Postcards from a McTraveler: Joshua Tree National Park

Where: Joshua Tree, California
When: February 23-26, 2018
With: Rachel and Suzannah

As a joint ~~35th~~ 29th birthday gift to ourselves, two of my oldest friends, Rachel and Suzannah, and I decided to take a trip together. We wanted to target the January/February time closest to our birthdays, but all agreed we should try to go somewhere warm. While this initially limited our options, we soon realized, what is warmer than the desert? So we decided to go Joshua Tree National Park.

Sitting about three hours east of Los Angeles, this lesser known national park has probably gained most of its fame from the 1987 U2 album Joshua Tree. I have no idea what the album has to do with the park, but its the first place that I heard of a Joshua tree.

We all met in LA, and drove to our rental house just north of the park entrance. By the time we got in, the sun was setting, the wind had picked up and we were disappointed to find that...it was cold! However, while the next morning was still a bit chilly, the sun was blasting and it was warmer than the northeast, so we were happy. This gave me the opportunity to explore our property a bit, Casa Ophelia.

I was immediately loving all the cacti around the house and the surrounding area.

Surrounding us all around was an expanse of desert, and at the end of that were mountains. The combo of the blue sky, mountains and dots of cactus and brush against the sand was gorgeous.

Before we hit the park, we made a stop at one of the several outdoor art museums in the area, Noah Purifoy.

After moving out into this area, Noah Purifoy spent 10 years collecting discarded junk and creating sculptures. What remains are ten acres of his open air studio. There's no description or explanation of his work, so the visitor is left to enjoy and wonder what he may have intended with each piece.

In the middle of the "museum", the first Joshua trees have been spotted officially!

Back to the art.

The funny part about a museum like this is that sometimes, you can't tell what is art and what is an accident. Like this bowling ball. Did it roll away or is it meant to be here?

And back to the art again.

We also had fun modeling beside the art.

This place just went on and on. We could have easily spent hours there if we didn't need to get moving to the park.

And so, off to the park we went. On this first day, we entered through the north entrance (there are three entrances into the park).

First impressions of the park were wow. Similar to the landscape outside, the road cut through seemingly endless desert, dotted with Joshua trees and bordered by mountains. Except on the inside of the park, there were massive piles of rocks and giant rock formations. They looked fake. It felt like Disney World and the rocks were made of plastic.

Our first trail was a short one called Hidden Valley. Now up close to these rocks and they still looked wildly fake.

We also could get up close to the Joshua trees. It is actually considered a yucca plant, but takes on "tree like tendencies" and it is pretty much confined to the Mojave Desert in this region of the country.

Hiking the loop.

An early moon rise meant we could see it against the deep blue sky creeping over the rocks.

Suzannah saw a great photo opportunity, but we later learned that snakes like to hang out in these little nooks. Good thing we got the shot before we became aware of that information!

On this one mile loop, the scenery simply didn't get old.

The Giant Burrito, as this rock is called. While the formal hikes in Joshua Tree are pretty easy (as long as its not too hot outside), the challenges come when people opt to scramble up the rock faces. This is a popular one to climb.

Happy we are here!

One of the new activities we enjoyed while hiking was playing the cloud game, but with rocks: what do you think it looks like and can you describe it well enough that other people see it too? The first one, I see a gnome in a hat, and on the second, I see a kiss!

A slightly safer nook to crawl into.

After our hike, we grabbed a spot on some rocks for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and snacks. It was a pretty ideal way to enjoy lunch!

A blue bird that kept a close eye on our food.

After lunch, we headed over to the Barker Dam trail, another easy one that started off again with some great views of Joshua trees and rock piles.

At the end of the Barker Dam trail is, not surprisingly, the Barker Dam, built in 1900 by cattle ranchers. It's odd to suddenly see water out here in the middle of the desert.

Under the dam, where the water trickles out.

Taking photos of each other.

An easy way to get a photo of the three of us.

After the dam, we reached a valley that was absolutely stunning. For all the same reasons as this park has thus far been beautiful, but still, gorgeous.

Getting up close and personal with the Joshua trees.

And a shot of me in my natural habitat: taking forever to photograph something.

I did love that Joshua tree though.

Love the roots on this one.

At the end of the trail were some Native American petroglyphs drawn onto the rocks. While they appear bright, they have been colored over for vibrancy, which is considered a form of vandalism.

