This would be my first time to visit Joshua Tree and I had no idea what to expect. Images of a barren desert land scattered with crazy looking trees that seemed to belong in a Dr. Seuss book somehow filled my mind as I quietly hummed U2’s “Where the Streets Have no Name.” This was goingto be an exciting adventure that I had been looking forward to for months. Surely, if Bono found this place to be inspiring then it truly had to be incredible.
As we drove into the entrance of the park, I saw my first Joshua tree. Looking at the oddly-shaped bends and twists of the branches, the overall mystique of this tree thrilled me with an indiscernible feeling. We were about to embark on an amazing adventure; one with a strange, new environment set outside the parameters of what most consider the norm with a blank canvas to explore. A sense of excitement was building inside me.
Images of a barren desert land scattered with crazy looking trees that seemed to belong in a Dr. Seuss book somehow filled my mind as I quietly hummed U2’s “Where the Streets Have no Name.”
Driving through the park, our first Joshua Tree quickly turned into pockets of hundreds of them, scattered everywhere we looked. It is said the Joshua Tree received its name by a band of Mormons crossing the Mojave Desert in the mid- 19th Century. The unique shape of the tree reminded the group of the Biblical story of Joshua reaching his hands to the sky. The rest is, as they say, history. Joshua Tree became a National Park in 1994, and people have been coming to explore this unusual desert ever since.
We decided to set up camp at Jumbo Rocks. This was an incredible place to camp as it looks exactly like the name describes- like someone placed huge, jumbo rocks in a pile. The sun was setting in the desert sky as we unloaded our Jeep and I couldn’t help but notice the way the sunlight was shining rays of light through the cracks of the rocks surrounding our campsite. Stunning!
The sun was down, night was upon us, and it was FREEZING!
After setting up camp, Frank and I decided to do some exploring before it got dark, and went on a hike to Skull Rock. The name itself sounded thrilling, as if it were just calling out for an adventure. So, we started out on the 1.7 mile hike to the curious Skull Rock. Once we had arrived, we saw this huge, creepy looking skull that looked as if it were something out of the movies. Skull Rock, made of granite, was formed over time when rain drops eroded the rock and as time passed, two huge depressions were made resembling the hollowed-out eye sockets. After spending some time doing some rock scrambling to get a closer view of “the skull,” it started getting dark and we opted to head back to campsite. (You know- before something creepy took place- like from an Indiana Jones movie).
Back at the campsite, we settled into our NEMO Losi 2P tent for the evening, and the beautiful temperatures we encountered earlier in the day were long gone. The sun was down, night was upon us, and it was FREEZING! Yes, freezing in the desert…what an oxymoron! It was irony at its best yet another reason I was beginning to love this place. With three layers of clothes, snuggled in my NEMO Strato Loft 25 sleeping bag, I began to fall asleep.
The next morning, after a nice breakfast, we packed up camp and set out for some more exploring. This time, we would be taking the Geology Tour Road. This is an 18-mile motor tour that leads through some of Joshua tree’s most fascinating landscapes. As we traveled down the road only a few miles, it didn’t prove to disappoint. At various points along the road, we looked out to see these amazing rock formations. They seemed to appear just out of nowhere. The one thought that kept entering my mind at the site of each of these formations was, “How did these rocks get here?” Answer: They were formed 100 million years ago from the cooling of magma beneath the surface. Groundwater is also responsible for the unique formations of some of the rocks. These rock formations were truly a spectacular sight!
We then came across another, yet unique and spectacular, sight on our tour: The Cholla Cactus Garden. The Cholla Cactus Garden is an amazing experience. As you carefully walk around the twisting paths of the garden, you eventually find yourself completely surrounded by these odd-looking cacti. To me, it seemed to resemble the shape of a coral reef that you would find in the ocean, but it was here in the desert and I found yet another reason to love this place!
After spending the day exploring other fascinating sites in the park, we found our time here at Joshua Tree coming to an end. I found myself not wanting to leave this crazy, amazing landscape. After each twist in the road and step taken along the way, Joshua Tree was revealing more and more of its strange little secrets to us, and I wanted to stay and discover more!
As we left the park, the Joshua trees in the rearview mirror almost seemed to wave goodbye to us. I told Frank, “This was one of our best adventures yet – and we will return!”
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