The Savage Traveler: Out West Adventure: Part 1--Joshua Tree National Park

Feb. 16-18: (Saturday) We took down the camper this morning with an audience! Barb and Frank, the couple camped next to us from Montana, were intrigued with our TrailManor and wanted to see how it went down and packed up. She had been very solicitous of my injury and Marv’s Mom’s predicament, which she had overheard as Marv talked on the phone. They invited us to visit them on the second part of our adventure but then realized it will be while they are at Frank’s “homeland, The Netherlands, with their entire family. But we did exchange email addresses and then we were on our way. Before leaving the park we stopped at their little Nature Center/Gift Shop and then decided to try the short trail up to a lookout. I was pleased to find that my ankle with a brace on it could manage just fine. But my ribs were still really hurting. Highway 62 took us across the Colorado at Parker and into California and the Mojave Desert. The road stretched before us endlessly as we drove beside miles of an embankment lined with rock messages and names. We could see mountains around us in the distance on all sides but traveled through a flat valley pretty much the whole way to 29 Palms, where we came to the first Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center. We stopped there to stamp our National Park Passport Book, get maps and information and eat our picnic lunch. From there we came across a Medical Center where we stopped to see if they had Urgent Care but they directed us down the road to a place in Yucca Valley. When we checked in there we were told that the X-Ray Technician wasn't there but would be on Sunday so we took the paper work and went on to Black Rock Canyon Campground. It was a good thing we had a reservation because all the Joshua Tree campgrounds are full on account of Presidents’ Day Weekend! We hadn't even thought about that. Many of the sites are occupied by tenters with lots of kids who seem to belong together in some way. They were pretty noisy when we pulled in in the late afternoon, but settled down as it got later and darker. Marv had picked out a nice drive-through site online that has no one camping across from us and is on the end of the loop so we only had the site on one side of us occupied. When they pulled in late in the evening and cranked up their generator we were a bit exasperated, but they turned it off earlier than required and didn't run it again until the next morning. Although we have no electricity or water at the site, and only cold water flush toilets, we found that we had a good enough phone and 3G signal to listen to the Spartans pull out a win over Nebraska and keep track of developments with Marv’s Mom, who was supposed to be released on Sunday. We’re at about 4000 feet but look straight down the canyon to Yucca Valley. It is much cooler up here but it’s a nice campground with a great view. As the sun set it cooled off quickly to the high forties but didn't get much lower. We had our leftover grilled chicken and played two games of Cribbage before bed.

Black Rock Canyon Campsite with Joshua Trees

(Sunday) It got down to the low forties but we had so many layers on that we were actually a bit too warm. As the sun came up and the coffee perked the camper warmed up nicely. Soon after turning off their generator our neighbors packed up and pulled away, apparently forfeiting their second night reservation; this was fine with us! We made French Toast and read the LSJ before making a picnic and going off to explore the interior of Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree was made a National Monument in the 1930s and then a National Park in 1991. The two distinguishing features are the fantastical rock formations, which range from piles of huge, smooth boulders to what look like giant loaves of bread or rolls of cookie dough that someone has cut in fat slices, and the Dr. Seuss-like Joshua Trees, which are actually a yucca but have a rough barked main trunk like a deciduous tree. Their shallow root systems and need for water in the desert mean that the “forests” stretch on for acres of widely spaced trees no more than 30 feet high in most cases. They are as distinctive and unusual to us mid-westerners as the Saguaros of the Sonoran Desert. We returned to the Joshua Tree West entrance and drove in Park Boulevard to the southern terminus at Keys View. From the 5,185FT elevation we could overlook a stunning expanse of valley, mountain, and desert, including the San Andreas Fault running through the valley. There was a park ranger named Joshua present to answer questions and we asked him about our fears for the strong weather front that was forecast for Tuesday and into Wednesday, when we were supposed to be at Agua Caliente at about 4000ft. He agreed that it didn’t sound like that would work very well and suggested we go to the Salton Sea State Recreation Area, which we could see miles below us in the valley. The Sea is over 200ft below sea level and isn’t likely to see the winds and snow that we would have at Agua Caliente. From Keys View we retraced our path back to Hidden Valley and drove to Barker Dam, where a ranger was leading a hike at 1:00. We put our picnic lunch into a back pack and first took the 2.2 mile hike to Wall Street Mill, a gold stamping mill from the 1930s until 1961. We took the wrong fork and ended up at the base of massive boulders with people climbing in some areas. But it was warm and sunny so we sat on the rocks and ate lunch. All we saw of the mill were a rusted out old truck and the remains of a dwelling but we felt like we needed to get back to join the ranger-led hike. When we got back to it, we realized that it was going to be full of Junior Rangers and really geared towards children so we set off on the 1.1 mile hike ahead of the ranger. There are interpretive signs and plenty of people so it was easy to follow. Barker Dam was built around 1900 to hold water for cattle and mining use, back when 10 inches of rain fell on average each year. Now the area gets 2-5 inches of rain and cattle ranches are no longer viable. There is supposed to be a small rain-fed reservoir behind the dam abounding in birds, but it was dry, dry, dry when we were there. We wondered if the forecast rain/snow will fill it this week. The walk was still interesting with some easy rock scrambling, lots of desert plants, and even some petroglyphs from nomadic Native Americans long ago. From that area we decided to do some sand/gravel back roads to get away from the crowds. We took Queen Valley Road to Big Horn Pass Road to Odele Road back to Queen Valley Road. The roads are so narrow that if one meets another vehicle, one of them needs to pull up the bank on the side to let the other go by! At the point to Queen Valley Road and Desert Queen Mine Road we took the short hike to the overlook for Desert Queen Mine. The mine was started in 1895 by Frank James (of the James Brothers). When he was shot along with Jesse, the cowboy who shot him took over the mine. It had many owners over the years and was closed in the 1960s. The mine shafts have been covered with grates by the Park Service to protect visitors but there are many artifacts left from the operations. It’s possible to hike down into the canyon to get a better look but we opted not to do so. Desert Queen Mine Road took us back to the east side of Park Boulevard and out of the park at the North Entrance Station. As we left the park and drove down to 29 Palms, the air temperature rose from 62° to 74° and our mileage was at 99.9+ as we coasted for several miles. We saw gas for $4.03, instead of the $4.35 we saw in Yucca Valley so we went ahead and filled the truck. Then we stopped for groceries before going back up the canyon to our campsite, where the temperatures were again in the low sixties. Marv called his mom, who was home from the hospital, and his Aunt Mary, to tell her what had happened. We added the leftover pork to baked beans and had that with salad. We did all the dishes and then watch some Northern Exposures before crawling gratefully into bed. It had been a good but tiring day!

