joshua tree - day 1
This post is part 2 of the "joshua_tree-2007" series:
The previous night we drove into the park a few miles to look at the stars. Unfortunately, it was both
chilly & still not far enough away from city lights, so we weren't able to see as much as we would have
liked. Even so, we saw alot of stars, and I saw a shooting star a one point.
This morning we woke up early, got breakfast, and then drove into the park. We started off by driving the first few miles of the Geology Road Tour. This road is a sand & gravel road which heads south from main paved park road, with stopping points for viewing some of the key geological features of the park. The northern half of the road is easily drivable in a standard passenger car, however the southern half requires 4 wheel drive. Each of the stops had interesting rock formations to explore, and was fairly isolated (we only saw two other vehicles during the entire drive).
Next we drove eastward to the Skull Rock/Jumbo Rocks area. We started by exploring the camp ground which occupied the same general vicinity. The campsites are a variety of sizes & shapes, nestled in between and around the large rock formations. Many of them are really nice, with a large fire pit, and picnic table. All of the sites are first come, first served, with a \$10/night fee. We're definitely going to keep the Jumbo Rocks campground in mind if we return to Joshua Tree for camping. The trail itself was nice, with a distant view of Skull Rock, as well as closer views.
Following this we headed southeast to the Cholla Cactus garden. Its not so much a garden, as just an area where the Cholla cactus are growing in very high numbers & high density. The cholla are somewhat unique in that each needle has microscopic barbs which serve to pull them into anything they touch very rapidly, creating a lot of pain in the process, and making removal especially difficult. All the same it was a really beautiful area, with the Pinto Basin/Valley expanse opening up to the immediate east.
Afterwards, we headed back north and checked out White Tank & Belle campgrounds. Neither were as nice as Jumbo Rocks, although Belle had one campsite that was really amazing. It was nestled in between these two huge (like 25ft tall) boulders, with space behind & in front of them. White Tank also had a nice, 1/3 mile hiking trail which afforded some really amazing views. The highlight was this rocky arch that David & and I climbed up to. It was easily 25ft across, and had about 10ft of clearance underneath (such that I could stand underneath it).
At this point, it was getting late in the afternoon, and we called it a day.
This post is part 2 of the "joshua_tree-2007" series: