An alternate way to Joshua Tree

The typical way to get to Joshua Tree is to go from the north, by taking the 10 to the 62 through Yucca Tree and into the park. Now, there is nothing wrong with this path. It is on smooth open freeways and Yucca Tree is a very cute little down. It also dumps you into the park at the peak of its beauty, where all of the big rocks and trees are. However, there is another way of doing this.

While not as orthodox, there is also a southern entrance to the park. This entrance is in the middle of no where on the 10 well outside of the civilization of the Coachella Valley. The obvious pro to this entrance is that you have the opportunity to drive through the whole park, experiencing the beauty from end to end. You don't miss the beauty of the Ocotillo patch or the chollo cactus garden. But, there is also another pro to this. A pro for the drivers out there.

This pro will add another hour and a half to the drive time out to the park, but if you leave early enough it is more than worth it. Instead of taking the 10 to the 62 or straight into the park, instead, exit in Banning for the 243 and take that to the 74 east. These are some stunning roads with beautiful mountain views, and a very dramatic drop into the desert floor.


Map of route:
View Larger Map

And finally, some new photos from the park:

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia and Kings Canyon seems to not receive nearly as much attention as Yosemite National Park to the north. While they lacks to grandeur of Yosemite Valley, the parks are still very beautiful and deserves to be seen. The plus in seeing these two parks is because they are joined you only have to pay once to see both parks. A savings if $25.

Sequoia is home to the world's largest trees by mass. They are truly impressive and really make you realize how insignificant you are. Just to the north of the park is Kings Canyon. Without the large trees of Sequoia to obscure your view you are able to see the impressive mountains, meadows and Sierra scenery.

Getting to Sequoia and Kings Canyon is very straight forward. The drive is about 4 hours up the 5 and the 99 into Visalia. After Visalia you start to climb into the mountains and the drive starts to become quite nice. You can expect a tour of California farm country before tis climb.

Sequoia puts its best foot forward, upon entering the park you are instantly stunned with a wonderful view of the granite monoliths of the Sierra and a river that is slowly cutting them down.







The road climbs and twists it begins to drop again and as the road steadily works its way down you are plunged into the world of big trees. There are a lot of signs to help you go to where you want to go. I unfortunately missed the tree you can drive through, which I am still upset about. A must do is to walk the Sherman Trail. This 1 1/2 mile walk is beautiful and very peaceful, even with the plethora of tourists that will accompany you.



The parking spot for the Sherman seems to be much further than a mile and a half away from Sherman Trail, but don't distress, the walk is not as long as the drive. And the walk truly is worth it. As you would imagine, it leads to General Sherman tree, which is the largest tree in the world!



A duplicate of the tree's footprint




The tree is 2,200 years old, but impressively, this is not the oldest tree in the world. The oldest tree is a full thousand years older, and lives in the bristle cone forest on the other side of the Sierra Nevada from Sequoia. To read up on that area, please look at my Eastern Sierra post.

One of the reason why these trees are able to get so large and live so long is because they are remarkably resilient to fire, disease and insects. The size of the trees and their resilience made them very tempting to loggers in the earlier part of the last century. It took a team of two men four days to cut down one tree! A ring of the bark was sent to the world fair that year, where it was declared a California hoax, no one believed that a single tree could be that large in cercumferance! Luckily for us, and unlucky for the logging industry, the wood ended up to splinter easily, making it not as desirable as people once thought. Unfortunately thousands of sequoias fell before logging was abandoned, luckily, trees like General Sherman and Grant were left standing.

Fire resistance. The damage to the bark has little effect on the overall health and growth of the tree.




There are a lot of interesting trees to see in Sequoia, such as this fallen tree that was used for protection for National Guard, Sunday school lessons, and the like. Unfortunately now it is getting weak and you are no longer allowed inside.


There is also a log cabin built in the 1880s that exists in the park. The cabin is made of ceder, but the bottom logs were added and are made of the more resistant sequoia to prevent further decay of the cabin. Unfortunately people have found a need to leave their mark on this historic landmark with their carvings.


As you continue on the road the trees begin to thin and become smaller. It is odd because you feel as if you can breath again, although you never noticed you were being deprived of air. You are now entering Kings Canyon. Kings Canyon unfortunately receives very little attention next to Sequoia. It lacks a selling point like giant trees or glacier cut granite monoliths like Yosemite. Don't let the lack of a single charismatic feature prevent you from enjoying this park. After all, since it is connected to Sequoia, you have very little reason to turn around and miss it.





Even though the park has no singular feature that can draw the crowds, the park does contain an abundance of scenic beauty. Kings Canyon is back pack country. The Muir trail leads through this park, and the mountains, meadows and canyons of the park are so expansive that you know that you are seeing so little of it from the side of the road. If you want to explore the park your best bet is to stay over night so you can use a day for a nice, long hike through the park.