Wall Street Mill Hike

San Andreas Fault running through the valley with Palm Springs at the base of the mountain

Cookie Roll or Loaf of Bread? You decide

In the shade of a Joshua Tree

Boulder piles against the blue, blue sky

(Monday) Happy Presidents’ Day!! This morning we were surrounded by people packing up their camps and we had the satisfaction of knowing we have another full day to explore this amazing park. However, my ribs were as bad as ever so we started the day with hot oatmeal, packing another picnic lunch and heading down to Avalon Urgent Care Center. Within an hour and a half I had been checked out and had 4 x-rays taken. The doctor said that 1) the ankle was a bad sprain but not broken (which I figured), 2) the “floaties” in my left eye probably had nothing to do with the fall, were perhaps because I’m not used to the dry air of the desert and should go away without treatment, and 3) my rib muscles were strained and inflamed but nothing seemed to be dislocated or broken. He faxed a prescription to a nearby Rite-Aid for a strong anti-inflammatory and said to apply ice and heat to both the ribs and the ankle and not to lift anything heavy for a while. By about 11:30 we had the pills and were on our way back to the park. We went to Hidden Valley Campground just to walk around and see what other accommodations are available. Then we drove to the meeting place for our 1:00 ranger-led tour of the Keys Ranch, for which we had to register and pay ahead of time. We were half an hour early so we enjoyed our lunch while sitting in the warm sun but the temperature was only in the mid-fifties. The ranger, Joshua, met the small group and gave general instructions before unlocking the gate and having us drive a mile into the parking area. We then had a two hour, tightly held, somewhat slow presentation on Bill and Frances Keys and the ranch on which they managed to prosper and raise 4 kids from about 1920 until first Frances and then Bill (in 1960 at age 90) passed away and were buried on the ranch. The ranch is pretty much as they left it, including the amazing amount of scavenged parts and building materials which Bill kept for his use and to sell to others through the years. There is a main house, many outbuildings, and a school house with a separate home for the school mar’m, several wells, a chicken coop, gold mining and stamping equipment, three dams, the list goes on and on! A park volunteer who lives on site was along for crowd control, I guess, and no one was allowed to wander around much. We couldn’t go in any buildings, partly for fear of the asbestos and the parvovirus from rodent droppings. Yosemite had a lot of trouble with parvovirus and some people even died so National Parks are being particularly careful now. We both really enjoyed the tour and were fascinated by this look at some rugged individualists who were willing to live out in the wilderness and make a go of it. After the ranch tour, Marv and I drove to a couple of spots for him to do some rock scrambling, which I passed on, not wanting to push the ankle TOO much. We took Park Boulevard down through Wilson Canyon approaching the wide, flat Pinto Valley, driving through the transition area between the high Mojave Desert and the lower Colorado Desert, which is a subsection of the Sonoran Desert. The difference in plants, with Cholla and ocotillo in the Colorado and yuccas and Joshua Trees in the Mojave, are obvious even to our uneducated eyes. At one point along the road the conditions are just perfect for Cholla and the park has a “Cholla Garden” walk with an informative brochure highlighting what we were seeing. The abundance of Teddy Bear, or Jumping, Cholla was just amazing and it was fascinating to walk the path. We made our way out of the park for the last time as the sun was setting and it gave everything a whole new rosy glow. As we drove into Black Rock Canyon a coyote trotted across the road in front of us. The campground, which had been full over the weekend, was nearly empty and we now shared our loop with only one other RV, halfway down the circle from us. It was getting dark at our campsite and as usual the temperature dropped quickly. Marv got things put away in the truck that were outside the camper to prepare to leave tomorrow while I put together leftovers with a can of Progresso soup to make a hearty stew for dinner. The wind was getting gusty and we were even more convinced that going to Salton Sea tomorrow would be a better choice than heading into mountains in the face of a winter storm.