Beyond the Pacific Northwest: Joshua Tree Rocks

In early March, I traded Pacific Northwest snow for a few days of sun in Southern California's Joshua Tree National Park.

On this, my first trip to Joshua Tree National Park, the striking combination of blue sky, dry desert, golden granite boulders, and otherworldy plants was a feast for the senses.  

This was definitely nothing like western Washington and Oregon.

After walking off the rear of the plane in Palm Springs onto the tarmac, I was immediately struck by the dry warmth, which is Southern California doing what it does best.

From Palm Springs, it was about an hour drive up to Joshua Tree through the rugged, mountainous, arid SoCal landscape. 

Some of our group of 11 guys 'n gals stayed in Yucca Valley in a motel, 
but a few of us camped up in the park at Hidden Valley campground, surrounded by huge boulders and striking rock formations. Cold nights with brilliant starry skies brought frosty mornings and glowing sunrises. 

It was glorious.

Before sunrise quiet.

While my motivation was to see somewhere I've never been before, the goal of the group overall was rock climbing. These formerly hard-core climbers and mountaineers (think Half Dome and El Capitan ascents and Himalayan summits) have mellowed with age, but still, the climbing was for real.

Don made scary (to me) look easy. The Tombstone.

 

My much easier route.

Dave, an experienced and accomplished climber, was patient and took me to much smaller boulders and rocks for climbing and belay practice. After a scary climbing experience in high school, I discovered it was actually fun and pretty safe. 

I'm hooked. Now I want more.

However, there was also hiking and exploring to do. One morning we hiked up nearby Ryan Mountain, the second highest point in the park and a very popular trail. 

This 3-mile round-trip hike is listed in the park guide as strenuous, but really, if you're a hiker in decent shape, it's not tough. Just don't go when it's too hot and bring plenty of water and sunscreen. We gained a little over 1,000 feet to a summit elevation just under 5,500 feet.

Pirickly cactus near summit of Ryan Mountain

Another morning we got up before sunrise to hike the Real Hidden Valley, a lovely little rock-enclosed "valley" near our campground. This easy 1-mile loop also gets tons of traffic, but we had the place to ourselves, which I considered a gift. 

I stopped briefly to sit and meditate just after the sun crested the surrounding rocks, grateful to be in and experience such a beautiful place during the early morning quiet.

Before Joshua Tree was a national park, cattle rustlers used to hide their stolen livestock here in what was then a secret hideaway. 

Another short (1.3-mile) afternoon hike we did was the Barker Dam loop, a pre-park impoundment that remains an oasis in the desert.

With all the extra rain and snow along the West Coast recently, the Joshua trees were starting to bloom and the cholla cactus glowed white with new growth. We were just ahead of a major desert bloom. Nevertheless, it was all lovely and enchanting.

 

NOT an artichoke :)

Cholla cactus

After Hike/Climb Eats
We did a little cooking (hot drinks in the morning, granola and fruit for breakfast) but drove down to the nearby towns of Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley several times to grab group dinners and snacks. 

We had pretty standard but decent and tasty Mexican at La Casita Neuva in Yucca Valley one night, and what I thought was quite good Thai food in Joshua Tree at the Royal Siam Cuisine Thai Restaurant. Just pass on the deep-fried eggrolls; everything else was fresh and well-prepared. 

But our favorite was the healthy fresh fruit smoothies at the Natural Sisters Cafe, a corner cafe/coffee shop in Joshua Tree near the park entrance turnoff. Oh, and I loved the excellent arugula salad at the Crossroads Cafe, where we had lunch before heading to the airport (sigh).

So I'm back in the land of cold rain (although they're predicting temps up to 70 degrees next week!), but images of Joshua Tree are lingering. I know I'll have to return someday for more.

How about you? Have you spent time there, climbing, hiking, or just sightseeing? Would love to hear in a comment below.

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons! 

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When You Go

Joshua Tree National Park is in Southern California just north and east of Palm Springs, which is about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. We flew Alaska Air from Seattle, which has plenty of daily flights, but a few in our group drove south in camper vans. They say the summer is beastly hot and the best times to be there are the spring and fall. We had temps in the low 60s in early March, but it rained and even snowed at higher elevations the day after I left.