Rock Memories

So a word to the wise. If you are looking for Skull Rock in Joshua Tree Natl Park, do not stop at the first sign you come to claiming "Skull Rock", get out of the car and head south of the road towards a rock the could possibly be Skull Rock, but might not be. Unless you want to stumble across a collection of rock sculptures. This is what we did. Seeing the first sign, Andy, Ben and myself pulled to the side of the road and walked into the wilderness. Probably the best thing we could have done.

After meandering along a dried riverbed, we came upon an area that had clearly been frequented by people. Along the normal outcroppings of Joshua Tree rock formations, people had collected and began placing loose rocks into patterns and designs. I wish I had captured more on my camera. But suffice it to say, there was the standard "L 'hearts' T", "FREINDS" [sic] and then some not so usual ones, including a smiley face, a rock snow man, and then these two shapes which I do have pictures of: This was so perfectly done. It must have taken ages.
The stone this person used for the head was just so perfect. The shape is exactly like a birds head. We all marveled at the site of collected human creativity. Ben was humbled by the number of people who had obviously spent many hours collecting and designing these rock patterns. He was even jubilant at the thought that so many people came and left permanent memories that could be so easily removed and had no negative impact on the ecosystem. We continued to the rock that might have been Skull Rock, and collectively decided it definitely wasn't. Taking another route back to the car, still looking for the elusive Skull Rock we came across this formation:
From there we covered some great terrain - including a deep gully cut into the rocks after eons of torrential rains and flash floods. The view from the bottom was breath taking and I immediately snapped a picture.
And of course, because life is filled with irony, this route back to road, dumped us directly next to the actually Skull Rock. You can see it from the road and it has a sign that can be seen from the roadway that points directly to it -- in case you happened to be blind and missed it. While it did resemble a Skull, at that point I didn't feel like taking a picture of it. The view from the top was nice though--
Ben, Andy and two fellow adventures looking for not so elusive Skull Rock.