Under the category of better late than never, here are the details of the trip I took to Joshua Tree back in December of 2005. (I gave a review of how some of my equipment faired here.)

December 15

After speaking at ApacheCon in San Diego on Lucene, I headed up to Joshua Tree on December 15. Typical of San Diego and California, the weather was near perfect, maybe a touch on the cool side. I spent the first night at the Ryan campground. There were perhaps 8 other people in the whole campground. Since this was my first time camping in the desert, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. However, the night was without incident, other than the occasional hoot of an owl or howling of a coyote (which was a bit eerie the first time and also quite invigorating.) The most memorable part of the night was the sheer silence. It was, as they say, deafening.

The next morning I woke early and photographed the sun rising around the campground, nothing special, more of a warm up than anything, since the night was pretty chilly and I wasn’t totally prepared for it. I then hiked up Ryan mountain, which is a nice, easy hike of a few miles. The Joshua Tree guide book I purchased says it is the one must do hike in the park, which I guess I would agree with (the book is quite good, but mostly aimed at the “normal” park visitor and not those who want more serious hikes in the park). Ryan Mt. has some seriously beautiful sweeping views of the Mojave section of the park. If I were to do this again, I would have been on top of Ryan at sunrise, or near the top anyway.

After hiking down, I then had lunch followed by a longer hike to Lost Horse Mine (including the loop to a couple of other mines). Lost Horse Mine is quite interesting and well worth seeing, although it is now surrounded by fence, so you can’t get that close to it. It is about a 2 mile hike from the trailhead, with little elevation gain. The rest of the loop trail is also quite nice; at several points along the trail there were some blue wildflowers growing (I forget the name).

After completing the 6 or so mile loop around Lost Horse Mine, I headed up to Keys View. On the drive I saw a bobact on the way up, managing to snap of 10 or so frames before it disappeared. Once at Keys View, instead of doing the typical tourist thing, I headed up the sharp rise to the right of the parking lot, where I had one of the most inspired photo sessions of my life. It was one of those sunsets that you read about (and never really experience on the East Coast). The sky was all different shades of blue, purple, red, etc. It was hard to decide what to shoot. I think I shot 10 rolls of film in that time (yes, alas, I am still shooting film…) By the way, did I mention it was also a full moon?

I spent that night at the Jumbo Rocks campground, which had quite a few more people in it then Ryan. It is a nice campground with decent amenities and some really cool rock formations. I spent an hour or two of the night out shooting time elapse photos with varying success. The next morning, I got up and shot the sun rise.

December 16 was, again, a day full of hiking and picture taking. It was, however, a bit more rugged, as I decided to climb Queen Mountain, which is near Ryan Mt. and is also listed in the guide book. The Queen Mt. climb can best be described as straight up. The start is relatively easy, but then it goes up about 2000 feet (I think) in about 1, maybe 1.5 miles. The top is a bit tricky, as there is no real marked trail. In fact, I didn’t even make the top, but instead chose to explore some of the plateau to the west of the peak. Turns out, there is a nice view of the north from here and a pretty cool little gathering of plants and animals, almost a little oasis. After hiking around there for a while and having lunch, I bushwhacked down the side canyon near the plateau and back out to the car. This side canyon is quite nice, with some towering cliffs that would, I imagine, look pretty nice at sunset with the sun hitting them at just the right angle.

After returning to the car, I drove around the Keys Ranch area, watched some rock climbers and took lots of snapshots. I then drove down to the Cholla Cactus garden area, where I proceeded to shoot several more rolls of film as the sun set over the Chollas. The Cholla Cactus is quite a sight to behold and makes for a nice subject when backlight by the sun. Just be careful not to touch it, as it will leave a mark.

After shooting the Chollas, I went down to the Cottonwood Springs campground for the night. Only eventful happening of the night was having a coyote walk right through my camp, maybe 10 feet away.

December 17

The next morning, I got up and again shot the sunrise over the beautiful rock formations near the campground. After breakfast, I hiked into the Lost Palm Oasis (LPO), starting at the Cottonwood Springs oasis. These two oases were the only places in the entire park that I saw water above ground. To me, the LPO is the most spectacular part of the park, and well worth the 7.5 mile round trip hike. I took the trail in to LPO and had the entire canyon to myself, spare the golden eagle perched on a cliff high above me. I proceeded to spend the next several hours hiking around the side canyons to the various palm oases. This involved a fair amount of bouldering and scrambling, but was well worth the effort. I then bushwhacked up and over several side canyons and met up with the main trail back out to the trailhead. The only thing missing from this hike was the sighting of the Bighorn Sheep that are in the area. In hindsight, if I were to do this hike again, I would have also timed it to be there at sunrise, at is a spectacular place.

After getting off the trail, I headed to the visitor center with one purpose in mind: finding a shower. Unfortunately, according to the ranger, the nearest shower was all the way back in the town of Joshua Tree at the other end of the park. Since I had a little time before my plane left, I headed up to the Coyote Corner store where I promptly put down my $3 in exchange for a hot shower. I can honestly say it was the best $3 I have ever spent in my life.

I then high-tailed it out of there, got back to San Diego by 7, had dinner and went to the airport for the red-eye back to Syracuse.

Looking back on it now, it was a really great trip and well worth the time and effort. With the amount of hiking I did each day, I felt like I really got to know the park. Since I went in the winter, I didn’t have the water or the critter concerns that normally go with hiking in the desert. There are a few things I would have done differently, though:

1. I would have stayed at least one night in the backcountry. I was really nervous planning the trip that I wouldn’t be prepared for the backcountry, but in hindsight, it wouldn’t have been much different than any other backcountry trip I have taken.
2. I should have used a full length sleeping pad. I would have been a lot warmer at night
3. Obviously, more time in the park would have allowed me to scout out the areas I wanted to photograph more and decide when to be there
4. If I would have started in Cottonwood and worked my way up to Ryan, I could have saved myself the trip all the way back through the park to shower at Coyote Corner
5. I would have shot digital, so I wouldn’t be spending all my time scanning slides like I am right now!

At any rate, I know this is a long post, but I hope it is useful for people planning a trip to Joshua Tree. I would love to hear other people’s impressions of the park. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, I will post my pictures of the park on line.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Hiking, Photography, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.