Deserts: day 1
This post is part 1 of the "deserts_2009" series:
We got up at 5am, and were on the road by 5:30am. The weather was fairly miserable (cold, rain & wind) all the way out to Bakersfield, but as soon as we climbed over Tehachapi Pass, it cleared up, and was quite nice (although still cold) the rest of the way to Joshua Tree. We arrived just after noon, and entered the park from the west. It was obvious that the recent storms had caused quite a bit of damage, as there was still quite a bit of sand across some of the roads, and the "Water on Road" signs were still up(even though the roads were dry). We drive across the park fairly easily, and setup camp at White Tank campground. I selected White Tank primarily because it was one of the smallest campgrounds that was semi-primitive (no running water, fire rings, vault toilets), and was rather scenic too. The only other campground that was further south in the park was Cottonwood, however it was huge, overrun with RV's, and noisy. An added bonus was that David loved scurrying over the assortment of boulders scattered all over.
After getting the tent setup, we got back in the car to drive another 20 miles south to the Cholla Cactus garden. We'd visited the last (and first) time we went to Joshua Tree back in November 2007, however David & I both enjoyed it alot, and wanted to see it again. Not much had changed, but we still had a nice time.
Upon returning to the campground, we hiked the 1.5 mile White Tank Arch trail, which runs through the field of boulders, and past a very nice 10ft tall stone arch. By the time we finished the trail, it was just was time to start on dinner. Dinner was a bit of a challenge as the wind was really vicious, and actually blew out the flame on the camp stove one time. Dinner still turned out really well (even David claims it was the best of the trip), with diced ham, mixed pasta, tomato sauce & fresh diced orange bell peppers. One dinner was done, the sun was starting to go down (curse you, short winter days), so I rushed to get cleaned up, and we retreated to the tent for a little while. We were hoping to do some stargazing later on, however the wind just kept getting worse, and the temperature outside was dropping rapidly (from the day's high of 52F). We huddled in the car for a few minute looking at the stars, but it was even too cold in there, and gave up to return to the tent for the warmth of our sleeping bags.
That night started out ok, but then became pretty rough going. The temperature dropped rapidly, and while we were warm enough, the wind went crazy starting just after 2AM. I foolishly never bothered to stake down the tent because it didn't seem neccesary earlier. However, the tent was literally rolling from side to side, with just our body weight keeping it from flying away. At 2:30AM, I sucked it up, and actually went outside to stake down the tent. With the windchill, it must have been at least in the low 20sF, and was a fairly miserable experience. However, since I was up, and wide awake anyway, I decided to make a few attempts at some night photography. I had the fortune of a mostly full moon working in my favor, and actually got off two decent 15 second exposure shots. In both of them, you can make out how crazy the wind was from the fuzziness of the tent, as it shook back & forth. One other thing that I noticed was that you can actually make out the movement of the earth from the faint, yet visible star trails.
Pictures are all posted here.
This post is part 1 of the "deserts_2009" series: