Turtle Rock Walk

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Turtle Rock Walk

Adjacent to the parking area for the Hidden Valley Nature Trail is a massive rock formation known as Turtle Rock. If you're a rock climber, you've probably heard the stories of Turtle Rock, and maybe climbed to the top via one of the numerous routes on either the south or east face. Perhaps you chose Wandering Tortoise or Give a Mouse a Cookie, or maybe Turtle Soup. Atop Turtle Rock you surveyed your kingdom, and proclaimed in a majestic voice to your Joshua Tree subjects, "Follow me!"

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What I Saw - Joshua Tree National Park

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What I Saw - Joshua Tree National Park

Park you vehicle anywhere (safely and legally), grab your hiking gear and start hiking in the direction that no one else would go. That's what I did and here are some of the things I found (in no particular order).

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Oyster Bar - Joshua Tree National Park

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Oyster Bar - Joshua Tree National Park

I was traveling light on this short trek. Leaving GrayTac at the convenient parking area located about 1/3-mile west from Oyster Bar, I grabbed my camera, an extra lens and a bottle of water and set out to see what I could find on this near-perfect hiking day.

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Wildflowers - Southern Joshua Tree National Park

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Wildflowers - Southern Joshua Tree National Park

With all the rain JTree had received over the winter, there's been a lot of talk about 2017 being an excellent year for wildflowers in Joshua Tree National Park. Even though it wasn't technically springtime, I thought I'd head out to see what I could find. I wasn't disappointed.

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Quail Springs Valley Pumphouse - Joshua Tree National Park

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Quail Springs Valley Pumphouse - Joshua Tree National Park

The parking area at Quail Springs is also a great spot to stage a hike out into the desert, because the desert holds many secrets, and Quail Springs Valley guards them closely. Have you been to the White Cliffs of Dover? Have you seen the Desert Gold of lost mining camps? Perhaps you've heard of John Samuelson's Rocks? Or the famous Boy Scout Trail? All these and many other amazing secret and some not-so-secret places can be visited in the Quail Springs vicinity.

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