Tuesday, April 11th - Monday, April 17th
Twentynine Palms RV Resort – Twentynine Palms, California
Our next destination took us north and then eastward to
Joshua Tree National Park. We had to drive on some interstates, but found back
highways that were more interesting. This drive took us through more valleys
surrounded by mountains. There were some very high mountains that still had
snow on the peaks, among them San Jacinto Peak at 10,833’. The valley is
surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest. This area is definitely a
desert environment.
As we approached the town of Twentynine Palms where we stayed at an RV resort, we began
seeing Joshua Trees scattered throughout the desert. These trees are in the
yucca family, but are unique to this area, which is actually part of the Mojave
Desert. Even though the Joshua trees are one highlight of the park, the landscape
is scattered with odd shaped, rounded edge boulders. These huge boulders create
interesting hiking trails and some areas have primitive campsites among the
rocks.
Joshua Tree National Park was definitely a hiking event.
While there we hiked the Arch Rock Trail and Skull Rock Trail. These two trails
consisted mostly of the large rounded boulder rocks and many wandering paths
among them. We also hiked a loop trail called The Lost Horse Mine Trail, which
went back up in a mountain area to a historic gold mine. This mine was one of
the most productive gold mines in the area during the Gold Rush of California. My favorite
hike was the Ryan Mountain Trail, where we hiked to the peak of the mountain
and had incredible views of all the surrounding valleys. The Barker Dam Trail
was a mile and a half loop that took us back to a lake that was created by a
farmer named Barker when he built a dam. This was a very nice trail again meandering
paths throughout the rocks.
One day we drove back west towards Yucca Valley to ride some
mountain bike trails that we had found online. The trails were very much a
desert environment and were mostly sandy double tracks. I rode a couple of
miles and then decided it wasn't worth it. Kurt headed on out to the more difficult
single-track trails and was able to ride a couple more miles. As we have found
in our travels, not all mountain biking trails are what they are said to be.
One day we drove south in the Park to the Keys View Point
overlook, which provided an amazing view of the valley south of the park. The
San Andreas Fault lies in this valley. The fault fissures are visible from the
viewpoint. Also within this Valley are the towns of Palm Springs and Coachella,
amount other smaller towns.
We really enjoyed our stay at this amazing desert National
Park, but we were ready to move on back to the coast. Looking forward to her
visit in the Santa Barbara area.