Leslie and David's Wanderings: 23-24 November 2019 Joshua Tree NP

With this being the week of Thanksgiving, we expected all the desert parks will be very busy this week. So we headed for the West entrance to Joshua Tree NP fairly early. When we pulled into the visitor center parking lot in Joshua Tree, our concerns were confirmed. The parking lot was a zoo of people parking so they are blocking others, double-parking and basically acting stupid. We found a spot for the Behemoth and went into the visitor center. Joshua Tree was a National Monument until 1994 when congress turned it into a National Park and more than doubled its size. After we enjoyed the exhibits, collected our 62nd Passport Stamp, and picked out park hats and a cup, we talked with the ranger to investigate possible hikes. They really did not help much, just pointed at a paper with a description of the various hikes in the park and told us to pick. So David took a picture of the hike description and we headed back to the Behemoth. When we got to the truck, we found that people had parked so that they were blocking us in. We took the time to come up with our plan and by the time we were ready to go, the person had moved from behind us. About a mile into the park we came across a forest of Joshua Trees, so we pulled to the shoulder and got out to explore and take pictures. Joshua Trees are really yuccas, not trees. Their trunks are not made of wood, but of fibers. They can live up to 150 years. They generally grow 1-2 inches a year and are only found in the Mojave Desert.

Traffic in the park was not as bad as we feared, but the parking lots were generally full. We took the unmaintained Geology Road until we reached Quartz Tanks. Beyond that point the ranger warned that the road got pretty rough. Although the Behemoth is four wheel drive and has high clearance for its wheel base, it is too wide and long for true four wheel drive roads. We also no longer have tires made for severe off road travel. So we ate lunch near Quartz Tank, did some exploring around the area on foot, before turning back. On the way back to the road, we saw a coyote with a young one cross the road in front of us. Once back on the pavement, we drove on down to Skull Rock where we jumped out to get a picture of Skull Rock. Continuing on down the road, we stopped at Cholla Cactus Garden to view the interesting Cactus. A little further down we stopped at Ocotillo flats to see the tall Ocotillo. They reminded us of Big Bend and the Ocotillo we used as decoration for our wedding. We drove past several Smoke Trees before stopping in a dry wash to get some pictures of them. We then hiked up the dry wash a mile or so to get off the beaten track. We saw several long eared Jack Rabbits on our hike. Then it was back down the road until we came into the south visitor center. We stopped there to see if they had a park movie, but they did not have a movie theater. We talked with the rangers and got a recommendation for a loop hike that was just minutes away. So we drove to the trailhead parking lot and pulled our water. The sun was setting in an hour and a half, so we needed to do it quickly. We hiked the Mastodon Peak Loop Trail (2.8 miles, 400 feet of elevation gain, 720 calories burned). It was a beautiful hike. From the highest point we could see the Sultan Sea to the south. We also passed the Mastodon Peak Mine. There are over 300 abandoned mines in the park. There were some fun rock formations and the setting sun brought out the colors. Then it was back to the Wanderer.

On Sunday we took a more leisurely approach to the park. We stopped in Joshua Tree to get our Mexican food Sunday fix before heading for Hidden Valley trail in the park. We got lucky and got a good parking spot right away. We hiked the Hidden Valley trail (1.5 miles, 184 Feet of elevation gain, 535 calories burned), which was very interesting. We figured out that the most popular activity in the park is rock climbing, weather its cliff faces by experienced climbers or boulder scrambling by amateurs. We stopped several times to watch the climbers on the cliff faces. Once again the sun was going down fast, so we headed for the north exit to explore that section of the park. We stopped at the north visitor center to see if they had the park film only to find out there was no longer a Joshua Tree NP film since the facilities are not available to show it. The exhibits were better than at the other visitor center, so we took the time to explore them. Then it was back to the Wanderer to prepare for our drive to Tucson in the morning.