01-23-2024 Visiting Joshua Tree National Park

Mo and I have traveled south to Desert Hot Springs almost every year since 2010.  One of the things we love about visiting Desert Hot Springs on the northwestern rim of the Coachella Valley is the proximity to Joshua Tree National Park. 

We waited for an almost sunny, almost warm day during our visit this year to trek east to the southernmost boundary of the park.  

It all felt incredibly familiar as we approached the Mecca exit on I-10, memories welling up between us like old movies. We tried remembering which year we boondocked outside the park north of the freeway...2014. New Year Boondock Which year did we drive out to Keys View overlooking the Coachella Valley toward the west and the magnificent eastern slope of Mt San Jacinto? 2013. Back Roads

It was when we returned home late in the afternoon and I once again had access to the blog and photos that we realized that our last visit to Joshua Tree was back in 2015 Joshua Tree Heaven

It seemed so familiar and impossible to believe that it had been nine years since we meandered along the road that bisects the park.

With two weeks at Catalina Spa and RV Resort, we had plenty of time to take a day and visit Joshua Tree once again.  Established as a National Monument in 1936, it was renamed a national park by Congress with the 1994 California Desert Protection Act. Today the park protects 792,510 acres of which more than 80 percent is managed as wilderness.

The most familiar images of the park are the huge granite boulders that are so prominent in the northern portion of the park.  The park can be accessed from the north through the community of Twenty-Nine Palms and from the south about 25 miles west of Indio north of I-10.  The road that meanders through the park is narrow and a bit winding in places and the speed limit is kept below 45 mph.  

There are a few other 4x4 dirt roads that enter the park over remote mountain ranges.  In 2013 Mo and I made an attempt to cross into the park via one of these back roads but were blocked by rocks and boulders too rough to navigate.  After an entire day traversing dirt roads when we returned home that night and checked out our route on the internet we discovered that we were less than 1/4 mile from getting all the way through.

As we entered the park this week, memories of that trip bubbled up, in addition to New Year's Eve in 2014 when we watched the desert sky from the southern boundary of the park on our way to Florida.

This time we had no need to explore rough back roads even though the Tracker is fully capable of doing so.  Instead, I wanted to stop in at the Visitor Center and see if there was a new tee shirt available before continuing north. 

There is something so incredibly spectacular about seeing miles and miles of unspoiled desert stretching in all directions.  Here there are no telephone poles, no ramshackle desert trailers, no solar farms, and few fences to mar the view.  I felt my eyeballs stretch out in ways that can only happen in the desert with unlimited vistas.  I love that feeling.

The namesake of the park is the wild armed Joshua Tree, growing on the southern edges of the Mojave Desert.  Here in Joshua Tree, the Mojave meets the northern perimeter of the Colorado Desert, a subdivision of the greater Sonoran Desert.  It is in the northern part of the park where most of the campgrounds are located, set among the picturesque granite boulders.

A campsite in the Jumbo Rocks Campground

Two of the campgrounds are first come first serve but the main campground at Jumbo Rocks is now reservation only.  I wanted to walk the short desert trail from the Jumbo Rocks Campground to Skull Rock.  We hiked that trail on our last visit in 2015, when we were lucky enough to snag a campsite for a single gorgeous night.

Our drive north had been uneventful, with very little traffic until we arrived at the Skull Rock viewpoint.  Cars were lined on both sides of the road for some distance from the actual trailhead.  Mo and I looked at each other and said, "No Way!"  

We continued a mile or so north to the Jumbo Rocks Campground where there were many signs for the Skull Rock Trail, but many more signs saying no parking for trail.  After meandering around the campsites a bit, we drove back to the main road and decided to park behind the long line of cars backed up to view the infamous rock.  

We skipped the main route, walking south into the desert on what appeared to be a trail and within minutes we were on the actual Skull Rock Trail that I remembered hiking in 2015.  The trail was lovely, and very nearly empty of people, but once we got closer to Skull Rock there were hordes of people on all sides of the road and climbing all over the rocks near the viewpoint.  People were lined up in groups taking selfies and groupies, and climbing around in all directions.

We waited a bit before attempting to get a photo or two before we walked back to the car along the busy highway. We traveled back east toward the Live Oak picnic area.  Here a dirt road meanders past the bathrooms with easy pull-offs and great views.  Despite the sunshine, the air was cool and the wind was chilly.  We chose to eat our little picnic in the car.

After relaxing a bit, we found another side road that led to an area that for some reason most cars avoided and enjoyed the peace and quiet and savored the uninterrupted views toward the south.  

On the way back out along the main road, we took a side road to another picnic area and trailhead called Split Rock.  By the time we got there, that parking lot was almost completely full and once again there were people everywhere.  

I took the obligatory shot of Split Rock to prove we had been there and we hightailed it out of that area and turned back south toward the Cottonwood Visitor Center and the Southern Entrance.

Sometimes when we have visited the park we have traveled from south to north and then exited at Twenty Nine Palms and returned to Catalina through Yucca Valley and then down the hill to Desert Hot Springs.  From experience, we knew that route was often heavily trafficked, and instead decided to return home the way we had come that morning.

We passed one of the more popular sites along that road, the Cholla Garden.  The parking lot was packed by this time of day and I was glad that we had stopped for a photo or two earlier in the day as we passed by on our trip north.

There is something about the way that the spines of the cholla cactus catch light that makes taking photos of them completely irresistible.  Known as the "jumping cactus" they are notorious for getting caught on clothing and shoes and are extremely painful to remove.  

The list of plants and animals that call this landscape home is long and varied.  After winter rains, sometimes there is an abundance of wildflowers but we were a bit too early for that show this year.  

We did see one lonely coyote cross the road, and a couple of ravens kept us company during our lunch.

The 25-mile section of I-10 is a bit harrowing with heavy truck traffic and narrow lanes due to construction, but once we made the turn to Dillon Road, it was an easy trip. Mattie was waiting patiently for our return after just six and a half hours alone in the MoHo.  We are lucky that she is such a patient dog when it is called for.  As with most National Parks, dogs are not allowed on the trails and we decided it was best to leave her at home in the cozy rig.

It was a wonderful day and I am sure will remain a highlight of our time spent in the southern deserts this year.