Wilderness Wandering

February 21-23

We spent a few days visiting family and friends in Phoenix. We arrived at Joshua Tree a few hours after sunset and pulled in to the reserved campsite we had in Cottonwood Springs Campground and got ready for bed. 

We heard rain on the roof through the night, but the rain had moved on by the time we got up in the morning. Cottonwood Campground is on the far south end of the 789,745 acre park. There were a couple hikes from our campground. We decided to do the  highly rated 3 mile strenuous Mastodon Peak hike. We walked in a wash with a gradual incline and did some bouldering to summit and were able to see mountains and the Salton Sea from the peak. But we were perplexed because we didn’t see a single Joshua Tree!

After the hike we stopped at the Cottonwood VC to get our passport stamp, hiking map and refill on water. We learned that there are only a few places in the park to get water and that VC wasn’t one of them. 

We also learned that Joshua Tree NP is where the Mohave and Colorado deserts meet. We were in the lower Colorado desert section which doesn’t have Joshua trees!

We drove the main park road the north and west stopping at some exhibits. Joshua Tree has many hikes and the majority of them are between .25 and 3 miles round trip!  The next walk we did was the Cholla Cactus Hike .25 miles. Next we did the Arch and Heart Rock combined trail , approx. 1 mile. This is where we saw our first Joshua tree!

The Joshua tree  named by Mormon settlers who crossed the desert in the mid 19th century. As silhouettes, the trees appear in human form. Their extended limbs capped with spiky leaves were reminiscent of the Biblical Joshua with arms outstretched leading his followers to the Promised Land. Many of the trees looked like Dr. Suess creations to me! Joshua trees are members of the agave family. They do not have growth rings like most trees. They are related to the yucca family. The indigenous people used the trees for many things – the right leaves were woven into baskets and sandals and flower buds and seeds were eaten.  Joshua trees are only pollinated by one type of moth. They get their crazy shape because once a flower is pollinated, that branch won’t continue to grow and the tree takes off in a different direction. 

We located the Jumbo Rocks Campground and since it was only early afternoon, we headed out to do more hiking. We found the cool Skull Rock viewpoint.  We did the Hidden Valley trail – 1 mile easy. Then we drove to Cap Rock to do the daily .5 mile Ranger stroll. We learned a lot about Joshua Trees!

There was still daylight, so we tacked on the Barker Dam hike 1.3 miles easy and returned to our campsite to have a well deserved Old Fashioned and dinner with a campfire. 

We woke up to frost! Mr. Buddy warmed us up and  we started out the day with the moderately strenuous 3 mile with 1032 feet of elevation gain Ryan Mountain. It was a lovely hike and had great 360 degree views from the top.  We some nice gneiss ( pun intended) rocks on this hike.  There is almost no cell service in the park, but at the top of Ryan Mountain I got a return text from Aine’s friend McKenzie who has been at Joshua Tree the week before. She recommended the Maze Loop Trail. We located it on the map, packed a lunch and were off to try that 4.9 mile round easy hike. It was a great cross section of desert, jumbo rocks and Joshua trees! 

We were done hiking for the day. We drove to the West Entrance Station in search of drinking water. Then we continued into the small town of Joshua Tree to check out another Visitor Center since we had not yet taken our picture with the NP sign. After that, we drove  20 minutes to Pioneertown. Pioneertown is a movie set with all kinds of old western buildings. It was built in the 1940s and more than 50 movies were shot here. The outside of the buildings look like old western buildings – saloons, hotels, jails, etc., but inside they are modern shops. 

We returned to Jumbo Rocks Campground to a different site. It had beautiful huge rocks to climb on! 

The moon was so bright we didn’t need a flashlight to go to the bathroom. 

Friday morning was not as chilly as Thursday. We drove to the remote Black Rocks section of the park. We hiked a combined trail of The Panorama Loop and Warren Peak. 7.7 miles and 1690 feet of elevation gain. The views were so beautiful, that the trail did not feel strenuous. We saw very few people on our way up the mountain, but it was getting fairly crowded on our way down. This was a great final hike for Joshua Tree NP. 

We are heading towards LA and Channel Islands NP next!