My hopes to achieve by this trip report that it will not only describe our camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park (henceforth “park”) but will also serve as a descriptive story of what this park is all about, its history, its geological evolution, its fauna and flora etc. I would like it to be an informational and educational story not just for us Trailblazers participants who experienced this wonderful and enriching adventure, but also for those visitors who visit our beautiful website and hopefully take part in our weekly local hikes as well as our out of town trips, and those future hike leaders who might be inspired to revisit this park.

The park is located 250 miles west of central Phoenix, AZ., skirting I-10 that leads you to Los Angeles. L.A. is only 140 miles west of the park. See the Park Map.

In the 1930s Minerva Hoyt, a community activist and desert-lover, recognized the threats from humans. She saw beauty in the spiny plants and slithery creatures where others did not. She persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936. In 1994, as part of the California Desert Protection Act, Congress renamed the area Joshua Tree National Park. Thanks to the efforts of Hoyt and others, this park protects 792,510 acres, more than 80 percent of it managed as wilderness, where the Mojave and Colorado deserts converge.

Deserts don’t have firm boundaries, and much of the park lies in the overlap between the Colorado Desert to the east and the Mojave Desert to the west. This transition zone has a wealth of biological diversity and is home to more than 250 bird species, with unique characteristics of each of the deserts ecosystems. The park lies along a major migration corridor, and its proximity to the Salton Sea, the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of California explains why one might see a fish eating bird like an egret, or a yellow Oriole, or a large black turkey vulture soaring along the thermals without once flapping its wings. One might also see a hawk, a falcon and eagles circling high overhead. Here are some other common animals found at the park: the big horn sheep, the Chuckwalla, cactus wren, beavertail cactus, Greater roadrunner, black tailed jackrabbit, Gambel’s quail, desert tortoise and the desert iguana. The rattlesnakes were still in hibernation as of early March, because the constant temperatures have not risen yet above 50 degrees. At night the temperatures dropped to 30 degrees and we all felt it at the campground! On my exploratory visit to the park in December of 2016, I encountered a friendly roadrunner at the visitors’ center parking lot.

Now that we all have some ideas of the park, I will embark myself on narrating our camping trip. As we go through our activities, you will see lots of pictures taken by various trip participants and when available, I will interspace the pictures with known geological and historical factors about the scenes so as to give them a greater meaning.

Our Arizona Trailblazers Hiking Club usually sponsors at least two out of town camping trips per year within one day’s driving distance or 500 miles away from Phoenix. We have undertaken several times such trips to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and South Rim, Zion and Bryce National Parks in southern Utah, Arches in north eastern Utah, the Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern AZ, the White Mountains in eastern AZ, and Death Valley National Park in southern California etc. Last time, and maybe the only time Joshua Tree National Park was visited by our club, was in April of 1997, 20 years ago. That alone prompted me to consider this trip in 2017. A short trip description was circulated to the club members to gauge the level of interest for such a trip and, unsurprisingly, because we all love these out of town camping trips, there was an overwhelming interest. At first glance, I had 48 would be participants. That necessitated a group camping site so that we can all be together for our activities and pot luck dinners etc. These camping sites must be reserved one year to the date in advance. Along with the availability of the sites, a suitable date must also be chosen, while all along being mindful of the weather. According to park information, the most ideal time is February and March where the temperature would range between 46 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This was the most ideal time of the year. During the summer, the temperatures could reach 100 degrees or more and in such high temperatures hiking becomes more difficult and dangerous. After a quick check of the park’s calendar, we found that early March was ideal and available. Perfect timing. Although there were several campgrounds in the park, only three had group sites. The park had limited water availability and had no shower facilities anywhere. Of the three group sites, Cottonwood Group, located at the extreme southern end of the park had running water and flush toilets. Others did not have such facilities. Although this would mean one hour of travel time every day to the middle of the park where all of our hikes will take place, the location nevertheless, put us close to I-10 for ease of arrival and quick exit. Most importantly, the flush toilets and running water were our biggest bonus and worth the driving to the park three mornings in all. Have you tried “vault toilets” before? Enough said! I will withhold my comments about vault toilets!

At first, the trip was supposed to be only for would be campers but, because of popular demand, the trip was subsequently opened for hotel stayers. Hence, two side by side group camping sites, for up to 35 campers, were selected. Typically, when a trip is first proposed, many hikers get onboard. But in the span of one year, peoples’ circumstances change and seeing a 15 to 20 percent drop off in participation is normal. The final count of participants was 35 of which, two stayed in a hotel in Twentynine Palms, at the north end of the park, and nine members stayed in Indio, CA., located some 25 miles to the west of the park’s entrance off I-10.

