Pictures from my first-ever "Ridgecrest Adventurography Excursion"

Since moving to Ridgecrest, I've been scoping out spots to either do photoshoots or areas of town that I am unfamiliar with that I would like to explore. Granted, there aren't too many nooks and crannies to explore in this smaller desert town, but that just means I'll get to know the town better than any other place I've lived, right? :)

So, to help me keep my sanity, keep up my photo skills, to get out of the house, and to have fun, I decided to document these little outings. I have aptly named them the "Ridgecrest Adventurography Excursion" series. Basically, anytime I go out and just have photo time around the city, they'll be documented for, uh... posterity's sake and for your's, I guess.

Outing #1 was at Rademacher Hills, on the Sunland Trail. I haven't spent much time doing sunset pictures, so I thought I'd give my hand a try at those. I left the house a bit later than I should have, I didn't really have a destination in mind -- I just decided to drive out towards the local college and see where I ended up.

Here are the spoils from that trip:

From the 'DROID:

 

An abandoned mine:

I started at the trailhead with the goal to get to the front/west side of the first of two hills. I made it to the south side of hill two and didn't quite get the pics I was imagining, but then again, you can't achieve perfection all of the time. :)

 I have always had a thing for fence posts:

 

 I love catching natural lens flares from the sun's rays:

Here is the last time I saw the sun before it set, on the south side of hill #2:

There's my car... Waaaaaaayyyyyyy down there:

A view of the west side of Ridgecrest:

Some of the local shrubbery:

 

Cottontop Cactus... Echinocactus polycephalus

Native Americans ate the seeds and used the plants to treat burns, and the spines were used as needles.

 

 Neat stuff! 

I grew up in the desert (Southern Nevada), and have seen similar plants to these, but have never seen a Cottontop Cactus until I moved to Ridgecrest. I thought these were really cool. Not to mention a titch fierce looking once you get a good peak at those fearsome spikes.

Panoramic shot of Ridgecrest's southeast end... I think the mountains look great at dusk:

 

Well, that concludes this week's Adventurography Excursion... If you have location suggestions that you think I should check out, let me know! I'd love to hear from you via a comment below.

Stay tuned for the next one!