Saturday, June 19, 2021

May 22 High Desert Rock Art

Our group of six was out to camp and hike to rock art sites in the Mojave. But characteristically, cold weather showed up, as it does so often in late May.

That's snow down to about 8000'

Bighorns are the popular motif out here

More bighorns

The archaeologists say Paiute-Shoshone medicine men pecked them into these basalt boulders roughly a thousand years ago

Lots of lithic scatter out here, from local obsidian sources

This rock is covered in images

There's also wild horses and burros out here. They are destructive and have displaced the bighorns and the BLM has to do periodic roundups

A wide-angle view of the area

These are older and cruder-looking images. Some of these probably date to pluvial times when Sierran glaciers retreated into their upper basins. So these are potentially over ten thousand years old.

We looped back to camp on this higher route that dropped into another canyon. Snow flurries fell on us for a little bit up here


Nights were cold, but driving out Sunday the sunshine felt good

Thursday, June 17, 2021

Spring 2021 Outings

 Well, here we are finally coming out of hibernation.

I never tire of the view of DTLA from Griffith Park
In February, Hiking Club did a fun loop hike in Griffith Park, with warm sunshine and green hills. I think February is my favorite month to hike.

In March the outing was to Malibu Creek SP where we visited the MASH site.


In May we climbed San Gabriel Peak, pointing out above the coastal marine layer.

In June we climbed Echo Mountain and saw a vivid double solar halo.