April 21, 2021
Barker Dam
When driving though Joshua Tree, you'll see signs point to "tanks". What are these "tanks"? A tank is usually depression in the rocky areas of the park that have an inflow of water from the surrounding area and an easily obstructed outlet. They're in rocky areas since the ground absorption into the rock is low. Nowdays after a rain, the tanks will fill and the water will evaporate pretty quickly and there's usually silt in the tanks that also absorbs the water. Barker Dam is a tank on steroids, is a higher dam than any of the rest and the water that collects behind it will stay for months(I've see photos of water behind Barker Dam in June). There's a nice nature trail that leads from the parking lot and over though the rocks to the dam and then loops back to the parking lot. Even with this year being exceptionally dry here in Southern California, I had hopes of seeing water, there was none. But even without clear blue water and lovely reflection, the hike was very nice with lots of rock formations with trees growing out of them, the dam and on the loop back is a flat area with a great view of snow covered Mt. San Gorgornio in the distance. I've taken the same approach as I did with the Ryan Ranch photos, interspersing the IR and visual photos in a chronological fashion and even made another attempt at a black and white photo.
Read MoreWhen driving though Joshua Tree, you'll see signs point to "tanks". What are these "tanks"? A tank is usually depression in the rocky areas of the park that have an inflow of water from the surrounding area and an easily obstructed outlet. They're in rocky areas since the ground absorption into the rock is low. Nowdays after a rain, the tanks will fill and the water will evaporate pretty quickly and there's usually silt in the tanks that also absorbs the water. Barker Dam is a tank on steroids, is a higher dam than any of the rest and the water that collects behind it will stay for months(I've see photos of water behind Barker Dam in June). There's a nice nature trail that leads from the parking lot and over though the rocks to the dam and then loops back to the parking lot. Even with this year being exceptionally dry here in Southern California, I had hopes of seeing water, there was none. But even without clear blue water and lovely reflection, the hike was very nice with lots of rock formations with trees growing out of them, the dam and on the loop back is a flat area with a great view of snow covered Mt. San Gorgornio in the distance. I've taken the same approach as I did with the Ryan Ranch photos, interspersing the IR and visual photos in a chronological fashion and even made another attempt at a black and white photo.
