the kids and the picnic basket.

I've witnessed similar growth, first in Wash DC & environs from 1970 to 1991, and in SF from 1992 to the present. The apt i lived in on 12th Ave just north of GG Park for $550 a mo.(93-2002) now probably costs $2K/mo.

Here's an excellent book to read:

Edward Abbey - 'Desert Solitaire'
He spent one summer as a ranger in Arches NP, Utah.
There are a couple of pages that describe Abbey's experience w/ 'progress', when a team of engineers appears at his trailer door, to show him plans of a new road to be built, for public access. After they leave, he follows the trail of stakes w/ orange ribbons on them, pulls them all up, and throws them as far as he can, into nowhere.

I have read several articles recently about how at Joshua Tree NP, rangers are overwhelmed by visitors.

There are however many places that will never, EVER be overrun. They are just too rugged.

This is Valley of Fire in Nevada

Native Americans did just fine here.
There are precious few anglos who can do so, here's one of them:

The Secret Knowledge of Water
Discovering the essence of the American desert.

http://www.houseofrain.com/

http://www.houseofrain.com/bookdetail.cfm?id=1183863164364

Craig Childs writes about the relationship between humans, animals, landscape, and time. His stories come from visceral, personal experience, whether in the company of illicit artifact dealers or in deep wilderness. Childs has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books, including his most recent book, Apocalyptic Planet, which won the Orion Book Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men's Journal, and Outside. An occasional commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition, Childs lives in Western Colorado and teaches writing for both University of Alaska in Anchorage and Southern New Hampshire University.

This photo is a great way to end this post.