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Annotated USGS Aerial Photos of Joshua Tree National Park
USGS Photo Data Courtesy Microsoft Terraserver
Annotated with Rock Names from Rock Climbing Guides
Rock Climbing Guides Courtesy Randy Vogel and Alan Bartlett
and
Accompanied by UTM Coordinate Information to Support GPS Use
UTM Coordinates Courtesy MapTech National Park Digital Guide
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SECTION [1] About Joshua Tree National Park (JTNP): a personal account
Our parents called it their Valley of the Moon when they courted here in the 1920's, this beautiful, fantastic,
adventurous, delicate wonderland where one could never exhaust routes to travel, rocks to scramble, precious flora and
fauna and exquisite scenery to cherish and protect [01,03,04,05], and where one could enjoy the myriad stars on black
moonless nights or stroll and cautiously scramble on bright moonlit nights. They married; I was born just before the
Crash, my brother was born a year later, and our sister four years later still. After weathering the Depression in
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, we moved back to California in early 1937. An old photo showing our black coupe with license
plate "NJ2 OHIO 1937" next to a Joshua tree, with rocks in the background, indicates that our
parents introduced us to their favorite vacation spot almost immediately upon return to Southern California. They were
delighted to discover that a measure of protection from the usual ravages of encroaching civilization had been granted
to their Valley of the Moon by its being formally made the
Joshua Tree National Monument
in 1936, thanks to the heroic insightful efforts of
Mrs. Minerva Hamilton Hoyt [03,04,05]. We children learned much from our parents about
adventure, responsibility, self-reliance, and consideration for the environment during our many camping trips to the
Monument from 1937 to 1943. On our frequent treks from camping sites near Hidden Valley to Barker Dam, to the
Elephant (now North Astro), and to the Elephant's Brother (now South Astro), we traversed the Cohn Property and Keys'
Desert Queen Ranch. Kind
Mr. William F. Keys
[02,03,04,05] several times invited us to swim in his reservoir.
Then came high school, college, jobs in other states, delightful families, and infrequent returns to Joshua Tree
prior to retirements. But starting in 1996, we have delightedly returned many times, and are pleased to note that
since 1994 our Valley of the Moon has become even better protected as the Joshua Tree National Park [03,04].
We are also pleased to note that the Joshua Tree community received national recognition for proving its commitment to
higher education by establishing the fine Copper Mountain College and
that the National Park Service has established a Joshua Tree National Park
website. When queried about
JTNP or
rock climbing in JTNP,
the excellent
Google internet search engine (TIME magazine, 20 March 2000; TIME digital, May 2000, page 60)
reveals many activities
(such as photo1)
and websites
(such as site1)
which indicate appreciative respect for Joshua Tree National Park.
Since returning to JTNP in 1996 I have sought to become acquainted with an enlarged set of routes and rocks. Views
from high vantage points, such as those pictured in [14,06] and those seen on treks to the tops of Ryan, Queen, and
the Astros, have assisted me to locate feasible routes and to recognize many of the rocks named in [06]. I have found
use of my Garmin 12XL GPS together with USGS 7.5-minute quad topo
maps to be quite helpful both for selecting routes in the field by locating myself on the quads and for determining the
coordinates of points of interest for later reference. I prefer UTM coordinates and was delighted to discover that at
least as early as September 1999 the all-important Indian Cove quad finally incorporated the previously missing UTM
grid lines. UTM coordinates of specific points of interest on JTNP quads can be even more accurately determined on the
computer screen from the quads available on CD in the MapTech National Park Digital
Guide, but one must first locate those points of interest on the quads by comparing memories or photographs of rock
formations with contours on the quads. Locating points of interest on the quads would be greatly assisted by wider
coverage of the JTNP terrain in high-elevation photographs.
Accidental discovery in early 1999 of the Microsoft Terraserver
website led us to attempt relating the (nearly) vertical USGS aerial photos provided by Terraserver to our memories
and photos of more horizontal views of familiar spots in Joshua Tree. Experimentation showed us that we needed
to use the highest (1-meter) resolution afforded by Terraserver and the LARGE window size (a 4-by-3 array of tiles, the
tile being the basic Terraserver picture element), and then we quickly discovered that we were so familiar
with many formations that we could recognize all our favorite spots despite the different lines of view! But even the
LARGE Terraserver window is disappointingly
small,
and scrolling over terrain by shifting to adjacent Terraserver
windows is frustatingly slow even with the "Temporary Internet Files" feature of Windows 98, so I set about downloading
the USGS photo data from Terraserver into my home computer and constructing HTML codes to display it in much larger
pictures. The clues to constructing the HTML codes needed to acquire and display the USGS material were provided by
the "View/Source" and "File/Save As" features of Internet Explorer. Interestingly, about September 1999 Microsoft
improved its presentation from rectangular tiles and only three levels of resolution (1-meter, 2-meter, and 16-meter)
to square tiles (200 pixels on a side) and seven levels of resolution (from 1-meter to 64-meter). Being thus forced to
begin anew, I took the opportunity to improve my procedures, and hence have found it feasible to acquire and
individually name well over 6000 1-meter resolution tiles so far and to display the material both in the form of
10-by-10 arrays of tiles and as much larger arrays.
MORE WILL FOLLOW (27 DEC 2000)
Directory of Facilities in this Website for Descriptions of Joshua Tree National Park
REFERENCES
[00] The California Deserts: A visitor's Handbook, Edmund C. Jaeger, 1938, Stanford University Press
[01] The Lives of Desert Animals in Joshua Tree National Monument, Alden H. Miller and Robert C.
Stebbins, 1964, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-18643, University of California Press
[02] AMBUSH: The Story of Bill Keys, Art Kidwell, 1979, ISBN 0-9617961-5-4, Desert Moon Press
[03] On Foot in Joshua Tree National Park, Patty A. Furbush, 1995, ISBN 0-9616395-7-1, M.I.
Adventure Publications
[04] Joshua Tree National Park: A visitors Guide, Robert B. Cates, 1995, ISBN 0-9619128-1-2, Live
Oak Press
[05] Road Guide to Joshua Tree National Park, Barbara and Robert Decker, 1994, ISBN 0-9621019-7-4,
Double Decker Press
[06] Joshua Tree: Rock Climbing Guide, Randy Vogel, 1992, ISBN 0-934641-30-7, Chockstone Press
(reportedly out-of-print}
[07] Joshua Tree National Park: Classic Rock Climbs, Randy Vogel, 1997, ISBN 1-57540-029-4,
Falcon Publishing, Inc.
[08] Joshua Tree 1: Rock Climbs of Indian Cove, Alan Bartlett, Quail Springs Publishing
[09] Joshua Tree 2: Rock Climbs of Lost Horse Valley, Alan Bartlett, 1991, Quail Springs Publishing
[10] Joshua Tree 3: Rock Climbs of Hidden Valley, Alan Bartlett, 1992, Quail Springs Publishing
[11] Joshua Tree 4: Rock Climbs of Central Joshua Tree, Alan Bartlett, 1992, Quail Springs
Publishing
[12] Joshua Tree 5: Rock Climbs of Pinto Basin, Alan Bartlett, Quail Springs Publishing
[13] Joshua Tree 6: The Wonderland Guide, Alan Bartlett, 1998, Quail Springs Publishing
[14] Joshua Tree: The Story Behind the Scenery, Delcie H. Vuncannon, 1999, ISBN 0-88714-106-4,
KC Publications, Inc.
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