The easiest way to stay overnight in this region is to camp, and there are plenty of beautiful options open to you. But be warned, this is bear country. Bear preparedness is paramount for you to enjoy your camping experience. All it takes is alertness in order to prevent a bear incident. Put your food, lotions, and the clothes you sat next to the fire in the bear lockers they provide at all camp grounds, and remember to throw out your trash. If camping isn't your thing there are three lodges inside the park. From what I've seen, inside park lodges are costly, but beautiful. Here is a link with your out of park options for hotels:
http://www.nps.gov/archive/seki/lodg_out.htm

Bear proof trash cans within the park


A benefit of camping is the night view


When you leave the park you can just turn around and drive back through the park, or you could leave through the northern part of the park and take route 245 down from the west. This is a rural and curvy road through the mountains. Being a rural road you can expect some rural elements


The 245 takes you back to Vasalia. Hop back on the 99 and head home. I hope you had a nice trip!

Joshua Tree National Park

Even though Joshua Tree is the closest National Park to Southern California, this was the first time I've ever been do it. After hearing about The Great Perseids Meteor Shower on Friday, I called up a friend and we hastily planned a camping trip to Joshua Tree to see the meteors.

Joshua Tree National Park is about 3 hours east of the LA area. It is best known for its Joshua trees, as well as from the U2 album of the same name. The park is also well known for its rock climbing. It does have some good trails, but this park really is a rock climber’s, not a hiker’s, paradise.

The on season for Joshua Tree is any time other than the summer. In the summer day time temps hover above 100, and it only gets down to about 75 at night. In summer time they close down some of the camp grounds, but you shouldn't worry about finding a spot unless you are going out there on a holiday, or meteor weekend. During the other seasons, only two campsites take reservations, and there is no overflow, or primitive, camping in the park, unless you are backpacking. Be warned.

If you don't want to camp, I suggest you stay on the north end of the park, off the 62 in Yucca Valley, or further east in 29 Palms, which is where the north entrance is. Yucca Valley had some spectacular examples of 1950s buildings. While I did not stay in a hotel here, the ones they had seemed clean. 29 Palms is well known as the birthplace of U2's album Joshua Tree. If you want to stay where U2 did, that would be The Harmony Motel. If you want something more luxurious, the best place to stay, by far, is La Quinta Resort and Spa on the southern end of the park in La Quinta. However, the southern end is not nearly as beautiful as the northern end.

We got to the Hidden Valley camp grounds at about 6pm and snagged one of the last spots. Hidden Valley is a popular camp site, because it is the first campsite you come to if you enter from the west entrance, and is also one of the most scenic. The beauty was spectacular, and a wonderful way to welcome us to Joshua Tree. The campground is a popular base camp for rock climbers, and many didn't even leave the campground to make a climb!

Some photos from around the camp:




our mode of transportation:




after getting camp set up we walked around the camp site to get a feel for the area


This hole was worn into this rock from wind. Seeing as the rock is granite, it must have taken the wind quite some time to form this:








At 8pm on Saturdays there is a talk at the Hidden Valley picnic area, which is across the road from the campgrounds. This night they were talking stars, and did a laser guided tour of the stars. We were late, as someone told us a different time. But we did get to look through a very large telescope at Jupiter.

When we were done with the star people, we went back to the camp site and got the fire going. This was purely routine, as we didn't need the heat, and weren't hungry, but it was great to have at midnight when we wanted some burgers. With the fire going, we sat in our chairs and just enjoyed the night.

Joshua Tree is so far away from cities that you can see billions of stars. The Milky Way was painted right across our view, holding with in it more stars than could be counted. The meteor were running across the sky periodically, but it didn’t pick up until about 1am. In hindsight, we should have napped and woke up for it. We ended up staying up until 2am watching the sky. We saw a handful of spectacular meteors that were large in size and streaked across the sky. We saw many more that were dimmer, but still nice to see. It got late, and we were falling asleep in our chairs, so we headed to bed.

At 8am we woke up covered in sweat. It was already well into the 80s, and we were in our sleeping bags. After changing into cooler clothes we exited the tent. We had a quick breakfast and packed up camp. By 9am we were out on the road.

We wanted to take a hike before heading home. Since it was our first time in the park, we decided to drive through the park to the southern boarder and hike off of the Cottonwood Campsite. While the southern part of the park is nice, the northern part is far superior. It would have been better for us to stay there.

Here are some photos from our drive down:





A small bit of information. The Joshua tree grows straight up until a parasitic wasp lays her eggs within the tree. Once those eggs are laid, the tree shoots out its first side branch. A tree that is still growing straight up has not been infested. We saw one tree that was about 30 feet tall before it split off, however, this was very rare, the vast majority of the trees had branches.


