Joshua Tree Weekend

To me, Joshua Tree National Park had never been on the top of my list. I honestly thought it was just desert wasteland. I decided to go visit because I’m new to Los Angeles and it’s only 2 hours from the city. It took a little longer to get there than I had anticipated but it was not too bad of a drive from my apartment in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. The first Joshua Tree I saw blew my mind, no joke. I’m a big mountain girlie, I didn’t think I’d be ever so in awe of the beauty of a desert tree but here we are. They are so interesting and abundant. I had to stop in town before I went into the park because in true Deirdre fashion, I went off on this drive and overnight trip with zero food. I always have plenty of water bottles (reusable!) and I keep two gallons of emergency water in my car. Somehow I always “forget”/ neglect to pack food. I bought a bunch of crap because unfortunately when I go on trips like this, I tend to eat poorly. It’s something I’m trying to work on, but buying pre-packaged, processed crap is so much easier than trying to figure out cooking while camping and it’s nice to just take the easy route sometimes.

Once I got what I needed, I stopped in the visitors center to stamp my National Parks passport, buy a postcard, and buy a hat. This is essential to all of my national park trips. I feel really silly stamping a passport in the visitors center but weirdly enough it’s one of the things about these trips that I find the most healing. It’s nice to be collecting things and it’s a very wholesome feel-good experience for me. After the Visitor’s Center I drove a few miles down the road toward the park entrance where I showed my pass and it was at this point I realized I had forgotten to ask the ranger at the gate for a paper map. Joshua Tree had zero cell service and other than the few trails I had downloaded on All Trails, I had no idea where I was going. I always have paper maps, I sort of can’t believe it made this mistake but oh well, I figured it out! I made my way to Barker Dam via Keys Ranch Rd and headed out of my first hike. This one was super easy and even though easy hikes shouldn’t be discounted, they tend to be very crowded and this was no different. There were children- everywhere. Usually in National Parks, I don’t like to wear headphones because I like to connect with nature. I had to wear AirPods on this one because there were children running all over the place, screaming their heads off, no control just yelling at the top of their lungs. I love children and I think bringing kids to National Parks is a great way to foster a healthy connection with nature from a young age, but I couldn’t believe how these kids were behaving in public. Anyway- this hike was really short, only a few miles and towards the end it was a bit quieter and I saw some rock climbers which was cool. It was really hot, I couldn’t imagine trying to rock climb in this weather.

I sat in my hot car and ate a muffin (one of the packaged pos food items I bought) and made my way down to Cholla Cactus Garden. I got this idea from TikTok, it looked really cool and it was. It was very hot mid-day at this point but the garden is really a quick walk. I spent about 15 minutes there, apparently these cactus can jump out and sting you. I don’t think sting is the right word but you know, stick to you- so don’t get too close! I did touch one because I only found this out after my trip. Oops.

I checked out the Arch trail on my way back towards my campsite, apparently it’s really pretty for sunrise. It was pretty good during the day too, I saw a board full of back country camping near the parking lot and it really inspired me to back country camp in Joshua Tree when the weather gets better! Arch trail also barely hits my checklist for what qualifies as a hike in my book, it’s more of a short walk, I think about 2 miles round trip. By this point I really wanted to get to Skull Rock so I could check into my campsite and set up my tent before it got dark. Skull rock was so crowded. I mean you couldn’t do anything without a little kid running in front of you. There were people flooding this place. It was a little odd because it was a weekday in December, but I suppose parks will always be popular! Not much you can do to avoid the crowds. Because of my claustrophobia and desire for this to be a peaceful trip, I left there pretty quickly and drove the hour to my campsite that I had booked, Black Rock. It was only $25 although I didn’t use any of the amenities so I probably should’ve just parked my car somewhere as I ended up sleeping in it anyway.

My campsite was straight rock. I tried so hard to put up my tent, I spent over an hour on it before giving up. It was so windy and so so cold. I decided that I was getting stressed trying to get my tent up and I wanted this trip to bring me peace so I decided to give up, put everything away, and just sleep in my car. While I stand by this decision, the sun sets in California at about 4.45pm in December. I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually go to bed before 5pm. Thankfully I had service at the campsite so I could chill on my phone but I was so freezing. My car is not designed to sleep in, I couldn’t even put the backseats down. It was cramped, absolutely frozen, and didn’t go to sleep until midnight. Definitely one of my less thought through ideas but I learned a lot!

The next morning, I was so excited to turn my car on and warm up a little bit. My mom had told me I should probably just drive back to Los Angeles, no one would know. Except here’s the thing: I would know. I would know that I gave up on myself and something in my head was telling me that the sunrise would be worth it. I was right. When I tell you guys that this was literally the most cathartic experience of my life. The sky was so beautiful. The pictures don’t even do it a little bit of justice. It was still absolutely freezing but to be above the clouds at Keys View looking at a purple and pink sky, the orange glow of the sun hitting the mountains. I mean it was really unreal. Definitely the most beautiful sunrise of my life so far. I don’t remember the hike I went of after this it was a short loop on the road back towards the entrance when you’re coming from Keys View. I tried to look for it but I just can’t find it.

I decided to drive back down towards the Cholla Cactus Garden and hike the Silver Bell Mine. It was so quiet, I felt like I had the whole park to myself. This one was just 1.4 miles but definitely a moderate hike it did go up quite a bit. It had amazing views and really cool ruins on the way up. You could see out over the cactus gardens and it was a really different perspective than anything I had seen at the park so far. I didn’t have anything else lined up, but I didn’t want to head back to LA yet as I felt like I still had some exploring to do. Sometimes it’s best to just drive around the park and pull over when you see something really cool. I pulled over for Ryan Mountain and I’m so so so glad I did. This ended up being one of my favorite hikes to date. It was so beautiful and it made me feel very accomplished. I don’t really know why this one made me feel accomplished- I’ve done much harder hikes than this. I just felt really good about myself the whole time I was hiking, I can’t really explain it. There were also quite a few other hikers on this trail but all of them were so nice and just really friendly. It was a very wholesome experience and I’m just so grateful I happened upon this trail.

After this beautiful hike, I decided to head back to LA but I absolutely loved Joshua Tree and will be back for sure :)