My first instincts and concerns were: logistical problems! Could our three group locations hikers be prompt every morning at a designated time and place? We had several days of daily packed activities and a tight schedule and any misstep could throw off the best laid plans! Furthermore, there is no cell reception in these parts. Unforeseen delays or someone’s car problem could throw off the day’s activities! Luckily, these concerns were quickly dashed away when two responsible hike leaders emerged namely, Sally and Sandy who insured me that their respective groups under their leadership and guidance would be timely every morning. And they certainly were. Thank you ladies.

Once everybody paid their tent site fee, there was a long hiatus of nothing happening for 9 months. Three months before our due date, we restarted the planning effort. We developed two carpools configurations: one for the drive from Phoenix to the park and one in the park itself. We were advised by the park rangers to have as few cars as possible because the trailheads have small parking lots. Furthermore, what made it even worse, since our trip date fell on a weekend; it coincided with the California school systems spring break during which time, thousands of students flock to the park. We hence had to consolidate our carpools.

Once the carpools were firmed up, our next endeavor was to develop the menu for the potluck dinners and the need to contribute various kitchen items such as folding tables, propane fueled camping stoves, paper supplies, firewood, jugs of water etc. The food menu was diversified and was supposed to last for two nights of dinners. As usual, we all over prepare and we had enough food for three nights. The meu was quite diversified and delicious.

While we all enjoy the camping experience, the fellowshipping, the partaking in the community meals and enjoying the evenings around a warm fire, our main purpose on such a trip is hiking. To that effect, a concise and full 5 days itinerary was developed and flawlessly executed as planned.

The following are our planned activities by the day.

Check in time at the campground was 12:00 noon. Throughout the afternoon, various carpools checked in. First stop was at the Visitors Center to visit the small displays of pictures and articles of souvenirs about the park and pick up a park map. Cottonwood campground was just half a mile around the corner. Besides the three group sites, there were 62 additional single sites. At the group sites there were several ramadas that provided us with shade, picnic tables and fire pits. The rest rooms were nearby. See Campground Map.

As various carpoolers arrived, it was time to select a site for one’s tent. Early birds get to do the picking.

Joe was the luckiest of the campers. He drove his motor home and slept in it in full comfort. But he also offered us to keep our food coolers in his motor home for safe keeping lest the desert critters get in them had they stayed in our tents. Thank you, Joe.

By late afternoon everyone has checked in and it was time to eat dinner. This first night everyone was for himself. There was no shortage of fancy cooking though. All meals were accompanied by wine and beer and even special brews. After dinner we all gathered around a fire pit to socialize. The evenings were quite cold and at times windy. We all were bundled up. Arizonans, especially those living in the valley, are not accustomed to cold nights. Rudy seemed most knowledgeable on how to start a fire, although sometimes he had to get on his knees for supplications to start the fire.

Ten o’clock was curfew time at the campground. Many of us had already retired for the night. The nights were clear and crispy cold especially after leaving the warmth of the pit fire. With the change in temperature in the desert where the earth’s crust gets colder than, say, a body of water, there is usually an exchange in wind speed. Cold air, being heavier than warm air, descends to the earth’s surface and the warm air rises into the upper atmosphere. This air circulation creates windy conditions. Later on at night, the exchange is over and the wind becomes still.

Between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM campers start to stir in their sleeping bags. Some of us were very early risers. At six o’clock in the morning the temperature was 30 degrees. Hot coffee was the order of the morning. People prepared their breakfasts and packed their backpacks for the day. Snacks and lunch will be on the trails.

At 8:00 AM we gathered at the center of our campground for a quick review of the day’s itinerary and for a group picture. Indio’s hotel stayers were prompt. We would meet Sally and Alice at Skull Rock Trailhead. After the photo shoot we had a quick name introduction and reported to our pre planned respective park carpools. The carpools worked flawlessly every day. Thank you, hikers, for a superior effort.

At 8:30 AM we started our one hour drive to the park’s center, where we would visit Skull Rock, probably the most visited and photographed scene. You will soon see why in the following pictures and why it was called “skull rock”. The road in the park was well paved but very meandering with posted speed limits between 25 and 45 miles per hour. At that speed it would have taken us 1.5 hours to get to our destination. Luckily, we never got stuck behind a slow RV. Needless to say, we sped way above the posted speed limits and we can report that none of us got ticked for speeding. Drivers, thank you for keeping up with me!

