Before the start of the road trip, this was probably the national park that Chandler was most looking forward to – and that’s because he got me to agree to listen to U2’s the Joshua Tree album while we were driving through the park.
But I had a to-do list before we even arrived in the national park! On the drive to our motel, we stopped in the town of Yucca Valley to do some vintage shopping.
Some vintage shops on my list were Funky Desert Vintage and the End. Hoof & the Horn carries new apparel with a western/bohemian style and the Hoodoo is a record store. The farthest stores are two minutes apart, so it was really easy to park and walk around.
The vintage shops were certainly fun, but wildly overpriced – I guess they know their clientele. I had a fun time browsing, but ultimately didn’t find anything for myself, which was just as well, because we only had one night in Joshua Tree!
When looking for somewhere to stay, we had chosen the remodeled motel, Ramsey 29. While it’s a motel, we were only able to book on Airbnb, which was a bit odd, but I’m glad we did! We got one of their smaller rooms, so it was a tight fit, but the space had everything we needed (including a small fridge for our cooler items).
After dropping everything off, we were on our way to Joshua Tree National Park. One of the reasons we booked Ramsey 29 (in addition to the updated decor) was the location – only half a mile from the northern entrance to the park. I have to say, I’m pretty sure this is the closest we stayed to any of the national parks we visited this summer!
The heat was still intense, which is why we were opting for a late afternoon start. During the summer, you’re advised to hike in Joshua Tree before 9am and after 5pm. This didn’t bother us so much because we hadn’t had many sunsets in our national parks and this seemed like an ideal spot for one.
Our first stop in Joshua Tree was at the Cholla Cactus Garden. Chandler made fun of me because there was not a single Joshua tree in sight, but I wanted to see the cacti (having been raised in Minnesota, I’m enamored by plants we didn’t have).
The trail is only .25 miles long, but you won’t see scenery like this anywhere else in the park. The National Park Service claims there’s nearly 10 acres of this teddy bear cholla (adorable, am I right?) and it was so much fun to photograph.
Next on our stop was another area with limited sightings of Joshua trees – Arch Rock & Heart Rock. In total, the round-trip trail is close to 1.5 miles. I have to admit, both sites were pretty underwhelming and with the fading sunlight, I wasn’t impressed by my photos.
However, the surrounding area was lovely and we did a small amount of minor rock scrambling. Nearing sunset it was quiet and peaceful. We ended up spending more time here than anticipated!
At this point, we were reflecting on some information we had recently heard – that Joshua trees have started dying off because of hotter, drier conditions, with very few younger trees becoming established. We began to wonder just how many Joshua trees we’d actually be seeing.
This area had, however, been lovely for photographing individual trees as they certainly weren’t around in big groves.
Our next stop was Skull Rock, but we ended up driving past it, having gotten our fill of rocks at the previous stop. It was also the most crowded of anywhere we’d been in the park and we were racing against the setting sun to make it to our sunset viewpoint: Keys View.
People were already getting in their cars and driving away as we pulled into the parking lot. We raced up a set of stairs to discover that we still had time! The sun hadn’t set behind the hills. However, the haze was intense. We started to read why that was.
The viewpoint provides panoramic views of the Coachella Valley. On a clear day, visitors to Joshua Tree National Park can see the Mexican border from the mile-high vantage point of Keys View. More often, however, visitors can barely discern the tip of Mount San Jacinto, only about 50 miles away.
The haze that obscures these views is the result of smog that blows into the park from surrounding urban areas. While some of this comes from growth in the Coachella Valley, Los Angeles, with a population over 12 million, is the major contributor of ozone and other pollutants that reach the park.
The horrible truth is that this haze produces some truly lovely sunsets (if you don’t know what’s causing it!).
We didn’t stay long after the sun had set because on our way up to Keys View we had finally discovered our Joshua trees – huge groves of trees as far as our eyes could see.
It was late, but the lighting was lovely – changing from blue to purple to pink. Not for the first time on this trip, I was grateful that I had upgraded my camera a few months before. While I will always have a soft spot for my Fujifilm X-20, it absolutely can not take low-light photos. The Fujifilm X-T5 is much better equipped to pick up on details found past sunset.
It had been a short stop in the park, but it felt like enough – we hadn’t done any major hikes, but that was ok. Just a few days prior, two hikers had been rescued from a trail in the park due to extreme heat. With that in mind, we were grateful to have seen some Joshua trees and excited to be heading back to a city the following day, after having a reminder of city life in Phoenix.
Abroad With Ashley 