Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely hate the closure of trails and especially ones that are on public land and have existed for well over 100 years. Even if they're still accessible on foot, closures effectively prevent the elderly and or disabled Americans from experiencing and enjoying the amazing places they can take you to and that to me is un-American. That said, I'd be lying if I said that I haven't seen the benefits of some closures and it really bothers me to no end that it takes something like it to keep idiots from ruining historical destinations.
Last weekend, Cindy and I headed into the Mojave Desert to visit places we haven't been to in years and in some cases, decades. One such place was the location of a large collection of petroglyphs. Way back in the day, you could drive almost to the base of the rocky hillside where they're located and the only people who where they were, were ones that read books and knew how to navigate paper maps. And, for better or for worse, they're still pretty much the only people who know where they are and thanks to a trail closure, you now have to hike a mile and a half to get to them.
Because the closure is a formidable one with metal posts and not just a single red fiberglass popsicles stating the "route is closed" and maybe because there isn't much to indicate why, we saw no evidence of any vehicular traffic circumventing the barrier. In fact, being that there's very little space to even park a Jeep, we very little if any evidence of of foot traffic beyond it.
It's views like these that got us to fall in love with the Mojave.
Did I mention there are Joshua Trees everywhere?
This is it! After walking about a mile on an old 2-track that's fading into the desert and about a half mile just working our way through brush and Joshua Trees, we arrived at the location of the petroglyphs.
Walking up to the base of the basalt rocks, you can clearly see some of the elaborate designs pecked out of them.
Some, like the one you see in the foreground and to the bottom left, are clearly brighter and more pronounced and that would indicate they are younger in nature but still, a hundred or more years old.
But most, like this one that you see have patina over very long stretches of time and that's clearly a sign that they've been around for hundreds if not thousands of years.
What's truly amazing about this place is that there's absolutely ZERO trash of any kind anywhere. No broken glass, no beer cans, no shot up targets and no shell casings new or old. And maybe the most impressive, is that there weren't any scratches on the rocks with names and dates of people who've visited in recent years. THIS more than anything was a total surprise to us.
While it is depressing to no end that it would take the closure of a historic route to protect a destination as wonderful as this... I'm embarrassed to say that a part of me is thrilled for it especially if it can be protected from idiots and for generations of people who can appreciate it the way that we do.
Last weekend, Cindy and I headed into the Mojave Desert to visit places we haven't been to in years and in some cases, decades. One such place was the location of a large collection of petroglyphs. Way back in the day, you could drive almost to the base of the rocky hillside where they're located and the only people who where they were, were ones that read books and knew how to navigate paper maps. And, for better or for worse, they're still pretty much the only people who know where they are and thanks to a trail closure, you now have to hike a mile and a half to get to them.
Because the closure is a formidable one with metal posts and not just a single red fiberglass popsicles stating the "route is closed" and maybe because there isn't much to indicate why, we saw no evidence of any vehicular traffic circumventing the barrier. In fact, being that there's very little space to even park a Jeep, we very little if any evidence of of foot traffic beyond it.
It's views like these that got us to fall in love with the Mojave.
Did I mention there are Joshua Trees everywhere?
This is it! After walking about a mile on an old 2-track that's fading into the desert and about a half mile just working our way through brush and Joshua Trees, we arrived at the location of the petroglyphs.
Walking up to the base of the basalt rocks, you can clearly see some of the elaborate designs pecked out of them.
Some, like the one you see in the foreground and to the bottom left, are clearly brighter and more pronounced and that would indicate they are younger in nature but still, a hundred or more years old.
But most, like this one that you see have patina over very long stretches of time and that's clearly a sign that they've been around for hundreds if not thousands of years.
What's truly amazing about this place is that there's absolutely ZERO trash of any kind anywhere. No broken glass, no beer cans, no shot up targets and no shell casings new or old. And maybe the most impressive, is that there weren't any scratches on the rocks with names and dates of people who've visited in recent years. THIS more than anything was a total surprise to us.
While it is depressing to no end that it would take the closure of a historic route to protect a destination as wonderful as this... I'm embarrassed to say that a part of me is thrilled for it especially if it can be protected from idiots and for generations of people who can appreciate it the way that we do.