The drive north was nondescript. The Colorado Desert portrayed the typical barren mountains, with brown, chocolate and sandy rock coloration and typical flora vegetation such as Brittlebush, Jumping Cholla, Ocotillo, Smoketree, Palo Verde and the abundant and dominant creosote bush. But suddenly and out of nowhere, the Joshua tree appears. We are now at 4200 feet above sea level and it seems as if someone drew a line in desert: we enter now the Mojave Desert. This was reminiscent of the Saguaro cactus in AZ: at a certain altitude, and without notice, it suddenly stops appearing on the landscape.

The first stop is Skull Cap, probably the most photographed rock in the park. Of course everyone wanted to pause in the picture: some liked being in the nose, others in the mouth or on the chin, or wherever they could find a suitable pose. We found plenty of parking spaces along the road. Here we met Sally and Alice, who comfortably stayed the night before in a hotel in 29 Palms. Our group of 35 hikers is now complete. Cameras were clicking away dozens of pictures. We even did some rock climbing at this location. There were great views of rock formation from on top.

Now we were ready for our first hike: Skull Rock loop, a 1.7 miles easy hike. After a short “false start”, we found our bearings and the hike proceeded smoothly. Along the way, one could see many forms of unique looking rocks, forms and shapes, some spread out in piles and others stacked up. There were huge eroded monzogranite boulder formations which are world renowned natural features that provide unique aesthetic, educational, and recreational opportunities, such as rock climbing and high wire stunts. We will see these boulders and rock formations throughout our hikes at the park.

When you see these rock formations you become mesmerized and in awe! You wonder maybe “what are they?”, ”where did they come from?” or “what’s with all these strange shapes?” Here is a quick lesson in geology 101:

Many visitors think that the rocks look like layers of sandstone, but they are actually a kind of granite, not unlike the rock commonly used for countertops. Granites are igneous in origin, meaning they formed when hot molten fluids within the earth’s crust gradually cooled into hard rock. Most granite in the park is of a particular type called “monzogranite”. The park’s monzogranite solidified beneath the surface of the earth starting about 245 million years ago, with the youngest rocks formed over 100 million years ago.

About 250 million years ago – before the dinosaurs came to dominate the planet – the thick North American plate began riding over the thinner Pacific Plate. The water-rich oceanic plate was forced under the continent at an angle. Water at depth, where temperatures are extremely hot, helped to melt the rock into granite magma. It was hot, liquid, and lightweight, and was able to ooze upward along deep-seated cracks in the crust that had been fractured by the fierce crunching of the charging plates. The liquid granite could not force itself all the way up to the surface, so the granite stalled and formed huge, ball shaped masses within the ancient rock. Over a long period of time, the great blobs of granite cooled and hardened. The ancient rock, called gneiss (pronounced “nice”), began to erode. Over millions of years, the gneiss has completely vanished from the surface in most of the park. The gneiss, dark in color, does remain exposed on mountain tops. Younger and lighter colored monzogranites are to be found in the valley bottoms.

In many places in the park, the boulders appear as if some gigantic child piled them up. Some boulders have carved faces, are shaped like animals, or other fanciful forms. Your imagination is the limit.

Horizontal stresses from the collision of tectonic plates created sets of parallel, vertical fractures within the buried rock. Later, mountain building pushed the rocks upward to from sets of X shaped cracks standing at angles in the granite. All the fractures were avenues for rain water to seep downward through the rocks to etch and shape and round the originally angular blocks into the varied forms seen today in the park.

The geologic landscape of Joshua tree has long fascinated visitors to this desert. How did the rocks take on such fantastic shapes? What forces sculpted them?

At the conclusion of this hike, we all take a well-deserved lunch break. It is already noon time. Hikers perched themselves on various rocks and savor their lunches and treats.

After lunch we drive down the road to our next destination: Ryan Mountain, a 2.8 miles round trip hike, a challenging one not only by its steep ascent but also by the many steps one will need to climb over. Although climbing was challenging enough, descending these steps is harder on your knee joints. Some of us wisely decided not to attempt this hike. They experienced a fun surprise at a nearby 0.5 mile long trail and a beautiful looking rock formation called Hall of Horrors.

While some of us, hardy hikers were attacking Ryan Mountain Trail, several of the hikers decided to hike a short distance to the Hall of Horrors rock formation. Instead of hiking the 0.5 mile loop trail they were treated to an aerial show, a high wire daredevil acrobat attempting to cross a space between two tall rocks on a windy afternoon. The daredevil was wisely tethered though for his own protection and you will see in the pictures to follow that he lost his balance and fell. No harm was done though! He climbs back up and continues on his tight rope walk.

This concludes our first full day and night at the park.

