Joshua Tree National Park, California

I had been to Joshua Tree National Park many years ago and was anxious to visit it again. On my last visit I had entered through the park's western entrance, in the Mojave Desert section of the park. This time we entered at the southern entrance in the Colorado Desert section, a decided difference. The Colorado Desert is drier and at lower altitude, too low for Joshua Trees ,and disappointment was our initial response.
One short hike changed that. I guess the desert is not for everyone, but Cheryl and I are fascinated with it, it's plants, it's birds, and it's Reptiles. Our first hike was to Cottonwood Spring, a small oasis not far from the campground. Many cacti and yuccas, Palo Verde and Mesquite trees, and marvelous Fan Palms thrive in the spring area. We also found Barrel Cactus and lots of small wildflowers blooming in the wash (A dry river bed, very common in the desert) leading out of the spring area. We saw ancient bedrock morters (grinding holes in the granite) that were used by the Cahuilla Indians for grinding Mesquite Beans. The Mesquite plant was also used for medicinal purposes.Rather than hike the next day we took a drive over to the Mojave Desert section of the park. Joshua Tree is a large park, nearly 800,000 acres and I would estimate about 65 miles across. Once you pass through the transition zone, with it's abundant Cholla (pr. Choya) and Ocatillos (both in bloom for our visit) and get above 3000 feet you are in the cooler, wetter, Mojave Desert, and here the famed Joshua Trees flourish. Also in the Mojave are the small granite mountains which draw rock climbers from all over the world.

Day three found us committed to a 9.5 mile hike (round trip) to the Lost Palm Oasis back in the Colorado Desert. This was our wildlife day, finding a rare Desert Tortoise, several Chuckwallas, and what we believe is a Desert Iguana, though we haven't been able to confirm this. Colorado Desert Oases form when water is forced to or near the surface through a fault in the Earth's crust. This water nourishes the huge Fan Palms as well as Agaves and Yuccas in the Oasis. We actually found standing water at Lost Palms, the only water we saw at Joshua Tree that didn't come out of a faucet.

As I said many of the desert plants were in bloom for our visit. Temperatures were in the 80s during the day, and the low 50s at night for our stay, but as we left and headed back through Western Arizona the gauge in the truck read 99.

Next: We head to Sedona Arizona and then on to Southern Utah to meet up with Whazoo again for more exploration.