Joshua Tree National Park

Jan. 10, 2024

First National Park of 2024! This is the perfect time of year to visit the desert. The landscape is unique in this park with big jumbled rocks and Dr. Suess like freaky trees that are not really trees. Joshua trees are yucca plants on steroids or at least it seems that way. Each tree has its own personality such as dropping, waving its arms, standing proud or trying to take a walk on the path. They reminded me of the tall plants in the movie Day of the Triffids. My first stop was Skull Rock that has a giant boulder that looks like a skull. It was sometimes hard to figure out the path of the trail and I had to backtrack a couple times. It could be a wash, a geologic feature or even the actual trail, hard to tell. I spotted a large family of quail and proceeded to the Discovery trail that had informational signs. Heading south in the park, it changed from mostly Joshua trees to cholla cacti where I stopped to see the Cholla Cactus Garden. It is a beautiful but dangerous short walk through a sea of cacti. My last stop was for two hikes: Wall Street Mine and Barker Dam. The mine trail led to an old gold mine which still had a lot of the original mining equipment, a couple cars and a windmill water pump in place. The dam was more disappointing as it is a concrete dam from settlers for their cattle. There are petroglyphs along this trail, but they have been painted over. The best part of this trail was the multitude of Joshua trees in all different poses.