Joshua Tree National Park!

Gerry and I went on a mini-vacation during the December holiday season. It was a visit to Joshua Tree National Park!  Joshua Tree NP is about 130 miles east of Los Angeles - less than a three hour drive.

We stayed in the town of Twenty Nine Palms, just north of the Park for three nights, we arrived on Saturday, December 16th and checked out on Tuesday morning, December 19th. It was a splendid get-away with plenty of day hikes and solitude.

We arrived at the west entrance to the park around 11:30 am. We stopped at the Visitors Center and picked up the park brochure and map, ate our prepacked picnic lunch and then embarked on a six mile scenic hike.  It was called the Maze-Window loop.

 

I am ready to go!

 Temperatures were ideal - in the 60s with bright sunny skies and a light breeze. The juniper berries caught our attention.

an abundant bush

 Here is a photo of me taking a picture of Gerry taking a picture of the juniper berries!

We're both obviously fascinated....

Joshua Tree National Park has lovely Joshua Trees (no surprise). We saw hundreds of them on our welcoming hike this afternoon.

And, it's also extra-special to see and hear the birds.

a ladder-back wood pecker at the top of the tree

We were impressed with this colorful red cactus. We saw a handful of these on the trail.

I'm calling it a Christmas cactus

Like I stated earlier, this was the Maze Window hike. Here is the "window".

Beautiful rock formation and the window!

We enjoyed our first day in  Joshua Tree National Park, and checked into our hotel in Twenty Nine Palms around 4:00 pm.  We ate dinner at the Ground Squirrel, "a beer and food oasis in the dez". The restaurant opened in 2021.  Decent IPA beer, and the food was OK. Gerry ordered a hamburger and fries and I ordered a falafel burger.  A fine day one!

I'll call Day Two, Sunday, our "Rock Hike" day. We did three short two-mile hikes. First hike was the Arch Rock trail hike. We hit the trail at 10:00 am and saw many interesting rock formations, in addition to the Arch Rock.

the infamous "Arch Rock", photo courtesy Gerry Hans

We're once again fortunate weather-wise. Temps in the 60s and sunny skies. This is such an interesting place. So glad it is protected as a National Park. 

Our second hike was the "Split Rock" trail hike which was another short, two-mile hike which included many amazing views, including the Split Rock.

Split-Rock  - fascinating!

We ate our picnic lunch after the hike and then embarked on our third and final hike of the day, the Skull Rock hike trial, which also included the short Discovery Trail,2.4 miles of hiking and seeing amazing rock formations.

looks like a supportive rock holding up the huge boulder

My favorite rock, though, was the Gerry rock.

time to relax after three short hikes

Here's a final photo of the day.

Love the golden colored bush in the foreground and the iconic Joshua Tree in the background.

Day three included a fascinating Keys Ranch tour. (Our good friend Brenda had suggested we book this tour. She's been to Joshua Tree N.P. and did this tour, which is very special and limited.)  You need to book reservations in advance, and the tour is limited to only 25 people per day....Only 1 percent of the millions of visitors to Joshua Tree N.P. participate in this tour!

a morning photo as we enter the park on Monday, day three

Keys Ranch was built in 1910 and lived in by William and Frances Keys along with their children for over 60 years. Having first moved to the desert in search of gold, William Keys started this ranch as he built up a life for himself with mining and ranching. In 1917, Frances married and joined William at the ranch where they started a family and continued to build up the ranch. By not letting anything go to waste and figuring out how to reuse old parts they were able to build a prosperous ranch and mining operation in a seemingly hostile environment.

a photo of the Keys Ranch homestead

The "fence" around the perimeter

The Keys family truck - definitely an artifact

And the appliances from the 1920s are on full display and in good condition

This 90 minute tour led by Ranger Dave was definitely a highlight of our Joshua Tree N.P. trip! After this excellent tour we embarked on a 7 mile hike in the nearby vicinity.  It was a bit chilly on the Keys Ranch tour, which started at 9:30 am.  It's the only time I had to don a jacket in the Park.

We hiked along the Barker Dam Nature Trail, a mostly flat trail with beautiful rock formations once again.

Along the Barker Dam Nature Trail

 Quite fun - saw more artifacts. If it's more than 50 years old, it's considered an artifact and is protected by the National Park. There are several old rusted cars in the area.

Me and the automobile - two artifacts

My favorite artifact - Gerry, of course - with the antique car

We added on an extra stretch to visit the Wall Street Mill. This mill was used to process gold from local mining operations.

Here is the Wall Street Mill, which has seen better days.

The Mill is out in the middle of nowhere

We viewed some ancient Petroglyphs in the cliffs as we walked the return loop back to the car.

Petroglyphs in the background

We also passed by an "eagle" rock.

It looks like an eagle to us, keeping an eye on things

We didn't see too many people on this hike. Nice having the place to ourselves. The weather was ideal - temperatures in the low 60s with a light breeze.

Gerry at the end of the hike

 We splurged for dinner on our final night and ate at The Rib Co, a small family-owned restaurant since 1997, located a half-mile from our hotel. We split a full slab of their famous baby back ribs with the house rub, and also shared a Ceasar salad and baked beans. We drank the local beer, an Inline IPA.

very tasty!  Yum yum!

 We checked out of the hotel around 9:30 am Tuesday morning and drove to the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, which is 31.5 miles from 29 Palms on the route back to L.A.

The Preserve is an internationally-recognized birding site. Several rare or unusual species are known to nest here, and many other species are abundant during the spring and fall migration seasons. The Preserve has been designated as one of the United States’ Important Bird Areas.

At 31,000 acres with elevations ranging from 600 feet on the canyon floor to 3000 feet at the top of the ridge, this diverse landscape is an important part of the Morongo Basin’s natural and cultural history, and in 2016 was incorporated into the Sand to Snow National Monument.

It was definitely worth the visit! We spent three hours at the Preserve and enjoyed the scenery, the birds, and the hiking trails, and our picnic lunch. 

the very scenic Morongo Canyon preserve

There were several interesting, colorful plants on the trail. This one in particular caught my eye:

love the vibrant colors

Here is another close-up view of the stalks

We hiked about 4.5 miles at the preserve.  There are about 11 miles of trails, but several trails were severely damaged during Hurricane Hillary in August, 2023. The damaged areas have been closed for visitor safety.  

another gorgeous view

 All in all, it was a fabulous short get-away!  

We'll be back for sure!