Southwest 2021-4: California: Mojave National Preserve & Joshua Tree National Park

February 28-March 3, 2021

    

Van in campsite, Hole-in-the-Wall Campground, Mojave National Preserve.

    After another night of being buffeted by the wind, we departed Death Valley. Our destination was southeast to Mojave National Preserve.

We discovered Mojave National Preserve a couple of years ago and wanted to spend time there again. We took the "short" way to Hole-in-the-Wall Campground, having forgotten what a rough, sometimes steep, often dirt road it is from the park headquarters at Kelso. Next time we’ll come in the same way we left, on the paved road that runs from the campground to US 40. 

Barrel cactus at Hole-in-the-Wall Campground.

   Doug hiked the Rings Trail, but Marilyn’s shoulder, just six months out from surgery, needs another six months before she can use it to haul herself up the two sets of rings on the trail.

Numerous petroglyphs cover the rocks near the beginning of the trail.

Further on, the trail goes into Banshee Canyon.

From the opening,

the canyon narrows, and soon one is face with the first set of rings that must be climbed.

Doug looks up the first set of rings...

..and back down from top after successfully navigating the climb.

And now for the second set of rings, a bit tougher of a climb and the rocks someone left were of no help. Basically on this one you had to pull yourself up until you could get your foot on the bottom ring, definitely not for Marilyn YET!

And he's at the top!

But there’s a little more scrambling up rocks to get out of the canyon. Check out the pattern in the rock, right foot, left foot, left foot, right foot, definitely deceptive.
    After a cold night—but not nearly as cold as we’d later experience, and thank goodness for the van’s house heater—we headed further south.

In Amboy we traveled part of Historic Route 66,

past famous Roy’s Motel and Cafe,

and the mysterious set Guardian Lions of Route 66.

Turning south again, we passed Amboy Crater, which we’d hiked into and nearly got blown off the rim of a few years ago.

The road passes Bristol Lake, which is mined for salt.

Salt evaporation basins at Bristol Lake.

    In Wonder Valley south of Amboy, we passed hundreds of mostly abandoned homesteads.

    We needed to do laundry and get groceries, but first we needed to secure a campsite in Joshua Tree National Park. At the entrance station, a ranger told us there may be one campsite left at Jumbo Rock Campground but there might be several at White Tank Campground. White Tank and Belle are the only two campgrounds that are still first come first serve, JTNP has long been popular with rock climbers, but it has become ever more popular with campers, as well. 

It's difficult to find a "bad" campsite in Joshua Tree, but this one at White Tank was particularly grand.

Our site claimed, we headed back down the hill to the town of Joshua Tree to buy groceries and do laundry.

Joshua Tree is of course known for the Joshua trees prevalent in the area, but there are different varieties that grow throughout much of the Mojave Desert. In fact, Joshua trees are a type of yucca.

Joshua trees along Park Boulevard, the main road through JTNP.

The Joshua Trees were in bloom, though most had lost their papery petals and resembled the vertebrae of a spine.

Sometimes you gotta do what your gotta do—Marilyn washing her hair at the campsite. We brought a portable shower set up, but every time we thought we’d use it, it was too cold and windy for the water to warm.


    Our first night we watched a family drive past our site. Knowing that all campsites were long since taken, we offered to share ours with them. How could we not when they were traveling in a VW Westfalia like ours at home, had two tired boys, and quickly donned masks when we motioned to them to stop? Turned out they were French and had lived in San Francisco a few years.


We had such fun with them and their boys, 5 and 9, over the next couple of days. All are bilingual and, alas, since Doug is not, mostly we spoke English, and Marilyn did not get to practice her French.

Van parked at  Split Rock trail parking lot.


We’d done the trail before. It’s fairly easy, though this time we did an extra loop that made the distance more satisfying. Our recollection is the split rock to the right is called the Lovers. Note to the left a rock we called the elephant.


The more we hiked, the more we realized what a variety of yucca there are, in addition to Joshua trees. We called this a yucca, but have no idea which type it is.


Marilyn points the way...








We didn’t have our guide map, and we didn’t remember the names of many of the rocks along the trail. Some we made up ourselves last time, but this one is definitely Tulip Rock.

Marilyn taking a breather. "Hole-in-the-Wall" rock?

The "Chief"?

Seam in rock is a dike...

...as are these smaller seams.

Doug did the short hike to Arch Rock from the campground.

    The next morning, we'd continue our trek south, first stop Gila Bend, Arizona, and a night at an Air Force Base campground, where we did laundry. The next day we'd drive to  Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on Arizona's southwest border with Mexico.