Joshua Tree National Park

Saturday morning we decided to get some exercise, we put on our hiking boots, packed some bottles of water and set off into the desert on one of the nature trails. We had a trail guide leaflet which started us off on the right path, regular information posts, pointing out plants and geological features kept us moving along the trail.

We found Cottonwood Spring with its palms and remains of an Indian settlement and we decided to carry on to Mastodon Peak. We were now out of sight of the campsite and there were no more info posts. It is easy to get disoriented in the desert, washes and animal trails crisscross the terrain obscuring trails, boulder piles are confusingly similar, and there are not many prominent features by which to guide yourself.


Luckily someone had told us they used rocks to mark the trail and so we managed to complete the 3 mile loop trail past the Gold Mine, worked off and on from 1919 to 1932, Winona Mill which was used for the crude refinement of the gold ore, and back via the Cottonwood Spring trail to the campsite.

We had a lazy afternoon watching the other occupants of the campsite pitch their tents and light their fires, some with more success than others. In the midst of all this activity an adolescent coyote strolled into the next camp site, sniffed at the fire ring, watched us watching him and then just strolled out again.

We drove the RV through the park the next day, stopping at the cactus garden on route to look at the weird Bigelow cholla, and out of the north entrance. There are two types of desert within Joshua Tree National Park, the Mojave and the Colorado. Where we had been staying in the south of the park it was the Colorado Desert and as we travelled north we moved into the Mojave Desert where the Joshua trees grow.


After fuelling up the bike at Twenty-nine Palms we re-entered the park further west so that we could stay at Indian Cove campsite, the road dead-ends at the campground and it is surrounded by rock piles which are a Mecca for rock climbers. We unloaded the bike and spent the afternoon exploring the higher areas of the park, Hidden Valley, Barker Dam and Keys View. It was very cold the higher we went so we didn’t stay long and returned to the lower warmth. Being a Sunday night by the time we got back the campsite was deserted and until almost dust we thought we were going to be the only ones there. It was a very quiet night! We packed up the next morning and were intending to head for Las Vegas but just as we got to the main road we had a change of heart and turned west instead, the giant redwoods of the Sequoia National Park would be our destination after all.

The desert terrain continued through Apple Valley, around Edwards Air Force Base and through the Tehachapi Mountains. But the other side of the mountains we were amazed, like someone had flipped a switch, the terrain changed completely into green hills; oak trees and chalet houses perched on the sides of the hills like in Switzerland. The Santa Fe railway snaked around the hills, crisscrossed the road and at one point crossed its self in a pigtail to loose height quickly down into the valley. As we approach Bakersfield the orange groves and vineyards lined the sides of the road and we were so pleased we had changed our minds and decided to come this way. For a quick stop over we pulled into Camping World for the night.