After spending the weekend in San Diego with relatives, we are back on the road early Monday morning headed for
Joshua Tree National Park in the high desert. As a kid, I grew to hate deserts trapped in the back seat of a car sans air conditioning on family trips back and forth to Texas over summer breaks. Both the oppressive heat and my pesky younger brother were punishing. However, in my 20's on my first back-packing trip to the palm canyons in northern Baja, I discovered deserts can be wonderful.
On that trip, we left San Diego long before sunrise. As we drove through the desert the multitude of stars in the clear black sky blinked down on us. By the time we stopped at the base of a canyon and donned our packs, I wasn't so sure about this hike through the dusty forbidding terrain. After an hour or so as we entered the canyon and the walls closed in, we came to palm tree lined running water. As I looked up, the palms heads were framed against an electric blue sky. It was stunning. Around camp that evening, I found pottery shards from earlier peoples. In the evenings, I read Carlos Castaneda's "
Teachings of Don Juan" which made the desert come alive with both real and imaginary beings. I was hooked.
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| Heading for the hills |
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| Poppies blooming along the road |
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| San Jack with windmills |
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We arrive early in the afternoon hopeful the Easter Break crowds have moved on. So far so good as there is only one or two cars ahead of us at the entrance. This is far from our first visit to the park. When we lived in the San Diego area during the '70's, we would frequently come up to go hiking or camping. During those days, the park was sparsely visited and we mostly had the place to ourselves.
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| Entrance to Joshua Tree |
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| Classic rock and Joshua Trees |
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| This way to the campgrounds |
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Although the park is named for the
Joshua Tree, the real attraction is the rocks. It appears many college students are taking extra time off from their Spring Breaks to go rock climbing as both the rocks and campgrounds are crawling with them. Although, it takes some hunting, we do find a nice campsite.
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| Rocky vista |
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| Kids in this camp love their own cave |
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| More rock climbers |
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To get away, we take a short hike to
Skull Rock. The late afternoon sun brings out Mother Earth's feminine sensuous side in the rocks.
Many of the desert plants are in bloom. They protect themselves against unwanted intrusions with spikes and spines or poisonous berries.
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| Joshua Tree in bloom |
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| Barrel Cactus |
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| I wouldn't eat these |
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The weather is so pleasant that we really enjoy our hike.
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| Skull Rock |
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| Peter kicking back on a rock lounger |
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Some high clouds have moved in overnight bringing in hazy dirty air from the cities, so the morning isn't as clear as the day before. Still we continue on our plans to hike up to the summit of
Ryan Mountain. It's only a few miles, but the steep climb up for the first mile or so is challenging.
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| Trail marker for Ryan Mountain |
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| Peter takes a break at the summit |
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| Summit marker |
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Just like our
Moon California Hiking book says, the views from the summit are amazing and worth the steep climb up. While admiring the 360 degree panoramas, we meet a club of women hikers from Kansas City MO. We ask them about their favorite BBQ places. They recommend J
oe's or
Jack's (the two J's). Humm ... good to make a note of if we ever get our American music and BBQ cross-country trip together.
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| Desert floor below |
On the way back down the trail, I meet people from all over the world. One group is a family from
Prague in the Czech Republic. They are proud of their city's cultural heritage and are enjoying the contrast seeing the American deserts. I also meet two easy going young men from the Netherlands. They, like many of the Dutch, speak excellent English. I tease them about being Dutch, but not even wearing a speck of orange colored clothing. They laugh and reply since the are in the USA they are going native and both pull out gaudy red-white-and-blue sunglasses. We all enjoy a good laugh together before continuing on the trail.
Despite a good effort in finding a campsite for the night, we are shut out. Oh well, time to move on.
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| Cyclists also on their way out of the park |
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| Next time we'll come earlier |
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