Last bits of the trail before hitting the road for our last stop.

Our final stop of the day was to drive to the top of Keys View Mountain for the sunset. Unfortunately, similar to the previous night, the wind picked up dramatically and as the sun went down, so did the temperature. Fortunately, we snagged the ideal parking spot with this as our view. So we had primetime viewing from inside the car.

We did hop out though to take a quick loop of the scene. From up here, a view of the San Andreas fault line is possible (I couldn't see it) as well as the Salton Sea, a random body of water in the desert with twice the salinity of the Pacific Ocean.

Last rays of sunlight.

On the drive back through the park to head out to dinner, the sky was still colorfully lit, so we stopped to get some shots. The Joshua trees provided perfect foreground objects.

The next morning, we headed over to the east side of the park for a different clump of trails. The first stop on this hike was at Jumbo Rocks, named for, well, those jumbo rocks.

I thought this one looked like a fist bump.

Unlike the previous day, with a mostly flat trail, this one was a little less clear and required a bit more rock climbing.

We had fun just exploring around this area.

From the expanse on one side of the trail, we crossed to the closed in boulders of the other side. These required some tight navigating through the rock faces, but it was so much fun.

Even the picnic benches were hidden among the rocks.

I thought this one looked like a T-Rex mouth.

When we cleared the rocks, we had another great view.

A little easier to follow this trail!

At this point, we came upon another landmark rock formation: Skull Rock. This one was pretty accessible from the road though, and as a result, it was mobbed with people attempting to capture the creepy face.

Luckily, I snagged one at the perfect people-free moment, moon and all.

To escape the people, we climbed up into the rocks a bit to have a rest. All we could see was more boulders in the distance.

One of the more famous ones: Elephant Rock.

And time to loop back on the hike.

After that hike, it was cactus time. So we continued east into the park where the boulders and Joshua trees dissipate, and the desert becomes more open and vast, though still bordered by the mountains.

Our first stop was at the Ocotillo Patch, where a park ranger had told us the Ocotillo were in bloom. Well, we arrived and for starters, can't even tell where an Ocotillo is, let alone see its flowers.

Then we realized what we were looking for. While its a cool looking plant, the park ranger definitely played up the "blooming" aspect.

It did look cool with the moon though.

Oh wait! We found one "blooming"...womp womp.

So we continued on to Cholla Catcus Garden, one of the prime time spots in Joshua Tree to watch the sunset. I loved the bee warnings upon arrival...

Now this cactus garden was cool. The same park ranger who played up the bloom on the last patch also told us that children shouldn't come to this place because the cactus look like furry teddy bears that they'll want to hug. I don't know if I agree with that, but they do look cool!

A trail weaves through the cactus garden, allowing guests to get up close and personal with these spiky plants.

However, as the sun went down, we decided to go off the trail and to get some stellar views back on the catcus patch.

Such a stunning view.

It was so cool how the color of the cactus changed along the stalk.

Trying to catch that moon again.

So our off-trail experience started great, but as we got deeper in, the less maintained the ground was. And before we knew it, there were pricklies stuck to us. Thankfully, my hiking boots were pretty adept at stomping these things off, but it made our journey back towards the trail a bit more perilous, particularly as we lost the light.

We almost missed sunset for attempting to remove prickles.

The little spines on the cactus get this crazy glow at sunset. It was such a cool sight.

And the mountains in the distance still have the sun on them, giving the view a beautiful orange backdrop.

When we got back to the parking lot, we noticed this sign informing visitors to stay on the trail. For those fools that don't adhere, there's a first aid kit with tweezers.

That night, we ventured to Pioneertown, an old western movie set turned into a real town, way up in the mountains. We had dinner at the most well-known and recommended restaurants in the area, Pappy & Harriet's. The food was amazing and there was live music. It was great. It was also really dark and made it impossible to snap a photo.

The last morning, we woke up to head to the spa for massages, facials and a sound bath. A sound bath is where you lay for an hour meditating while someone plays different sounds, mostly on singing bowls, to relax you. It was very cool, and a perfect way to end our time.

But one more stop before we leave the area was at a a little place called Art Queen. It was like a collection of different artist galleries in one common area. Everyone was so friendly and nice, and we each found things that spoke to our particular interests...