Joshua Tree National Park, CA

April 20-21, 2012 --- I've heard a lot of wonderful things about Joshua Tree National Park and finally visited it in the spring. It was really hot the weekend we were there, like over 90 F. It took us about 5 hours driving from Santa Barbara to the park because we had to fight with the typical Friday traffic in Los Angeles. When we finally passed the messy city, the scenery become much more interesting with mountains and wind turbines along the road.

I booked the campsite at Black Rock Canyon Campground about a couple of months before the trip. All the other (and better) campsites were already full then. This campsite is on the west side of the park, and there is no road to access the main park from there other than hiking tails. There isn't much shade in every site, so you might want to bring your own shade or try to stay cool in the shade of the bush like I did.

After putting up our tent, Nathan and I decided to drive to the park since we still had about 3-4 hours before the sunset. We entered the park through the West Entrance Station and drove straight to the Keys View, the most incredible view point of the park. From here you can see Salton Sea, the second lowest point of the western hemisphere. (The lowest point is at Bad Water in Death Valley National Park, CA.)

On the way back to the campsite, we made many stops along the way. There are a lot of rock formations and hiking trails in the park, but in this heat, we decided that we wouldn't do much hiking on this trip. We even shortened our stay from two nights to only one night to get home and have a full day of rest before school and work started on Monday.

At Jupiter Flats

The sunset at Joshua Tree National Park is really beautiful. I like the way the Joshua trees look in the dark. The night sky in the desert is also gorgeous! Nathan and I didn't know how to take a good photo of stars then, so we didn't have any memorable picture of the sky in the park. However, we had a great time lying on the picnic table and gazing at millions of shiny stars that night.

The next morning after packing up our stuff, we stopped at the Visitor Center. We actually got the park brochure and map from the camp site already, but there were a nice exhibition and a gift shop there that are worth the stop. The rangers were also helpful in giving information on hiking trails and the current programs the park had for all visitors.

I think Joshua Tree National Park is a paradise for rock climbers. There are tons of rock formations, and most visitors seemed to have rock climbing gear. This park is also a place for desert hikers and bikers. The roads are well paved throughout the park. If you want to hike, I think you should come earlier in fall or winter because the temperature can get really high even in spring.

 Barker Dam was the only trail we hiked for the trip. It's a short (1.1 mile) loop trail that anyone can do even in the killing heat. The water in the dam was very low when we were there, but I could see the water mark on the rock that was above my head. I guess the water can get really high here during a flash flood. There was also a petroglyph on the rock. Too bad there were some bad people who painted color on those historical marks.

Nathan and I stopped at Hidden Valley Campground to have lunch. We bought sandwiches from Subway in a gas station before we got in the park.
There are many campgrounds throughout the park, but all of them can get full really early. I want to stay in one of these campsites if I ever come back to this park again.

At Barker Dam Trail

At the Skull Rock

My favorite spot of the entire park is at the Cholla Cactus Garden. This garden are full of cactus with flowers in bloom all over the hill. It also looked exotic to me because we don't have desert or cactus in Thailand,  and the desert flowers are a big bonus for visiting the park in spring.

The south entrance of the park is the Cottonwood Visitor Center. This part of the park is more quiet than the northern part because the majority of rock formations and Joshua trees are on that side. However, this part of the park has a nice hiking trail called Cottonwood Spring leading us to beautiful palm trees. There is also a campsite in this part of the park.

At the end of our trip, Nathan and I drove to Salton Sea, which is located about 40 minute driving from the southern gate of the park. This lake is salty, and you can see a lot of seagulls living around the lake. Nathan and I stopped at a few scratchy little towns along the lake. I don't know where will be the best stop to enjoy the lake, but I noticed that there was a sign to go to the Lake Recreational Area. I wish I had gone there instead of those scary towns.