GPS 34° 0’50.49″N 116° 8’41.90″W
The Comic Book Area from a Distance
(Click Images to Enlarge)
Trek Dates: 2014 Mar 03 & Oct 09
See Also:
Dakota Domes ♦ The Asteroid Belt (pending)
THE COMIC BOOK AREA of Lost Horse Valley is named (loosely, with some detours) after various newspaper cartoon strips, magazines, and fictional stories. The primary buttresses are, from north to south (or left to right in the Google Earth image), Mary Worth Buttress, B.C. Buttress, The Comic Strip, and Alice in Wonderland (part of the Comic Strip). Associated rocks are The Dakota Domes, Watergate Rock, Plymouth Rock, Cerro Torre Tower, Herman Rocks and The Sphinx. In many areas of Joshua Tree National Park, 85 million year old White Tank monzogranite intruded into darker, 1.5 billion year old Pinto gneiss rock. Erosion over the millennia left behind these jutting formations and stand-alone islands or inselbergs, as they are called—remnants for Park 3D obsessives to photograph and record for posterity.
Since the area lies upslope from Hidden Valley & Hidden Valley Campground areas, there are panoramic views all along the short half-mile marked trail from the roadside turnout to the main features. For picnickers, there is a shady, tall pinyon pine tree where you can rest and enjoy the breeze—and admire Mary Worth’s lovely buttress dominating the hillside behind you in all its magnificence! Look for the tree on the north (or left-hand) side during your approach. (Far right in this 2D shot of Mary Worth Buttress.) →
The Comic Book area, el. 4345ft, includes some colorfully named rock climbs: “Cherry Blossom,” “Don’t Touch That Flake,” “Cerebral Dysfunction,” “Ooby Dooby,” “Russian Grain Crisis,” “Tubular Balls,” “Frontal Lobotomy,” “Charlie Brown,” “Alice in Wonderjam,” “White Rabbit,” “Urine Trouble,” “Drano,” and “80 Proof Roof.” Well, you get the idea. Rock climbers have vivid imaginations. The Watergate Rock that lies about 300 yards southwest of the main Comic Book area has 15 or more named-climbs on it, using Nixon-era nomenclature like “Fifteen Minute Gap.”
Save as many of the 3D Anaglyph or 3D Half Side-by-Side photographs as you wish. Share them with your 3D friends. (You may share them also with any 2D friends you have.) Note: 3D H-SBS can be seen on a 3D TV when the proper Half Side-by-Side setting is switched on. They require the TV manufacturer’s proprietary glasses to view (not the red-cyan glasses for this website).
Trailhead (2D)
- Use glasses to view 3D Anaglyphs
- Click Photos to Enlarge
Named Rocks and Formations ♦ 3D Anaglyph
The Dakota Domes
Herman Rock
Mary Worth Buttress
Napping ‘neath Mary Worth Buttress
The Sphinx
B.C. Buttress
The Comic Strip
Bucko admires The Comic Strip while two yuccas sneak in for an ambush…
Alice in Wonderland/Wonderjam
Cerro Torre
Plymouth Rock
Watergate Rock
There and Back Again ♦ 3D Anaglyph
3D Half Side-by-Side Gallery
(Suitable for 3D TV viewing. Half Side-by-Sides avoid the minor Anaglyph anomalies that can occur. Click images to enlarge. 1080p resolution. Or Windows users, right-click and choose SAVE LINK AS.)
This ends the Gallery page for The Comic Book, along with the legendary Mary Worth’s Buttress. Please visit again soon.
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Posted 2014 Oct 22
Updated 2017 Nov 10