Clay Lexton stepped out of his vehicle and grabbed his jacket. He had parked at the Skull Rock parking area just east of the Jumbo Rocks Campground. He was in Joshua Tree National Park, a place he had found fascinating. His new job on the Marine base just outside of Twentynine Palms, California gave him the opportunity to begin exploring one of the most fascinating places in the world. Normally, this area was alive with people, but the unusual damp, cold rainy days had held back the crowd.
He knew his luck wouldn’t hold, but he grabbed his water filled backpack and set off on what the Park people called Discovery Trail. It promised to be a short hike linking Skull Rock and Split Rock. The huge boulders were awesome just to contemplate. At one point, he stopped to look out over the beige d