Again, around five or six o’clock in the morning, campers start to stir in their sleeping bags. Time to get out of this cocoon and smell the coffee and eat a hot breakfast.

Today is Sunday, our second full day at the park. We will be visiting Keys Ranch and do four nearby hikes, namely: Barker Dam, Hidden Valley Trail, Wall Street Mill Trail and Hall of Horrors. Our departure time from the campground was set for 9:00 AM to meet our park ranger at Keys Ranch for a prearranged guided tour of this historic ranch, whose official name is actually “Keys Desert Queen Ranch”, better known as “Keys Ranch” for short. But first, a quick group picture, a roll call and the day’s instructions.

Here is a brief description of the ranch as it appears in Wikipedia:

The Keys Ranch is the prime example of early settlement in the Joshua Tree National Park area. Bill Keys was the area’s leading character, and his ranch is a symbol of the resourcefulness of early settlers. The ranch is an extensive complex of small frame buildings built between 1910 and Keys’ death in 1969. Keys pursued both ranching and mining to make a living in the desert.

William F. Keys was born at Palisade, Nebraska in 1879. After working as a ranch hand and smelter worker, he was a deputy sheriff in Mohave County, Arizona. During a time in Death Valley, he befriended Death Valley Scotty, becoming involved in a swindle that resulted in the so-called “Battle of Wingate Pass”. He arrived in the Twentynine Palms, California area in 1910. In the area that became Joshua Tree National Park, he became acquainted with local outlaw and cattle rustler Jim McHaney, taking care of him in declining health. Keys eventually took over McHaney’s properties after McHaney’s death, gradually expanding what became the Desert Queen, its name borrowed from the nearby Desert Queen Mine.

Keys married Francis M. Lawton in 1918, and they had seven children together, three of whom died and were buried at the ranch. During a dispute over the Wall Street Mill, Keys shot and killed Worth Bagley. Keys was convicted of murder and went to San Quentin Prison, where Keys educated himself in the library. Keys was paroled in 1950 and was pardoned in 1956 through the efforts of Erle Stanley Gardner, author of the Perry Mason novels.[3]

Mining equipment at the ranch includes an arrastra and a stamp mill for ore processing. Other buildings include an adobe barn, a schoolhouse, a tack shed, machine shed, cemetery and a variety of houses and cabins.

Here is a link for more detailed information and additional links to pictures gallery, references and other external links. Keys Desert Queen Ranch.

The park policy is not to take more than 25 people per tour. The tour lasts two full hours. Because of our size, our group was divided into two smaller groups, group 1 and group 2. While group 1 was taking the tour, it was decided that Jim Buyens will take his group 2 and lead his group on two scheduled hikes for the day, namely Barker Dam trail a 1.3 mile loop trail and Hidden Valley Trail 1 mile loop trail. As seasoned hikers we can travel one mile every 25 minutes plus a few minutes to get in carpools drive a short distance in the opposite direction and hike a second trail. Hence two hours was ample time to accomplish these two hikes. Thank you, Jim, for leading your group.

In the meantime, group 1 was taking a guided tour led by park ranger David Denslow, a 12 years veteran of his ranch presentation. He knew his facts and dates inside out, forward and backward. He was very thorough in explaining the history and hard life that Bill Keys and his wife Francis and their seven children endured. Yet they persevered. Despite his shooting to death of a rival over the disputed Wall Street Mill, and his subsequent conviction of the murder of Worth Bagley and banishment to San Quentin Prison, his wife Francis never wavered and waited for him at the ranch caring for their children all by herself. She must have been one tough woman!

Bill was finally released from prison and the family continued to live at the ranch until their death. They were all buried in a nearby cemetery on the property. Due to vandalism, visitors are not allowed to view the grave sites. Upon his release from prison, Bill Keys erect a monument in honor of his victim Worth Bagley at the spot where Bagley was shot. Due to vandalism, the stone marker was removed by the custodians of the park and stored away until a final decision of what to do with it is determined. In its stead, a painted poster tells the story behind the event and marks the spot of the shooting.

The following are pictures of the ranch, Bill’s predecessor to the modern day Home Depot. Everything you needed to survive with in the desert, he had on his property or invented. Nothing ever went to waist. Every single item was put to good use as the pictures and captions demonstrate.

By 12:00 PM Group I’s guided tour was over. We were led by David Denslow to the ranch’s gate where Group 2 was waiting to start their guided tour. Group I then proceeded to hike the two trails just completed by Group 2, namely Barker Dam and then Hidden Valley Trail.