In the middle of the park the beauty waned


JTNP encompasses two deserts: the Mojave Desert at the higher elevation, which is characterized by the Joshua tree, and the Colorado desert at a lower elevation. The Joshua trees disappear before the boundary is crossed. You know you are in the Colorado Desert when you get to the cholla cactus garden:


awww so cute


Shortly after the cholla cactus garden is a grove of ocotillos. Ocotillos are not cactus but actually a deciduous shrub. The ocotillo drops its leaves up to five times a year according to rain fall. They also produce very bright flowers on the tips of their branches. The ocotillos in Joshua Tree are quite a bit shorter, and fan out more than the ones I am used to seeing.

fairly normal ocotillo:


What most of them looked like:


There is one very nice hiking spot in the southern portion. Just after passing the Cottonwood visitor’s center, you turn left for the Cottonwood campground. After passing the campground turn off the road ends at a trailhead. There are trail maps here for a small price (I borrowed and returned mine. I highly recommend you do pick one up. But don't steal).

At the Cottonwood Springs trail head there are a few trails you can choose. The trail goes for just over a mile on the Cottonwood Springs trail, then it diverges into the Mastodon and Lost Oasis trails. The Mastodon trail is a 2.6 mile loop that climbs up a peak, goes past some abandoned mines and works it way back to the parking lot. Lost Oasis is 7 mile non-loop that ends at an oasis. Since it was so hot, we chose the shorter Mastodon trail. Remembered to come prepared if you attempt any hiking in hot weather by bring water, a hat and sunscreen with you.

The trail head. How do oasis' form out in the desert? The process is very similar to damming a river and creating a lake, but it happens underground. Faulting causes an underground dam which slows, or stops, the procession of ground water. The ground water builds up, and the level increases. In many instances the level increases to the point where you have a spring, a pond or stream, in the desert. Other times, like at this point, the level is increased to a point just below the surface where these California fan palms and cottonwoods can drink through their roots. As another note, the California fan palm is the only native palm tree to the contiguous United States.



Once we started on the trail we were thrust back into the desert landscape.


Many people view the desert as a lifeless environment. This is not true, however. We saw many lizards, birds and squirrels on our hike.


Just like in the northern part of the park, the southern part has the massive granite rock piles the park is known for. These piles used to be a solid piece of granite under the surface of the earth. Over time, and I'm sure with the help of earthquakes, cracks forms in the granite. Water, on its way down to the water table under the rock, poured into these cracks, slowly expanding them. Fast-forward a few million years, and the surface around the piles have eroded away, leaving us with these magnificent outcroppings:


We started to climb Mastodon peak, here is our view:


On the side of the mountain was an abandoned mine, which was operated from the early 30s until the 70s. This one was safely covered; however, remember not to play around in old mines. They are unstable, and you wouldn't want to get yourself trapped like those poor miners in Utah.

Covered up shaft, this went very deep:


This is where they started the refining process in order to lessen the load they had to carry down the mountain


Much of the hike was in dry washes. The soft sand was good and bad news, soft on the knees, but hard to walk in for a long time:




We call this "Moon Rock"


In much of the granite were these inclusions of other rocks. From my limited geological background, I think that these are groupings of minerals in the granite. The granite seems fairly crystallized, it appears to have formed under the surface, opposed to a tuff-brachia, which forms on the surface. Granite, by name, forms under the surface of the earth. I hate to break it to you, but those dark stone slabs you have on your counter top are not granite, as granite is light. Rhyolite is formed on top of the surface, and is the same composition as granite. Both are igneous rocks. Because of how rhyolitic volcanoes erupt (this Vesuvius) they don't leave these nice, black lava flows like the Hawaiian volcanoes, instead, they shoot out super heated steam and ash that takes out everything in its path. When this ash hardens, it forms a tuff-brachia. The tuff is the volcanic rock, while the brachia is all of the rocks it picks up. Because it was ash, however, there is very little, if any, crystal structure to the rocks. Therefore, since these rocks are crystalline, I believe this was formed under the surface, and these inclusions were there at the time of the formation. Because the dark inclusions are harder, they aren't wearing as quickly, which is why they are raised from this piece of granite.






Further down the trail we found these old buildings. At first we thought they might have been where the miners lived, but a sign further down the road lead us to believe that these were milling facilities, to further refine the ore


We soon returned to the parking lot after passing those ruins. From there we continued south out of the park and onto the I-10. We exited Washington and drove down to Louise's in La Quinta for omelettes. This is a very good restaurant that is just past Washington and Hwy 111, on the left hand side, right across from a church.

After lunch we hopped back on the 10 and came home. I hope you had a nice trip!