Welcome to the Wild Moon Mesa Blog
Updated: Thursday, June 7, 2012 7:43 AM PDT
Welcome to the Wild Moon Mesa Blog, were you can find the most up to date information on the property, as well as news and event updates on happenings in and around Joshua Tree an Mono Lake, so stay tuned!

Posted By: M.

Wild Moon Mesa - Joshua Tree & Mono Lake, CA
Wild Moon Mesa Rustic Retreat Ranch Retreats | On 40 Acres + 800 Acres Of Wild & Scenic Landscapes

The Frozen Sea of Tranquility: Winter In The Mono Basin
Updated: Wednesday January 5, 2012 6:42 AM PST

When winter descends on the Mono Basin, the rest of the world seems to disappear and we see another side to this beautiful and majestic inland sea. The quiet surrounds you and it is easy to lose yourself in the magic and light of the blue and white hues that dance on the face of the lake

A protected reserve around Mono Basin was established to preserve the spectacular and other worldly "tufa towers," calcium-carbonate spires and knobs formed by interaction of freshwater springs and alkaline lake water. They are stunning in summer, but particularly beautiful with a coating of winter white. The reserve also protects the lake surface itself, as well as the wetlands and other sensitive habitat for the 1 – 2 million birds that feed and rest at Mono Lake each year.

This majestic body of water covers about 65 square miles. It is an ancient lake, over 1 million years old -- one of the oldest lakes in North America. Because of it's quiet stillness, especially in winter, I have come to call it my Sea of Tranquility.

Wild Moon Mesa - Joshua Tree & Mono Lake, CA
Wild Moon Mesa Rustic Retreat Ranch Retreats | On 40 Acres + 800 Acres Of Wild & Scenic Landscapes

Location/Directions
Highway 395, 13 miles east of Yosemite National Park, near the town of Lee Vining, California.

Seasons/Climate/Recommended clothing
The weather can be changeable; layered clothing is recommended.

Winter is a particularly beautiful time at Mono Lake. The crowds are gone, a quiet stillness prevails, and snow crystals sparkle on the tufa towers. The road to South Tufa is kept plowed, when staffing permits, allowing year round access except immediately after large storms. South Tufa, Navy Beach, and the Old Marina area are all wonderful places to cross-country ski when snow conditions permit

Wild Moon Mesa - Joshua Tree & Mono Lake, CA
Wild Moon Mesa Rustic Retreat Ranch Retreats | On 40 Acres + 800 Acres Of Wild & Scenic Landscapes

Winter in the Mono Basin is a time of poconip, snowstorms, brilliant clear blue skies, and the many moods of Mono Lake. If you have a chance to visit Mono Lake during this quiet season, take it! Just make sure to check the roads, pack chains and warm clothes, and be prepared for a bit of weather.

Last week, the poconip lasted for five days in a row. The ice crystals coating every leaf, twig, and branch are beautiful, but I am usually ready for some sunshine after a few days of fog.

Wild Moon Mesa - Joshua Tree & Mono Lake, CA
Wild Moon Mesa Rustic Retreat Ranch Retreats | On 40 Acres + 800 Acres Of Wild & Scenic Landscapes

Throughout winter, Mono Lake is a fantastic place to go cross-country and backcountry skiing. It's a way to leave the world behind and slip into the this magnificent setting, The peaks and valleys, the trails and glistening streams, Ansel Adams Wilderness. All this surrounded by Mono Lake, the Sea of Tranquility. If you have a chance to visit Mono Lake during this quiet season, be sure to take it!

Wild Moon Mesa - Joshua Tree & Mono Lake, CA
Wild Moon Mesa Rustic Retreat Ranch Retreats | On 40 Acres + 800 Acres Of Wild & Scenic Landscapes

Destination Joshua Tree: My Desert Hideaway
Updated: Friday March 8, 2012 3:00 PM PST

By the end of February, I seemed to have survived winter’s fiercest blasts up in the high country in the Eastern Sierra, and was ready to head south for a taste of Southern California High Desert sunshine.