Barker Dam: a historical location, built around 1900, to hold water for cattle and mining use. The dam today forms a small rain-fed reservoir used by park wildlife. Birds abound. The park territory is known for its cattle ranching at least in the central and northern parts and mining mostly for gold.

Wall Street Mill Trail: a 2.2 mile in and out hike to the mining mill. At 2:00 p.m. both groups rejoined at the Echo Tee parking lot from and proceeded in one long caravan of cars to the Barker Dam and Wall Street Mill Trail, jointly used parking lot. Group 1 ate a quick lunch and then we all started our hike on the Wall Street Mill trail, a flat trail with lots of beautiful Joshua trees and rusting relics of modern day vehicles of the era left abandoned as souvenirs of bygone history.

At the end of this hike we start our return trip to base camp but not before stopping first at Intersection Rock, a smoothly polished and heart stopping huge round boulder that challenges the bravest of the rock climbers. There is no cell phone reception in the park and not even a land line, not even among the visitors’ centers. The latter use special short wave radio to communicate with each other. But, and this is the kicker, there was an emergency telephone at the base of this Intersection Rock! I let you figure out why.

Hall of Horrors: As we proceeded back towards our campground, we stopped at the Hall of Horrors, a 0.5 mile loop trail. It was very windy and cold but sunny, but also no high wire acrobatics today. We shall vicariously enjoy the high wire stunt through the camera shutters of other members of our group taken the day before.

It was dinner time and potluck time again. We had so much food left over from the previous night that we had no problem in over eating and there was still plenty left over food for a third night.

After dinner, we retired to our pit fire routine: beer, wine, hard brew, jokes, laughter etc. Again it was a cold and windy night and we kept jockeying for seating spots away from downwind and smoke.

Before you knew it, it was 10:00 PM again and hence curfew hours. But most of us had already retired to our tents. Only the hardy ones where still around the fire by 10:00 PM.

Between 5 and 6 AM everybody was waking up and peeking out their tent. Yes, we are all still here. It is quiet, cold (30 degrees) and soon the sun will rise. Everybody is for himself / herself for breakfast but we all share in the use of stoves to heat water for coffee, fry an egg or two or sausages etc. It was sunny but very cold.

The park’s location is 140 miles east of Los Angeles and 160 miles from San Diego. Both cities have large civilian airports. In the morning, you could see the contrails of the aircrafts criss crossing the skies above us.

Our destination today is Keys View, a tall mountain clocked at an elevation of 5,185 feet and located in the central southern part of the park at the edge of the Little San Bernardino Mountains. This promontory point overlooks the Coachella Valley, I-10, Indio, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Palm Springs, the snow-covered San Jacinto Peak (10,804 ft) and the San Georgonio Peak at 11,499 ft. Along I-10 right between these two mountain peaks is an opening in the mountain chain and serves as a conduit or wind tunnel for the exchange of strong air currents from the Coachella Valley east of the mountains chain and the Pacific Ocean driven winds blowing eastwardly from L.A. on the west side of the mountains chain. This exchange of winds directions throughout the day was a natural location to build wind turbine to generate clean energy all year round. You could see from our promontory at Keys Views these wind turbine farms. Westward looking, you can see the Santa Rosa Mountains and to the southwest you could see the flat blue patch of water which is the Salton Sea. It is 235 feet below sea level. This sea is shrinking and getting saltier because of the draught (less rain water) and agricultural runoffs for its saline water.

Down below us you could see the famous San Andreas Fault.

The sun was shining brightly, but it was a very cold and windy morning. We quickly took the quarter-mile paved trail hike around the peak, snapped as many pictures as we could and hurried back down to the parking lot where we had a group picture taken.

This concluded our hiking activities for this trip. We returned to campground and started preparing for our left over pot luck dinner for the third night. After dinner we regrouped again around the pit fire for our final and usual evening gathering of conversations, drinking beer and wine etc.

The next morning it was time to break camp, and start the packing process of our carpools. It was time to say our good byes and wish each other a safe return trip to Phoenix.

But wait. There was one last group activity together before it is really all over. We arranged to visit General Patton WWII Memorial Museum. It was 5 miles on I-10 east of the park’s entrance and it would have been a shame not to visit it. The museum was on our way back to Phoenix anyway. So, a second guided tour was prearranged with the museum manager. At 11:00 AM most of us were present and the tour began. There was an inside museum where WWII pictures of General Patton were on exhibit along with many of his memorabilia and various WWII gear. A small theater repeatedly showed a 20 minutes video of General Patton’s history and the war effort. Then we proceeded outside the museum to view two dozen WWII tanks, trucks and other military hardware.