The Sanctuary...Not the Refuge

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

A lot is made about how unique the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary is (why do I have such a hard time remembering how to spell "Joaquin?").  Yes, it is 300 acres of constructed wetland in the city of Irvine, California.  Yeah, its in the city of Irvine, within site of some office buildings, but its not quite downtown!  

Irvine in the Background

At the sanctuary, if you look hard and long enough, you may see hawks, swallows, roadrunners, hummingbirds, herons, egrets, pelicans,  sandpipers, ducks, geese, and kingfishers...Oh, and there are cool lizards hiding out in the brush (see future post).

Yeah, hawks and road-runners can be cool if you actually see them.  To me, however, the Sanctuary has only one group of occupants of consequence.  That is its Puma Concolors, more commonly known as: mountain lion, cougar, panther, or puma.  Yes, technically there are mountain lions roaming around this free space inside Irvine.  The mountain lions are there...I have read about them and my father-in-law saw one.

However my snarkiness arises from the fact that I have not seen them.  Indeed, its been more than 2.5 years since I got a glimpse of a bobcat's butt.

If you want to see around the sanctuary, this is the best I can do for you so far...I will probably go back some day and just sit and wait and hope...


By the way - Don't confuse the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary with the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge in California's central valley.

American Avocet

Great Blue Heron Sitting Up in Tree

Left: American Black Duck / Right: Cinnamon Teal Duck

Tree Swallow

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Detail: Great Blue Heron

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Circling Joshua Tree National Park

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

I have a bunch of maps hanging on my home office wall.  As I was aimlessly staring at them one night, something caught a few of my four eyes. For some reason, I thought it might be interesting to point out what I saw..

Joshua Tree NP is the only National Park (NP) that I can think of that is tightly encircled by a road network that allows the park to be completely driven around.  Most NPs have either a drive that enters the park at one end and exits at another (e.g., Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite (non-Yosemite Valley) or a drive that dead ends in the park and requires you to back-track out (e.g. Bryce Canyon, Arches, Grand Canyon, Denali, Yosemite (Yosemite Valley)). 

The trip around Joshua Tree NP is on a combination of CA62, CA177, and I-10.  I will call this combination of roads "The Joshua Tree NP Beltway.  This beltway is about 196 miles long.  So what? You are asking...if you are still here.

Well, the "Joshua Tree NP Beltway" is longer than:

The Berlin Germany Beltway: 122 miles
The London Beltway (M25): 117 miles
The Outer Houston Beltway (TX-8): 83 miles
The Atlanta Beltway (I-285): 64 miles
"The Beltway" (Washington DC)(I-495/I-95): 64 miles

Yes, three Washington DCs could be fit within the JTNP beltway.  I know there is no reason we would want 3 Washington DCs, but ... hopefully, you get my point.  If you prefer, the entire state of Rhode Island could be fit within the beltway.

The Joshua Tree NP Beltway is also probably the only beltway that has an evelation change of more than 2800 feet between the high-desert Yucca-Twntynine Palms portions (elev 2800 ft) and the low-desert  Coachella Valley I-10 portions (sea level to slightly below sea level).

This elevatiion change is shown in the following picture.  The picture was taken up at Keys View in JT and looking down at the Coachella Valley and I-10.

Do You Zzyzx?? Do You Want to Zzyzx?

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

I am working on a self-funded project about what I call the "Zzyzx Phenomena" (i.e., all things Zzyzx).

 

I am looking for fellow desert explorers interested in contributing to this project.

 

Contributions would be short essays describing what Zzyzx means to you, how you developed an interest in Zzyzx, or any other Zzyzx anecdotes.  Also, interesting photos taken in the Zzyzx area are also welcome.  Please also tell me your city and state.  Let's see from how far away Zzyzx is known.

 

Note that any submissions shall be considered to include your approval of my printing or publishing your submission, in whole or part, with (i.e., name, city/state) or without (i.e., "anonymous") attribution, without compensation, and in any form.  If you want to limit your submission to "anonymous" attribution, please let me know.

 

Contributions should be sent to zzyzx@dalmdad.com.

