How many faces do you see in the rocky foreground? I look at this and no fewer than 5 immediately jump out at me, including one atop each of the three peaky spires on the left. It’s a funny and strange thing how the human mind works like that, seeking familiarity and connection, and finding it, amidst seemingly lifeless objects. But these rocky badlands in the Mojave are anything but lifeless, constantly being shaped by life giving water, molded by the winds created by the sun. And they produce an infinite variety of shapes, constantly changing faces with movements that seem slow to us as geological time is so slow as to seem almost incomprehensible.
These shapes in this much overlooked state park some 80 miles east southeast of Bakersfield are haunting and beautiful at the same time, a strange concept to wrap one’s head around, but it really is true: there’s elegance and agony in each twist and fold of the terrain. The mesmerizing quality of is made all the more so under the stars, no light pollution for dozens of miles in any direction allowing the stars to cast faint shadows on the ground, something I never knew starlight was capable of until finally coming here and spending a great many hours under the desert stars.