Day 5: Seeing the park

Our day started at 5:30 to get to our morning shoot at Key View. It didn't turn out to be a good place so we tried to salvage the morning by shooting the Joshua trees in Juniper Flats.

The golden light was pretty much gone in the jungle of Joshua Trees, but we tried. At least I got some much needed practice.

Then we were off for a challenging 6.6 mile trail run, Lost Horse Mine Loop. There was a lot of steep climbing for the first two miles to the mine and then a tricky descent only to climb again. About half way through the trail leveled out and began a gradual descent back to the parking lot.  It was a beautiful run with amazing views. Garmin run data: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1677916924

John starts up the Lost Horse Mine Loop. Tough climb and we were at over 4000 feet of elevation. I didn't think I would notice (Missoula is 4000+ and I've run there) but we both had trouble catching our breath,

The remnants of the mine

We paused at the eastern viewpoint for a couple of quick photos.

We then had coffee in Joshua Tree where we got Internet access and could post to the blog. Then we got lunch across the street at Natural Sisters Cafe where they had vegan options. We spent the afternoon relaxing at the house (we even took a nap) and had a quick dinner of tofu feta and spinach quesadillas.

Our evening shoot was at Crisscross Rock. It was a nice shoot location but it was in Jumbo Rocks Campground so there were people climbing all over the rocks and into our shots. Still, it was lovely.

We planned tomorrow's shoots and run and went to bed late at 11:00.

Crisscross rock

Ellen

We set out before the sun rose and arrived at Keys View for a sunrise shot. No clouds, no color so it was a bust. We headed out for the Dead Horse Mine trailhead for a morning run. The first two miles were a grunt. It was all uphill to the mine. 

At the mine, we looked back at the trail we had come up.

Once at the mine we rested by exploring the mining area. In its prime it produced 9,000 ounces of gold. Whenever I visit such places I always wonder how they got the heavy equipment to the site. We continued our run on the loop section of the trail. Some uphill running but once we got to the mid point it was a cruise. It was also very beautiful due to the intense blue sky and the numerous wildflowers. That part of the run went fast and before we knew it we were back at the parking lot. That was a very enjoyable run.

Ellen pauses at the view to the east a half mile beyond the mine.. 

In the last mile, Ellen heard a bird in a Joshua Tree with the most beautiful song. I took a video of it, too, so we could capture the song and figure out what kind of bird it was. We think it might have been a Loggerhead Shrike
.
https://youtu.be/-lZVsxoEIUM

Ellen descends the gentle grade on the second half of the loop.

We drove out of the park and had a mocha and internet access at a quaint hidden away coffee shop. Lunch was across the street and then we headed home for wine and crackers. I fell asleep on the couch. We had dinner and then set out for our evening shoot.

We had decided to shoot Crisscross Rock near the Jumbo Rocks campground. There were two photographers already established for their shoot so we explored the area for our composition. I found a huge boulder that I thought would fill the foreground and I could get the entire Crisscross Rock in the frame also. As the sun lowered my foreground rock glowed and its base went dark and the boulder seemed to appear to float.

I used selected focus to keep the boulder in focus and then I refocused on Crisscross Rock. I knew I could blend the two images together in Photoshop once home. We talked to a nice man from Germany and he seemed in awe of the landscape. He and his family are touring the States by visiting the national parks. Once I gave up on the golden hour we packed up and headed back to the car and then home. The morning shoot was far behind us. The run and evening shoot made the day. We finished the day with wine and downloading our images.

John