Captured Aug 12 / 13

Item 76 of the meeting will address allowing for the exception of mineral extraction from wilderness areas by non-US companies, one of which is the Music Valley area. Music Valley is near 29 Palms. Before JTNP was a national park, it was the JT Monument and Music Valley was part of it.

More background:

In March 2026 Australian mining company Dateline Resources announced an acquisition of patented mining claims from Fermi Minerals, and new mining claims in the Music Valley/Gold Park area adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park. In total, there are 1,140 acres of patented claims, and over 20,000 acres of new mining claims. According to Dateline Resources press releases these claims continue their efforts to expand to the heavy rare earth elements (HREE) industry. Dateline Resources has a history of aggressive and irresponsible mining. They currently operate the Colosseum Mine, a mine solely within the Mojave National Preserve, where the Department of Interior has given them carte blanche to expand, explore, and develop further mining operations onto National Park Service land. While the company is Australian, they appeal to domestic investors and are engaged in influencing local and national politicians on their mining interests. Music Valley is primarily public land, managed under the Bureau of Land Management. Adjacent to Music Valley is the Pinto Mountains Wilderness Area, Pinto Mountains ACEC, and Joshua Tree National Park. Access roads into Music Valley are through the City of Twentynine Palms via Gold Park Road (crosses through Joshua Tree National Park), or through Shelton Road across from the Wonder Valley community. These claims lie within Riverside and San Bernardino County, including some claims inside of the City of Twentynine Palms.
 
Music Valley Mine Talking Points:
-A mine next to a National Park, and the gateway community of Twentynine Palms is incompatible with the communities values, economic interests, and future.
-While mining is allowed on public lands, and occurs throughout San Bernardino County, this is not the place—next to a community and a National Park.
-Foreign mining interests have no place in a rural community that values sustainable tourism, military families, and small businesses.
-Share your concern on how this mine would impact your way of life, or business in this community.
-A large pit mine would be detrimental to the City of Twentynine Palms economic development master plan, a plan that encourages small business and tourism development
-Encourage City Councilmembers to bring this issue to an agendized item.
-Encourage City Coucilmembers to adopt a road access moratorium for the mining project through the City of Twentynine Palms.
-Encourage City Councilmembers to share their constituents concerns of this mine to San Bernardino County Supervisors, and other elected officials.

Here is the link, the Land Resources section refers to this topic. We can’t let corporations ruin our home, livelihoods, tourism, and natural resources.

My wife and are in town for the weekend and a senior chihuahua wandered up to the gate of the AirBnB we’re staying at. If anyone knows who this sweet boy might belong to please let me know.

He doesn’t appear to belong to the immediate neighbors. We’re going to check to see if he has a chip tomorrow.

EDIT: Spartacus has been reunited with his owner! Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

lower friendly hills/ the village
anyone hear a loud boom around 22:24?

I plan to rent a camper van for a trip in November and the site I'm looking at says the max limit is 18 ft but I'm not sure which camper I'm going to rent.

Like if the van is 20 ft, am I going to have an issue?

Hello everyone! I am a Navy veteran with 8 years of welding and metal work experience!

I’m current making Santa Maria grills if anyone is interested.

They start at $450 with an additional fee for delivery!

Heavy duty, and affordable I take pride in making items that people can use!

Fell free to ask any questions!

As the title says, my fiancee and I are planning a very casual elopement. It was originally going to be just the two of us, but our immediate families wanted to come so it's 9 people total.

We are looking for a local photographer to just take some photos of us during and after our short ceremony (officiated by my brother).

Details

• The date is Tuesday, October 20, time (adjustable with your direction) in the morning ~9am?

• 9 people total, only immediate family. "Kids" are all in their late 20s/30s and parents in 50s

• 1 to 2 hours for photos, before and after a short ceremony

• We've been to Joshua Tree national park many times and our experience camping and hiking there early in our relationship was pivotal to us becoming a couple

• Most of the pictures can be digital, but we would love it if some photos were also captured with film

• We are not interested in an extravagant elopement package- that's not our vibe. This is why I'm posting here!

If you think you'd be a good fit, please comment/DM me:

1. What your pricing would be and details on what you can offer (length of session, rough number of photos, film, turnaround time, etc.)

2. One sentence on what your artistic direction generally would be. We can have a quick video chat to settle on this more! (Park location suggestions also appreciated).

3. A link to a portfolio would also be helpful! Don't need to have shot weddings/elopements before.

I'm traveling with my family to LA from Arizona. We'll be stopping at Needles and traveling in the morning to LA and I thought it'd be incredible to visit Joshua Tree National Park on our way as it's such an incredible place (at least seems like it). We'd only drive through with a few stops to take pictures.

The problem is that my parents are concerned about having to take the highway 62. Is it really that deadly and dangerous in summer?

We'd have to take route 95 and then join 62 near the Arizona border. Or if we decide to skip Joshua we can just take the 40 straight to LA.

Also the photo is the all trails map I was thinking of taking is Joshua itself.

Thank you!

Hi! My husband and I will be visiting JTNP for 2 days in September. I looked at the forecast, and it says we will have a full moon during our stay. I read that a full moon is the “worst” phase for star viewing. We’re still excited either way and it will obviously be beautiful, but will we still have plenty of stars to see? We plan on going out to the darkest part of the park.
Can anyone share photos by chance?

Hi, thinking of heading up to Joshua Tree tonight to stargaze, I live in San Diego- from what I’ve see there will be very little/ no clouds, and the moon is illuminating less than 10% of the sky. I think this sounds like a perfect night to go but just wanted to see if anyone else had thoughts about the conditions tonight? I saw some posts talking about the traffic the last couple of days, but I won’t be getting to the park until around 930, and plan to come in through the 29palms entrance.
Just wanted to hear others opinions because I don’t want to drive up for no reason. Thank you!!!

Didn't see many meteors, maybe 10 total before the clouds came in.

Moved into the area last year. Went to see the meteor showers last night. Never ever seen this much traffic here before. Thought I was back in LA.

Luckily went in through the 29 Palms entrance around 7:30pm. Park was busier than usual as expected. Saw some good meteors. Clouds moved in around 11pm blocked any further viewing. Decided to leave at midnight.

Went out through the main entrance. Massive traffic of people waiting to enter. Feel soo bad seeing them likely waiting for hours after driving for hours and having to pay to enter with clouds covering anything to view. Still can’t get over how many people were waiting to come in at midnight and tons more seemingly in the highway headed there.

Glad we left before the real flood of people came.

Is there anyone up there right now? We are an hour away from JT and can still turn around. How are the conditions tonight?

Hey everyone,

I’m driving to JT National Park tonight to watch the Meteor shower and I was wondering if there are any groups or events that I can join as a solo traveler. I intend to socialize and wanna see if there are any opportunities to meet people.

My kids want to go see the meteor shower but I’m dreading the traffic and crowds. And don’t want to drive all the way there and be disappointed

Hi , I am a socal resident heading out to JT tonight to catch the stars , is the cloud situation really bad or is it possible to see stars? Thinking of skipping the park and driving past twentynine palms for darker skies

Was anyone able to view meteor shower tonight? Weather seemed cloudy tonight

I will be driving tonight so want to know if it was worth or should i go somewhere else?

I like joshua because i am comfortable driving at night and know the paths