Last week I realized that I’ve been working near a latitude and longitude microconfluence in Twentynine Palms, so I walked over to it on my lunch break.

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Screen shot of Altimeter app

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Screen shot from Maps With Me, showing metric coordinates

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And the microconfluence itself

The spot is in the front yard of a house on the southwest corner of Two Mile Road and Aztec Avenue. You can see the yard through a gap in the “hedge” that I’m shooting through, with a concrete U driveway on the other side of that awesome cinderblock wall.

The funny thing about this adventure was that it took finding three microconfluences on Two Mile Road (the first two are here and here) before realizing that Two Mile Road is right on 34.15 degrees north latitude (34 9′ 0″) all the way from Joshua Tree into Twentynine Palms, even though the road doesn’t go through. (Copper Mountain is in the way.) I didn’t expect such consistency from early Morongo Basin road builders. I see that I can find three more microconfluences just by following the line of Two Mile Road between Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms, probably climbing part of Copper Mountain in the process.

The purple dots are microconfluences. From left to right, Joshua Tree, Sunfair, Twentynine Palms.

The purple dots are microconfluences. From left to right, Joshua Tree, Sunfair, Twentynine Palms.

The same basic area on Google Maps. JT National Park is south of the highway, Copper Mountain to the north in the middle. Two Mile Road is not paved in JT, so it's hard to see.

The same basic area on Google Maps. JT National Park is south of the highway, Copper Mountain to the north in the middle. Two Mile Road is not paved in JT, so it’s hard to see. I think you can click on this image to see it bigger.