Nights in the Desert

---

---

We entered southern California, expecting to stop at a visitor's centre to pick up brochures; instead we were greeted by yet another border patrol / truck inspection site. We had seen these in New Mexico and Arizona...but like everywhere else, we were just waved through, leaving us to wonder what that was all about. Taxpayer dollars hard at work?

We needed supplies, but unfortunately for us, we had to drive past our destination to the town of Indio. By this point, both of us were a little sick of driving, so getting lost in Indio didn't suit us well. After picking up our supplies, we grumpily drove back towards the entrance of Joshua Tree National Park, our next destination. As we pulled off the highway to fuel up, we noticed what looked to be some RV's out in the desert. Our moods lightened up. Could it be another BLM site? We decided to check it out and went for a little dirt-road adventure. While the RV's turned out to be abandoned and a bit sketchy looking, we drove onwards into the desert along the dirt road and found ourselves a wonderful little desert campsite, complete with a concrete pad, a fire ring and plenty of wood. We were surrounded by mountains, ocotillo cacti, coyotes howling, with not another soul in site. One could get used to this...

As much as I loved camping out in the desert, my hair needed a wash, so we stayed at our campsite 'till mid-morning as I proceeded with the elaborate process of washing my hair with a bowl of water. Ah the joys of car camping. Feeling refreshed (although that may have been the cold air too), we packed up and set off to explore Joshua Tree National Park.

We entered the park from the south entrance, which seemed to be opposite to most visitors and fine by us. We started with a walk just past the Cottonwood Springs Visitor Centre, going past the huge palm trees and up eventually to Mastodon Peak. We were a bit disappointed as the path was not well marked and there were all sorts of confusing side paths everywhere, which we later learned were called "social paths".
We spent the rest of the day exploring, stopping to see a few sights including an Ocotillo patch and the dangerous Cholla Cactus Garden (ouch those cacti hurt!!!). Soon we started noticing the namesake trees, which are a relative of the yucca plants we had seen the deserts in Arizona and New Mexcio. Many of the park's campsites were located among the rocks, much like City of Rocks in New Mexico. We found a cool one and spent the rest of the day scrambling among the rocks and taking photos of the Dr. Seuss trees. That night, the temperature was frigid, and it did actually snow in the desert...the one night we decide to set up the tent, it has to snow, eh?

We put in a full day of exploring the park, starting off with some fun rock scrambling to see Arch Rock. To top that, we then hiked up Ryan Mountain. The views were spectacular. After another lookout on another mountain, we decided lunch at Hidden Valley was in order. It was President's Day weekend, so every rock climber in southern California and Arizona also decided Hidden Valley was a good spot. So we enjoyed watching the rock climbers as we explored the cool rock formations and Barker Dam with an informative ranger tour. She informed me that the social paths, which make it really hard to follow the main paths, were due to all the rock climbers taking shortcuts to access their climbing spots.

That night, we chatted with our neighbour about the National Parks in the US. He takes off a few extra days on every business trip just to visit a nearby park. We swapped travel stories and complained about the snow as we tried desperately to light some wood. The boys tried the entire night to get this wood burning. They tried chopping into smaller pieces, adding newspaper, dousing it in fuel (which actually put out the flames...I swear!), soaking the wood in fuel before lighting it, etc. You name it, they tried it. But the wood would not burn. So the next morning when a kid from another campsite wanted to take our wood as we packed up, we told him good luck!

Our next adventure was Mohave National Preserve. We passed a few run-down towns on Old Route 66 on the way there, as well as cinder cones from long-extinct volcanoes. And I noticed the Joshua trees were now everywhere in the desert landscape. We made it to Mitchel Caverns State Park, located within the Preserve, and were both impressed and dissapointed with the tour. The area of the caverns that one may visit is small but stunning, however the group was large and the tour guide really didn't seem to care one bit if anyone was actually interested in the formations in the cave. But we enjoyed the view both in and out of the caves.
We stayed the night at one of the roadside camp spots suggested in the brochure, passing a terrified looking Asian couple who camped right near the road (what spooked them? Hope it wasn't us!). We of course drove further down the dirt track to the end, and set up camp once again in desert solitude. Sunset was beautiful and luckily the snow stayed away.

We started off the morning with a hike into Hole-in-the-Wall and Banshee Canyon, which was great fun. The rocks looked like the stereotypical Swiss cheese you see in cartoons. We had fun exploring the rock formations, and when we got to the canyon, we started hearing strange sounds (which were either quail or banshees...I'll let you decide). We also had fun on the "rings", which were placed to climb the canyon walls. It was a great little hike, and I was sad it wasn't longer! I also found a few petroglyphs on the walk.

We found out from the ranger that the roads further into the park were closed because of mud, so we had to drive back to the main road in the preserve. But our little detour did allow us to see the Kelso sand dunes and Kelso Depot, the loveliest visitor centre of the National Parks system. The Depot was an old railroad station, and had been restored to its former glory. Inside, we learned about the history of settlement in the area, browsed the photos and relaxed in the extremely comfy chairs of the library. It also gave us refuge from the rain that was starting. We had smelled the rain coming; while on the ranger tour in Joshua Tree, the ranger informed me that creosote was the smell of rain. So if you're ever in the Mojave desert and wonder what rain smells like, find a creosote bush. Smell the leaves (you won't smell a thing), then cup your hand around the leaves and gently blow on it before sniffing again. To the locals, that pungent odour is the smell of rain.

We really enjoyed the beautiful Mojave Desert area. We couldn't wait to get to Death Valley to enjoy more desert landscapes.

And so our travels continued: Death Valley or bust!

---

Photos

Dr Suess Trees?
No, just the Joshua Trees!

Ocotillo Cactus
This is from our campsite just outside Joshua Tree National Park

Cholla Cacti
Also known as teddy bear cacti, these hurt!!!

Atop Ryan Mountain
We enjoyed the hike, which is very popular among the rangers in Joshua Tree!

Tall Joshua Trees
Oleg looks tiny compared to these giants!

Climbing up the Rings
In Banshee Canyon

Inside Mitchell Caves
The tour was short, but the caves were impressive

Hole-in-the-Wall
This is in Banshee Canyon in Mojave National Preserve

Kelso Sand Dunes
We decided not to climb to the top due to those dark clouds!