Note: This is a continuation of our California trip from here: https://occidentalist.org/wandering-ca-395-2018-part-2/
After departing the Alabama Hills we struck off ever southward toward Joshua Tree National Park. It was a transition day as the Sierra came to an end, and cholla cactus, creosote bushes and eventually Joshua trees filled the landscape before us. It took the better part of the day to get there, but we did arrive in time to do some initial looking around. Joshua Trees seem like a character right out of Dr. Seuss.
After a visit to the Covington Flats area we thought we’d better find a campsite before the light faded. When we pulled into Indian Cove Campground we were informed that although we had plenty of sites to choose from, the hordes would soon be arriving in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday. We’d need to be up early and head to one of the first come first serve campsites if we wanted to stay additional days. So much for best laid plans, the next mornings hike was put on hold. The site we found for the night was a good one, nestled in the awesome rock features with a great view.
I planned to attempt some astrophotography on the trip. With a partial moon rising pretty early each evening there wasn’t a lot of great opportunities, but the moonlight served to highlight the monzogranite rock formations so I guess it was a good tradeoff.
We took the park rangers advice and were up early the next morning to find a campsite we could stay in for the rest of our time in the park. I’m always a bit conflicted about visiting the big name national parks. It is great to see the features they highlight, but the title of National Park comes with an attractant for crowds of people and limited options for camping that can get you away from the noise of others. Anyhow, we found our site and claimed it quickly as a basecamp for a few days of exploring the park. We were soon off to hike Ryan Mountain which was a good climb with a great view of the central portion of the park. We even spotted some bighorn sheep along the way.
We did a bit more exploring before our first full day in the park came to a close and we made plans for the next day.
The highlight of the next day was a hike into a fan palm oasis. We picked the 49 palms oasis as our destination, one of 5 fan palm oases in the park.
There was actual surface water at the oasis, which may not come as a surprise, but after being in such a dry setting the past couple days it was kind of odd to actually see the little pond filled with water, giving life to everything around it.
We were starting to get to know some of the vegetation of the park, including many of the cactus species, but it was not until the next day, our final in the park, when we really got to see a few unique species. Our first stop, as we headed out of the Mojave desert portion of the park and down into the Sonoran Desert part of the park, was the Cholla Cactus garden. We’d seen chollas since we left the Sierra, but the garden had such a collection of them it formed an otherworldly setting.
After a stroll in the cholla we headed down the road and before too long found our first ocotillo. From my reading ocotillo are considered trees, although the spines on them lead you to believe they are a cactus.
Alongside the road were big blooms of sacred datura. They were being pollinated by bees which seemed to be finding them as quite a feast in an otherwise relatively flowerless November.
We had planned to hike out to another fan palm oasis, the lost palms, but to make a long story short, we didn’t get there. It wasn’t without trying, as even though we mentioned our planned destination at the Cottonwood visitor center, there was no mention that the trail to get there was closed (thanks NPS). We did end up with an alternate hike that led us to a good view of that end of the park from Mastodon Peak. We even spotted a hummer along the way.
By late afternoon we were headed back to camp. The crowds we had been warned about were out in full force. I’ve never witnessed such a complete lack of regard for space in a campground before. We had day users parking in our site, and walking through camp like we weren’t even there.
We enjoyed the vistas, unique geology and interesting plants of Joshua Tree. But having seen it, it was time to move on to quieter places before Thanksgiving rolled around. Tomorrow we’d be off to the Mojave Trail.
