Our first National Park was the Joshua Tree National Park. At first, we didn’t includ this National Park in the plan, because we wanted to take the Route 66 from Los Angeles to Kingman (and then from Kingman to Seligman, on our way to the Grand Canyon). But after thinking about it, I thought that spending one day on the Route 66 would be epic enough, so we could plan something else during the first part of the route. So we decided to take a detour to the Joshua Tree National Park – mainly because of the positive comments we heard about it. The National Park lies near Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley. In the Joshua Tree Visitor Center, right before you enter the park via the West Entrance Station, we bought our America The Beautiful Pass ($80). Most of the parks are included within this pass, for an updated list, just visit their website.
In Joshua Tree National Park, two desert ecosystems come together: the (higher) Mojave and the (lower) Colorado Desert. The Joshua Tree is the main attraction of the Joshua Tree National Park and is mainly found in the higher and cooler Mojave Desert. You can find the trees in dense forests but also as distantly spaced trees. In the Mojave part, you can also find some interesting geologic displays like hills and bare rock. An example is the Skull Rock, a rock that looks like – the name gives it away – a skull. The rocks are popular among rock climbers. In the lower part of the National Park, you’ll find the Colorado Desert where you can find more cactuses, like the Cholla Cactus, or grasslands and desert dunes.
In the beginning of our trip (well, the first two weeks actually) there was a heat wave in the US. It was already too hot for us without the heat wave, let along with the heat wave :-). So we were melting away the moment we visited the park. We’re both everything but experienced hikers, so that’s why we decided to ‘stick with our plan’ and do two easy hikes – one in each desert.
We started with the Hidden Valley Trail in the Mojave Desert. This trail is a self-guiding, one-mile loop trail that passes massive boulders, Joshua Trees and other types of flora. It is a rock-enclosed valley and the rumor is that cattle rustlers used to use this valley. It’s one of the most popular and scenic hiking trails in the park. And yes, we did see a few others walking around, but it wasn’t crowded. Because of all the boulders, this is also a popular area for rock climbers. This is a great way to get to know the park, even the way to the parking lot of the trail lets you see forests of Joshua Trees and boulders along the way.
Our second hike was the Cholla Cactus Garden Trail in the (beginning of the) Colorado Desert. This is a 0.25-mile loop through dense concentration of Cholla Cactus. It’s a small loop, on a nice, flat trail – but without any shade. The loop takes more or less 15 minutes, so it is doable.
If we had more time I would’ve liked to hike the Cottonwood Spring Trail as well. That’s a one-mile loop trail, through an area with palm oasis, cottonwood trees and flora and fauna of the National Park. Because of the heat we decided to just move on towards Kingman – where we had a hotel with a pool.
Around the world in a lifetime 