 

See you roaming the desert,

Steve Reiss

Cholla Cactus and The Cholla Cactus Garden at Joshua Tree NP

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

The cholla cactus garden at Joshua Tree National Park is located right next to the Octotillo Flats area, in the low desert portion of the park.  For those unfamiliar with JTNP, the park basically has two very different ecosystems; namely, the low Colorado Desert portion (below 3000 ft) and the high Mojave Desert portion (above 3000 ft). 

The low Colorado desert portion is warmer than the high desert portion, more barren, and populated by cholla cactus and ocotillo.  The cholla cactus and the ocotillo are two of the four characteristic desert plants of the the Southwest USA and northern Mexico.  The other two characteristic plants are both in the yucca family and more widely found in the high Mojave Desert portion.  In particular, they are the Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) and the Banana Yucca (Yucca Baccata).

JTNP's cholla cactus garden is a dense, localized (just a few square miles), forest of teddy-bear (Cylindropuntia bigelovii) cholla cactus.  Only a small portion of the small forest is open to visiting.  The hiking trail is a short and flat 1/4 mile. 

The teddy-bear moniker is based on the fact that from a distance, and especially when back-lit (see this discription describing best times of day for picture taking), the plants appear soft and fuzzy, giving it the name "teddy bear".

Cholla cacti produce few seeds.  The plant usually reproduces from dropped stems. These stems are often carried for some distance by sticking to the hair of animals. Often small "forests" of these chollas form that are largely clones of one individual/original cholla plant. This "cloning" of a single plant in a narrow area is why cholla forests are often densely packed.

Dense Cholla Forest

When a piece of cholla sticks to an unsuspecting person, a good method to remove the cactus is with a hair comb (video on how to remove teddy bear cholla spines).  The spines are barbed, and hold on tightly.  Some people seem to find it amusing to post videos of themselves being barbed by the chollas: (ouch #1), (ouch #2).

After one of my earliest visits to a cholla forest in the Mojave National Preserve/Cima Dome area, I had got a bunch of cholla barbs in my calfs.  I had some kind of allergic reaction to the cholla and had to go on some steriods; the itching drive me nuts.


The teddy-bear cholla is extremely combustible.  This is shown in the following series of pictures.

The nickname "The Jumping Cactus" was given to the Teddy Bear Cholla as people swore as they passed by one, the plant jumped out at them, leaving several painful spines stuck in their knee or other body part. In fact, the Teddy Bear Cholla does not move on its own. 

Here's what happens:

The tiny spines on the Teddy Bear Cholla are very easily removed from the plant, so if you even lightly brush up against it, you will have many tiny spines stuck in your knee or what ever body part touched the plant. In fact, horse-riding cowboys began wearing thick leather chaps to protect their legs primarily from the Teddy Bear Cholla. 

So, don't let anyone scare you into thinking there are plants in the Sonoran Desert that will "attack" you. The only way you can be injured by the Teddy Bear Cholla is to touch it. 

Men Hold Your Crotch Alert...

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

Man's penis partially severed in horrific kidnapping in which he was beaten, burned, doused with bleach and tied up with woman in Mojave Desert.

One day you are living it up in tony Balboa...the next day...not so much...you are in the Mojave Desert missing body parts.

The Super Exciting and Shoe Dirtying Mud Pots of the Salton Sea

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

If you really want to dirty up a pair of your shoes, the Salton Sea mud pots , near Calipatria, California, is a great place to achieve your goal.  Its hard to believe that last time we were there was in 2008.  Our boots really took a beating and made a mess of the car.  But...you have to do what you have to do.  Your feet will sink in the mud and then break loose like a suction cup.

If you would like to go slog through the mud and breath in sulfur, the pots are located here about half-way between I-10 and the California/Mexico Border.

Why the heck is the road from Calipatria/Westmorland to I-10 missing??


View of the mud pots from the sky...

Views of the mudpots from ground level (they are about 6 feet high):

2012 Year-End Bighorn Sheep Re-Cap

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

We were so busy traveling around northern Arizona, southern Utah, this New Year that we forgot to post this...

Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis)

We love big horn sheep (Ovis canadensis) here at our blog. 

In 2012, we made the following posts about bighorns...

Bighorns of the Colorado River Wilderness...

Back-country Falls: Not What You Might Think

Spotting our favorite desert creatures...

King of the Desert

And, a 2010 post: Whitewater Canyon

We hope you can get the chance to look them over.  We will try to post more about the bighorn in 2013.