Joshua Tree National Park

Thursday | 17 February 2000 | Desert Hot Springs: NOTES FROM LAST NIGHT: We decided to drive into the Big City of Palm Springs to relax and find pasta. The place looked promising, but the food was just awful. It is well-known that I am a major food-snob and why I even order something I know no one can prepare better than me is beyond reasoning – but I did – and it was awful (Fettuccini Alfredo). At least they had good, cheap, Italian wine. When we arrived back to Goldie, the wind was really howling. “If this trailer’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’.” Goldie was shaking so much the awning on the slide room was popping and I was afraid it would tear, so we brought our slide-room in. I also cranked down the satellite dish, so it would not become airborne. We did not sleep well.

In the morning things looked better! Though still windy, the skies were clear and the deepest blue. We made a picnic lunch and headed towards Joshua Tree National Park in the BC2. We took Highway 62 through the Morongo Valley – no wind in the valley. Here is a view of Mt. San Jacinto as we see it from our campsite. Notice the windmills at the bottom right of the photo – they harvest power for this area.

Mt. San Jacinto

Joshua Tree National Park is a marvel. I can’t believe the strange things we saw today. Sometimes, it was like you were on another planet, or a Disney park! It is where the Mojave and Colorado deserts come together, and there seems to be a line drawn down the middle – it is like “two parks in one”. The east (Mojave) side is most interesting. Huge stands of Joshua Trees fill every space not covered by strange rock outcroppings.

Joshua Tree

A Joshua Tree is a member of the Lily family and a close relative of the very-similar-looking Yucca plant. As you can see from this photo, they are strange indeed. We followed the main route through the park to Hidden Valley. Hidden Valley is right out of a western movie! Huge rock formations form a natural valley about one-mile in circumference. There is one “secret” way in – just enough room for a man and his horse! The McHaney Brothers used this as their hideout (as did other “bad guys”) in their cattle rustling “business”. The McHaney Brothers stole cattle from Arizona and Mexico, then drove the cattle up to the mountains surroundings what is now Joshua Tree National Park. In the late 1800s, the area received an annual rainfall of around 10 inches per year and the grasses were lush. The cattle fattened up, the crafty McHaney’s re-branded the herds and were fabled to sell the cattle back to the unsuspecting original owners! Later, the McHaney’s made a huge fortune mining gold – they took 2.5 million dollars of gold from the Desert Queen mine in 1890. We walked around the Hidden Valley and took a few photos for your enjoyment.

DT in Hidden Valley


A lovely (though dead) tree in Hidden Valley

Can you believe the boulders! And the color of the sky? Beautiful weather all day! Truly a beautiful and strange park. We continued our drive up to Keyes View. The view is from the Little San Bernardino Mountains to vistas to the south and southeast. We could look down to the Coachella Valley, which is in fact the San Andreas Fault, across to Palm Springs and Mt. San Jacinto (10,000 feet) above, with Mt. San Gorgonio (11,485 feet) just north. Both peaks have just a little dusting of snow. The southern views were all the way to Mexico and the Salton Sea. Remember, we drove along the Salton Sea to reach Palm Springs? I learned today that the sea is an ancient dried lakebed, which refilled in 1905 when the Colorado River broke through its banks near Yuma, Arizona! Who knew?

Another view of Joshua Trees and rocks


A coyote in a burned area

Considering the harshness of the elements, there is much wildlife in the park. We only saw 5 coyotes, one hawk and a few birds, but the park has many residents, including owls, Golden Eagles, bobcats, Mountain Sheep, jackrabbits, road runners, lizards, kangaroo rats, sidewinder snakes, and many assorted bugs and crawly things. Besides a zillion Joshua Trees, we also noted Yuccas, Ocotillo cactus, junipers, tumbleweeds and Cholla cactus. Several thousand acres of the park were burned last year, due to lightning strikes. We had a picnic before continuing east, dropping into the Colorado Desert and a big change in scenery. We drove into the Pinto Basin, a vast valley of nothing. Some of the earliest residents of North America, the Pinto Indians, inhabited this area – there was a river flowing through the Pinto Basin at that time. Now the desert holds only cactus and tumbleweeds, no more Joshua Trees. It is very bland driving to the southern entrance to the park. What an amazing part of the planet – if you have a chance, don’t hesitate to spend a day in Joshua Tree National Park.
 
Later: The winds had died-down, the satellite dish went up and we watched George Washington beat Virginia Tech! It was a great game; we had a great dinner (I cooked). Tomorrow will be even more exciting – it is the opening day of the National Date Festival in Indio! Hold on to your hats for that report!