Joshua Tree National Park

Day 123 - Joshua Tree National Park, CA to San Diego, CA - Sunny Low 60's:

Today was another early morning. We packed up camp it was onto the Lost Palms Oasis trail to get in a nice hike before we were back into the car and off to San Diego. The trail was a long 3.6 miles each way but it brought us to another set of gorgeous palm trees in the desert. Turns out it was the largest set of California Palms in the park. After a few photos it was the long walk back. We were quite pleased to get in 7.2 miles all before noon! We piled into the wagon and made our way to the San Diego. It was nice to check into the hotel and get a clean shower after days of hiking!

Day 122 - Joshua Tree National Park, CA - Sunny Upper 60's:

We awoke today with frost on our tent and car and it kind of reminded us of Maine, luckily for us it warmed up once the sun rose above the mountains. We had a long day of hiking ahead of us so we packed up camp and went to the Hidden Valley Trail. We then went to Barker Dam Trail and explored the site where a small dam was put during the early 1900's for farming and cattle. We then went over to the Lost Horse Mine trail to explore an old gold mine. It was named Lost Horse because it was discovered when a man was out looking for what else other...his lost horse. We thought the trail was shorter then it actually was. We had planned on a three mile round trip hike and ended up on a 6.2 mile hike along some unmaintained tails. Heather got really worried along part of the trail because it wasn't going in the right direction, we had no snacks, and had left our compass in the car, but I think it was just because she was hungry. Once we made it back to the car we quickly had some lunch and drove to Jumbo Rocks to check out Skull Rock. With one last stop at Arch Rock we called it a day and headed back to Cottonwood Campground for some dinner and another campfire with marshmallows.

Day 121 - Joshua Tree National Park, CA - Sunny Mid 60's:

Today we woke up early and packed up camp to head up into the Mojave Desert and to do some hiking and of course see some Joshua Trees. On the drive up we stopped a the Cholla Cactus Garden which was a short nature trail through the Cholla Cactus that thrive in this area. This was a great stop because these are my favorite looking cacti and we got to learn all about them but not touch them because the have tiny microscopic barbs on them that are very difficult to remove once they get under your skin.

It was then on to the 49 Palms Oasis trail. This trail took us over a mountain and into a canyon where we came across a set of California Palm trees with a stream running through the canyon. It was really cool to see that there was so much life even in the middle of the desert.

We then drove to the small town of Joshua Tree to grab some supplies before we set up camp at the Hidden Valley campground. After we settled in at the campground the sun was still shinning, so we headed out to do some bouldering among the unique rock formations. I have done a lot of this before but Heather was a bit of a newby. She did well and managed to stay with me on the rocks. We then went to an area with a little more difficulty and I was able to put my climbing shoes to use. I scaled a small mound of rocks as you can see in the pictures that Heather stood as she stayed at the bottom! By the time I was done both my hands and legs had hand enough for the day and so we made our way back to camp for some dinner and a fire with marshmallows.

Day 120 - Phoenix, AZ to Joshua Tree National Park, CA - Sunny Upper 50's:

Today we woke up early and packed up the car for our next stop Joshua Tree National Park. We gained another hour on our trip across the California border and arrived at the park around 1:00 PM. We stopped by the visitor center and learned that Joshua Tree National Park consists of two separate deserts, the Colorado and the Mojave. We entered the park from the south entrance and were disappointed to learn that we would not see any Joshua Trees because we were in the Colorado Desert. The climate in the Colorado Desert is no right for their growth, so we would have to wait until tomorrow when we ventured into the Mojave Desert. After we got recommendations for hiking over the next three days, we made our way to the Cottonwood Campground and set up camp for the night.

We had a couple of hours before the sunset, so we decided to go for a short hike up the Mastodon Trail. It was a great hike with some amazing views from the top, but the most amazing part was that on our way back to the campground we ran into some friends from Maine and a couple of girls Heather went to high school with. It was so bizarre because they were traveling with one of my friends from Portland. I knew that she was going to Joshua Tree but Heather had no idea that the girls she new were headed there and for us to run into them with no planning was CRAZY! After we reminisced a bit about Maine and discussed how cosmic it was to run into people we knew in the middle of a National Park in California we parted ways and went back to camp. We cooked some great dinner and called it an early night.