nim and I went to Joshua Tree NP from December 10-12, 2005
We camped at Indian Cove the first night, and one of the more central campgrounds the second night. Definitely colder the second night, in the park. Anyway, we did a bunch of the shorter hikes in the park, and I really enjoyed it.
I had never been to Joshua Tree NP before (although since then, I’ve gone another 2 times), and I really wanted to go, and I encouraged nim to head on south and come with me. Obligingly, he, well, obliged 🙂
He got here on Saturday night and we set out on Sunday morning, into the desert. Joshua Tree is really only 2 hours from my house, which is pretty awesome.
“…other Desert Cities…none of which really matter, right?”
We spent the first night at Indian Cove, on the north side of the park. There is really an amazing rock jumble there (it is the northeast corner of the so-called “wonderland of rocks”). However, there weren’t really any Joshua Trees, but we made do. The campsite there has something like 100 sites, but only 2-3 were filled the night we were there, so we got an awesome site.
nice crevice in the rock. nice little cave! also, beautiful flat area to pitch our tent
right next to our campsite
It’s like some rock giant just dumped rocks everywhere, pleasing all rock hounds the world over. Of course, the place was mostly swarming with climbers, but you have to expect that (yes, these are not good climbing rocks. there were other good climbing rocks. many, many ,manymanymany others,
While at Indian Cove, we did the little nature trail there, which is a 0.6 mi RT loop, basically flat, with some interpretive signage. From the edge of that, you can see pretty damn far. You look north into the Yucca Valley, and can see the little towns there, and then over to the mountains beyond it.
Look, ma, I can see right out of the park!
We ate ridiculous quantities of food, namely steak, using the griddle nim had lugged along. Also, I entirely forgot, you know, any cutlery, or really even a plate, so that was kind of an adventure.
late night kangaroo rat visitor – you can’t really see his tail, but check out those huge ears!
We slept. It was great, if fairly cold. In the morning, we headed ever farther to the northeast of the park, and headed out on the trail to the 49 Palms Oasis. This is just a 3 mi RT out and back hike, with a total gain of about 360′, but there is way more up and down than that. you start in this parking lot, and head up and over these hills. It was pretty rocky, but there were these awesome red tipped cactus. As you go over the 2nd or 3rd hill, you suddenly get this crazy view of the oasis, which is quickly obscured. (My camera died shortly after this point, kudos to nim for letting me link to his photos)
…there are palm trees there??”
Unbeknownst to many, palm trees aren’t actually a sign of the real desert; they require a relatively copious amount of water, and can only exist where they have a constant source. So there has to be either a spring, or a river, or a good underground amount.
It’s definitely cooler under all those palms, and there is water flowing, and it’s pretty damn serene. Enjoyable, even. Calming, you might say. Yeah. Mellow.
See? Zen-like, you could say.
We then headed back on out, and drove into the main park. So, we’re just doodling along, when suddenly we are struck with this awesome vista of a *field of Joshua trees*. I make some silly statement about it at the time, but really, it was pretty damn awesome.
so..many…joshua trees!
We got set up at our campsite, and then head off in search of more things to do. What this ended up being was a couple more nature trails, and some photography for nim. The first nature trail we did was the Barker Dam Trail loop, which is 1.1 mi RT. It is pretty flat, and you get to head on up out of the flat desert plain into this crazy rocky area. You cut up and over some rocks, then , bam! you’re faced with this little lake caused by the dam, which makes you realize how much you’ve been missing water, just having it be anywhere near you in any way. Pretty dry out in the desert (except at that lake!) You then cut down and around, and you can see a few more structures built to do with the dam, like a feeding trough, and then you cut back through a plain, and shortly, you are back at the car.
water!
that one was really big. you know?
We then headed over to Hidden Valley, so named because it was basically rock locked for a very long time, until they blasted through sometime around the turn of the century, and did the little 1 mile loop inside there. They discuss as being an interesting ecological zone, where there are a whole different range of plants meeting with each other (different elevation levels of plants, and a damper climate help).
We then finished up there, and mostly just headed back to the campsite. nim took some more photos, and we ate, and tried to build a reasonable campfire, but fire pits and having only hardwood instead of softwood discourage that. Getting on evening in the desert is gorgeous, but the sun does set a bit early.
little man, looking at the little man…
we could *all* rhapsodize about the light, hmmm?
So, we ate, and we slept, and we were actually damn cold, and in the morning we had a fine surprise telling us why.
pretty pretty
Well after sunrise, the car told us the air temperature was 28 degrees. Yeeouch! and before you get on us about being wussies, as nim said, “don’t knock it unitl you’ve slept in it”.
then we packed up and went home. The End!
