I have been to Valley of Fire a few times, this was the first time with a workshop. This is only a days drive from San Diego, so I decided to stop in at the Red Rock area as some place new. First stop though was at the Seven Magic mountains. Red Rock is an interesting area that is run by the BLM. It is a small area with a one-way loop drive with narrow road and very few places to pull out.

The next day I want to find Little Finland and area I heard about several years ago. This is another area with unusual sand stone formations. From photos I had it seemed like these were large formations but they turned out to be rather small. Also these were located along a ridge you had to scramble up if you wanted to get close to them. I climbed up art way but was not comfortable on the slope while trying to shoot.

With the workshop we were allowed to get in earlier and stay a little later than the general public. This allowed us to get in place for a sunrise or sunset shoot that would not have been allowed otherwise. We hiked out to the Fire wave for one sunrise and then walked back out through what passes for a slot canyon. It was not nearly as tall or narrow as those in Page, but there were some interesting points. We also did part of the White Domes loop, but the best color came early while we were still in the parking lot. There is a sort of arch or large hole in a rock that is interesting. We did get to see big horn sheep twice was we drove through the White Domes road, something I had not seen before.

On returning home I decided to avoid some of the interstate driving by going through the Mojave desert to Kelso and then into Amboy to Joshua Tree. Out side of Twenty Nine palms there is a new sculpture, Transmission, that I wanted to see. There is a pull off where you can get a decent view of the art, but you can't get up close or around it.