Joshua Tree National Park

Cottonwood canyon is where most of the desert flowers are blooming during a superbloom (desert flowers bloom in March – May annually). During a superbloom you will see flowers on either side of the road and up the hillsides as you drive westwards. There are many different types of desert flowers and I enjoyed identifying several types as I wandered some of the trails just off the road.

The Cacti in the Cholla Cactus Gardens also bloom beautifully in May and June (though I missed that)! If you like cacti, I highly recommend making a stop at the Cholla Cactus Garden, where there are many teddy bear cholla. They are also known as “jumping teddy bear” cacti, as they easily attach themselves to human skin and animal fur and can be hard to remove. the trail is a flat loop and easily walk-able in 30 minutes (if you don’t stop to take too many photos).

Interesting Rock Formations

Joshua tree national park is filled with interesting Rock Formations. My favorites are undoubtedly Jumbo Rocks – near the Arch Formation and Hidden Valley. It’s interesting the note the

Arch Formation

A short 0.3 mile loop from the White Tank Campground. To reach the trail-head, enter White Tank Campground and take the left split in the road. The trail begins alongside campsite nine, and day use parking is available near site . The arch is pretty easy to spot. take your time along the trail, as there are a lot of interesting rock formations, and informational signs that describe the geological history that led to the creation of the arch. The trail is short, but rocky, you will definitely need proper sneakers to ensure you are able to climb over the rocks and not slip. Also if you want to take a photo under the arch, you need to scramble over the rocks and some of the rock “steps” are at least 1-2 feet high. I would not recommend that those with hip or ankle issues attempt this. Though this area is known as a good area for astrophotography, I found the light pollution from Palm Springs on a moonless night to be too much to get a good photo with my dSLR. Perhaps, I need another camera? But in Arizona, I could clearly see the Milky way, I found that I could not see the Milky way in Joshua Tree and only managed to get a handful of stars in my photos through the Arch. Quite disappointed.

Hidden Valley

This short one mile loop, is an easy walk through some remarkable rock formations. Though I could not resist the urge to climb the rocks. Sometimes they are like giant marbles, sometimes, they resemble the rocks iI had only previously seen in cartoons. If you do climb, wear a light jacket, it’s cold and windy when you get to the top!

Skull Rock

Easily visible from the main east to west road, no hiking required to see it, so it gets very crowded, arrive early.

Porcupine Wash

This moderately difficult 8.8 mile hike, does require you to wear sneakers with some support. The rocks here look like someone poured out a giant basket of slate tiles. Some have called it a smoke tree paradise. The rock formations are really interesting. Though I chose to not do this hike, as many hiker discussion boards indicated that the North to South Trail is not well marked and they needed to use a map and compass to navigate out. As I was travelling alone, I chose to skip this hike and took some photos near the entrance of the hike of the smoke trees, but I could already see that this trail might be more challenging to a novice solo hiker like myself.

Finding the Joshua Trees

Joshua Trees are the largest of the Yucca Species and grows only in the Mojave Desert. The trees are most heavily concentrated at the West Entrance of the Park (the entrance by Joshua Tree Visitor Center). The trees are quite a spectacle to behold, especially the larger ones. I was lucky enough to see some of the Joshua trees in Flower. The smaller trees look like baby palm trees, and it’s not until they are larger they take on their distinctive “knobbled” shaped. They are everywhere by the roadside and it makes for quite striking scenery.

Big Horn Dam aka. Barker Dam

It’s one of the only areas in the park with water. It’s an easy 1.5 mile loop from the car park and suitable for hikers of all levels of experience. It takes about an hour to 1.5 hours to complete. I was told that this an interesting area to hike because of the reservoir, which is only really there in winter or spring (in summer it dries up). Due to this being an easily accessible water source, a lot of desert wildlife gathers here, and apparently you can sometimes see desert bighorn sheep. It was nice to see the ducks swimming in the reservoir, in the middle of a desert! There are a lot of rocks to climb along the trail, if you want to go bouldering.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the dam itself, was unremarkable and a lot smaller than I was expecting. It’s about 9 feet/3m high. The Native American petroglyphs up on a rock wall about 2/3 of the way along the trail were more interesting to me.

Tips for visiting Joshua Tree:

Clothing

I found that “normal” athletic wear was fine and served me well when scrambling on the rocks and more than sufficient to tackle the easier hikes in the park. If I were to go again, I would wear full length pants, not 3/4 length, as my ankles got a good number of grazes from scrambling over the rocks and being “kissed” by the teddy bear cacti. I would recommend that if you do go to take pictures of the sunrise/sunset/astrophotography, it gets remarkably cold and windy in the desert. Bring a heavier coat, a light windbreaker will (likely) not suffice. I don’t love hats, but on some of the hikes, there is VERY little shade. Worth hat hair to to reduce potential for sunburn. I don’t think you need hiking shoes to tackle all but the most challenging trails, sturdy sneakers are adequate. If you like bouldering … well you know better than me what gear you need to bring, but am I tempted to try it back at home in NYC after my experience in Joshua Tree. I found that for the easy flat trails like Cholla Garden, you can wear a dress if you want to, but, it’s probably not recommended as the cactus like to attach themselves…

Food:

If you are planning a day trip to Joshua Tree from Palm Springs, I highly recommend that you enter by the South Entrance by Cotton Wood Visitor center and make your way westwards, as you will want to stop by Pappy and Harriets on your way back to Palm Springs. Pappy and Harriets is a wonderful “western frontier style” restaurant in Pioneer town, serving classic american fare, including a delicious, worth the hour wait (though the wait can be longer!) to try their fall off the bone, tender, juicy, organic baby back ribs and mac and cheese. They also have a nice selection of beers and live music. It’s very charming in a rustic, wild west kind of way.

Otherwise, bring a variety of food that will survive the heat and lots of water!

NB. Please note that I did not camp in the park, it seems there are a of well maintained campsite in the park, that might be worth looking into if you are a fan of camping!