Smugglers Cave
Vicinity of Valley of The Moon

Rounding a bend in the trail I come upon Smugglers Cave. The wind and sand have hollowed out a boulder into a bowl, which tip onto its side. It offers a cool sanctuary from a land that can be cold to scorching hot in the summer, in between the winter and summer the wind can be quite brisk, as lower desert heat travels upward pulling the upper desert's cooler air down to it

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Tuck up high above Hwy 8 , away back in the the area around Valley of The Moon is the unusual rock formation called Smugglers Cave. I have seen many sand blasted rocks in this area, no shotage of wind caves as well. I would imagine this rock started out as a much larger boulder, as it  had it's side worn away into a bowl like concavity, it was undermined and tip over.  There are many Stories about this place, from shootouts, bandits and Smugglers, its hard to no whats real and what is stories.
One thing though, walk twenty feet in front of the entryway and you will find a mortero ground into the hard granite. This points to a Native American presence long before all others.
The interior is covered with soot from many fires and the wall covered with graffiti, some dates have some age to them.

Spotted this rock is on the trail to smugglers cave. The rock has been blasted by sand and wind to form a pockmarked surface. I walk to the side and see the visage of a moaning skull and the worn figure of a shrouded woman supporting the rock. Just imagine how spooky this would be on a moonlit night