Return to Darkside September 25, 2010

Some early Fall shots of Darkside. Incredibly warm here for late September. Close if not at 80 degrees today at home.

Darkside is a blog category, and these particular pictures mostly supplement those I’ve already taken, like this one below of the top of Hobbit Rock, looking from the east.

Foliage still barely turning.

Passage through rocks near Hobbit Rock.

Large rock marking the East Wall of the Darkside mini-bowl. Interesting tracks around it. Bear? Trash near the north lip of Darkside also adds support for nearby bear habitation. I doubt that there are any bears in Darkside itself.

Fairly interesting shot of a side of the fabulous Temple of The Moon from the east.

I’ll attempt to take more pictures of Darkside later this Fall, perhaps even providing a map. I’ve certainly had a fun packed 2 days of hiking so far on Beach Mountain, but if I had my druthers I’d have taken my Fall vacation days in mid to late October instead of now. Tough to take decent shots of Darkside with so many leaves still on the trees. On the other hand, it was *really* nice weather up there yesterday and today.

Darkside Fall, 02 October 26, 2009

Temple of the Moon from the east.

Corner of Pentagon Rock and foliage beyond, what remains of it.

At Cathedral Rock now (just n. and e. of Pentagon Rock, I think), found this golf ball. Thought it could be a sign from the powers that be. Marble? Couldn’t figure out how a hit golf ball could roll backwards to under this ledge. Maybe placed there by hand instead?

Tombstone Rock and, below it, the opening through Cathedral Rock from the back.

Same opening.

This was a perhaps a quite queer photograph, taken from Observation Rock. There seems to be some kind of spirit hovering above the fern topped rock in the center of the photograph, which lies between the higher Observation Rock and Temple of the Moon (darker shape behind it). Is this perhaps the spirit of the temple? Or of the Darkside bowl itself? I like the way it almost seems to be standing in the center of that ring of ferns. I’ll have to think of a spiffy name for that particular, smaller but now perhaps quite central rock. Is it the actual omphalos of the bowl instead of the Temple of the Moon or any other rock?

Then it’s on to OzLand just above Darkside, further toward the top of Beach Mtn. Actually, the old theme park surrounds this top. Here are a few remnant trash cans and stone walls from the original Emerald City — all that’s left, basically. I like the way the trashcans seem to be lighted from within, independent of the surrounding areas. More spirits?

The remains of Professor Marvel’s balloon, still decorated with ribbons from a recent OzLand celebration.

This deer was actually tame, and just wandered up from nowhere and let me pet him. Such is the magic of Oz.

The entrance to the old OzLand theme park. Many stories here.

Darkside Fall, 01

*Incredibly* beautiful day in the mtns. Took the opportunity to shoot some pictures in this normally rain or mixed bag kind of location. Came out pretty well w/ my cheapie camera because I took most of them toward sunset. These are all from Darkside, although I visited several locations.

Below are the rocks surrounding Darkside from a road below which, in effect, runs all the way around Beach Mtn. Specifically the Darkside “bowl” or concavity is slotted between and into the upper and lower rock faces of this photo.

Moving quickly, then, to a shot up through the large, central crack of the Temple of the Moon, the centerpiece rock of the complex.

Just to note: all of the rocks we’ll be talking about in this post and the next one have already been reviewed in this first series of Darkside related posts from last April.

A look toward the western rock face of the bowl, which literally, from this angle, looks like a face.

This would be Spring Rock, so named because it has a small spring running underneath it.

And then the only water pools of Darkside where the spring leaks out. Today there were 2 such small pools on the south/lower side of the rock because of the heavy recent rain; before I’ve seen only the lower of the 2 today, pictured below.

Temple of the Moon from below. This would be from the gap between Spring Rock and neighboring Hobbit Rock, I believe.

And Hobbit Rock itself with the large, central “hobbit” hole. Neat how you can see three beads of light shining through the hole from the other side here.

Great view down into the valleys below from the lower, central lip of the concavity.

An eastern rock of the bowl. Passing through the opening made between it and a fallen tree quickly leads to a tongue of land above the eastern wall. No real views there, though, because of the dense vegetation.

Darkside, 2b April 28, 2009

I thought I’d introduce this particular post dominated by Beach Mtn. “Temple of the Moon” posts with photos of other Temple of the Moons I found through a google image search of the phrase. The left hand monolith is found in Capitol Reef Nation Park in Utah, specifically in a place called Cathedral Valley. Although I didn’t know of this much larger monolith when coining the same name for the largest rock of Darkside, the resemblance seems rather striking to me.

The right hand picture is a close up of a painting by Roselyne Oneill called “Temple of the Moon”, which to me also bears an interesting resemblance to Darkside’s same named temple.

Then here’s a composite picture of Beach Mtn.’s Temple of the Moon.

From below, the hole called Hobbit Hideout in Hobbit Rock. As Hucka D. stated, the naming of this rock is not quite in line with the strong Oz theme of the others, but I think it will do. I’ll attempt to get a better picture of this “hideout” soon.

The Temple of the Moon rather towering about the trees, as seen from beside Hobbit Rock to the south.

Spring Rock just west of Hobbit Rock, so named because a spring can be usually be heard gurgling at its base, shortly forming the only pool of water known by me to exist in the Darkside bowl.

Temple of the Moon approaching from the south. Hard to get a sense from this photograph how high it actually is.

Looking up through the central crack of the temple. You can see the much lighter top of the temple through the opening.

This was taken from the inner chamber (crack) of the temple, reached from the entrance known as the Doorway to the east.

Another view of the temple again from the north, or the northern rim of the Darkside bowl.

More Darkside pictures soon!

Darkside, 2a

Observation Rock. Actually a number of rocks piled on top of each other, but also the top, flat rock could be called such by itself, I suppose. Anyway, from the top you can view the entire Darkside bowl, although the tree cover is too dense even in the winter to make most of the prominent bowl rocks out.

Tombstone Rock atop The Cathedral. No inscription, though (thankfullly!).

Inside The Cathedral.

Another, better photo of Pentagon Rock, as promised in the first post of this blog re Darkside. Again, it looks the same from both sides — soon I’ll go back and take some measurements of this and other, select rocks in the bowl. I’d like to know, for example, exactly how high the Temple of the Moon is.

Observation Rock (left) with close, lower companion The Point. Looks like an equilateral triangle from this angle, doesn’t it?

Yet another suspiciously evenly shaped rock. I call this one Diamond Rock. It’s right behind (north of) Pentagon Rock.

Darkside, 1 April 24, 2009

Temple of the Moon from the south rim of the Darkside bowl or basin.

West Wall looming above the treeline, as seen from the top of East Wall, forming the west and east borders of the Darkside bowl respectively.

Looking the other way now, this is a house also seen from top of East Wall. You can also see the rocks forming the top of Beach Mtn. just behind and to the right of the house.

What I call The Cathedral, and a close up of the Welcome Mat rock. Queer right angle corners on each side (?!), and its right square in entrance to the shallow fissue that makes up the interior of The Cathedral. This is on northern end of The Glade.

Pentagon Rock near The Cathedral and below (south of) Observation Rock. Looks exactly like an evenly “squished” regular pentagon, and from both sides actually. Another picture of this rock from earlier in the day (diff. day, though) is found in this follow up post on Darkside.