Joshua Tree National Park has always been a great winter escape. Not that it doesn't get cold there--it does, believe me--but in between the west moving storms that roll in from the Pacific cost, one can usually count on a nice mid-winter warmth and brilliant sunshine to fill your days.

The name Joshua Tree is so lyrical. Joshua trees were so named, I discovered, by the Mormons, who traveled through the desert in the mid-1800s. Apparently, the twisted plants with their limbs akimbo reminded them of Joshua lifting his arms in supplication to the Lord. Now, they remind people more of Dr. Suess. My friend, Dave, advises a peek at his book The Lorax. I haven’t done it, yet. Tell me what you think.

The Joshua tree is really a giant version of a yucca. The Grandfather of this park is 40 feet high and may be 100 years old—not really so old or so large, but darned big for a yucca. I was to find, however, that various species of Joshua tree are widely spread throughout this Mojave desert region. After the first, incredible sight of a Joshua tree forest, you will notice that they become an iconic fixture of the desert landscape

All along the eastern side of California is where the higher Mojave desert meets the lower Colorado desert. You can see the difference as you climb in altitude from one side of the park to the other: creosote scrub dominates the lower region; juniper and Joshua tree forests appear higher up. somewhere in the middle is what's called the Transition Zone, an ecological mixture of the two unique desert ecosystems. The Pinto basin, the area's largest landscape, formed as opposing fault lines stretched and pulled the earth's crust apart, forcing mountainous uplifts on either side while the expanding space in between sank. This depression once held a shallow lake that disappeared with a warming climate.

Wild Moon Mesa - Joshua Tree & Mono Lake, CA
Wild Moon Mesa Rustic Retreat Ranch Retreats | On 40 Acres + 800 Acres Of Wild & Scenic Landscapes

As a popular national park, Joshua Tree seems tame and easy to navigate, at least on the more-traveled paths, yet the massive backcountry and remote Eastern sections of the park see far fewer visitors, as only the most seasoned desert adventurers journey into the remote Joshua Tree outback. Indeed, it this area now known as Joshua Tree National park has been for a long time well traveled through, settled on, mined, ranched, and farmed, dating back since the mid-1800s, not to mention the light-footed impact of hunter-gatherer native tribes for thousands of years before. Not long ago, over 300 gold mines dotted the region, only a fraction of which actually made anyone rich. One of those was the ten-stamp Ryan mine. In those days, mining gold involved crushing big rocks into smaller ones and then pounding them (with the stamp crushers) to a sandy pulp mixed with precious water and mercury. Lovely process. The Ryan mine crushed rock with its ten stamps 24 hours a day. Imagine that! Such is the motivating power of greed! I am glad to see that the desert had done some stamping out of its own over the years.

If there is an icon of this park aside from the Joshua tree, it is most definitely the desert tortoise. “Maybe you’ll see one,” rangers say in reverent tones. For the casual visitor who quickly passes through the park, one might think that this tortoise was a mythical invention to lure the public into coming back. Many come and go, hopelessly searching for the desert tortoise, without ever catching a glimpse. On the many occasions that I have been blessed to cross paths with this beautiful creature, it has been when I have excepted it the least, simply wondering around enjoying the Park's wide open spaces, not on any quest in particular. Once, on my last hike to Lost Palms, right by the path, as I sat there, taking in the warm desert sun, there it was—a young desert tortoise. It stopped to survey me as much as I surveyed him, and then without hesitation, it scuttled away, over the rocky hillside and off into the sunset. I often wonder if he was aware of the joyous frenzy going on inside me as result of this brief but spectacular change encounter.

Folks, I’m here to tell you, the desert tortoise lives and is alive a well!

Wild Moon Mesa - Joshua Tree & Mono Lake, CA
Wild Moon Mesa Rustic Retreat Ranch Retreats | On 40 Acres + 800 Acres Of Wild & Scenic Landscapes

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