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! 

In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news.
 

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.

Road Tripping Southward: Into the Redwoods

While I've hiked many trails and traveled widely around the Pacific Northwest, until last week I'd never been along the Redwoods Highway in southwest Oregon/northern California. 

Wow. Just wow.

With most old growth Sitka spruce gone, the coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) comprise the last significant remnants of what was no doubt mind-boggling forest magnificence along the Left Coast of North America.

Today only 5 percent remain of the estimated 2 million acres of the coast redwood habitat. Thank goodness for the Save the Redwoods campaign that began in 1918. 

For those of us so inclined, they are a sacred destination. Walking and sitting in the redwoods feels akin to being in the ancient cathedrals that I've visited in Europe, like a Chartres of nature.

I'm especially thankful for these trees, these ancient and magical forests, because on this particular trip they provided a perfect place to reflect on the life of my recently deceased, much loved brother.

With a couple days to get to San Francisco for my brother's memorial service, my sister and I make a mini-road trip of it, starting with an overnight in downtown Eugene, Oregon, at the pleasant and well-situated Timbers Motel.

After driving south the next morning on I-5 a couple hours to Grants Pass, we take the exit to Highway 199/Redwoods Highway and angle southwest through winding canyon country on into northern California.

And before we know it, we're amongst the big trees on a narrow, curvy roadway through Jebediah Smith Redwoods State Park, the northernmost in the Redwoods park complex.

Before this trip, I hadn't realized Redwoods National Park, a World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve, is actually a series of national and state parks strung out over 40 or so miles in the tippy top, northwest corner of California. The loopy road through them slaloms past a glorious panorama of the rugged Pacific Ocean coastline.

While we don't have time to explore and hike as much as I'd like, the ranger at the visitor center recommends a short hike through the woods in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park along the 10-mile Newton B. Drury Parkway.  This side road off Highway 101 threads through giant redwoods closely bracketing the roadway. 

Our destination is the Zigzag Trail #1, connecting to the West Ridge Trail to Zigzag Trail #2, for a 3.2-mile loop. So the trailhead signs aren't well-marked and we didn't end up on the trail we expected; it was still a refreshing 90 minutes walking up and down through the forest.

Why they call them redwoods.

 

And because it's a healthy forest, there are diverse tree species.

After tramping for a while through a grove of huge old trees, past a stream and wetland, we reach a junction and head up towards the west ridge on this mild September afternoon.

Up here, with views into the rich forest below, around, and above, my sister decides to take a break and sit on a log beside the trail. As I join her, I suggest we sit in silence for a bit. Or maybe she suggests it, doesn't really matter.

What does matter is how incredibly powerful it is to just sit quietly in an ancient redwoods forest, listening, breathing steadily. I try to absorb the still, silent forest with all my senses.

For the briefest of moments I swear I feel the forest breathing too, then a slight breeze picks up. The mystic in me thinks immediately of our brother, whom we've both been thinking about and remembering as we travel to say goodbye in San Francisco.

Above in the forest canopy, a delicate, sweet bird call echos, and we rise to continue.

After cresting the ridge and not being sure which way to go (the directional sign points the opposite way our instincts tell us to go), an oncoming hiker comes along. Good thing; from her map we realize our instincts were right and we were on the wrong trail.

[Note to self: you know better than to hike without a map.]

So we descend, enjoying the truly awesome forest and big trees, so photogenic, as we go.

 

With gratitude to these splendid old trees and those who work to protect them. And may you, too, enjoy and feel their truly discernible presence. 

Happy trails and thanks for visiting Pacific Northwest Seasons!

In between blog posts, visit Pacific NW Seasons on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram for more Northwest photos and outdoors news. 

Good Eats Along the Way
Good eats in Eugene included tasty Thai dinner at the Ta Ra Rin Thai Cuisine and an inexpensive and quality breakfast at the Full City coffee shop/Palace bakery.

Based on a recommendation from Lonely Planet, we had delicious fresh halibut tacos for lunch at the Good Harvest cafe across the street from the marina in Crescent City, California.