TL;DR
Joshua Tree is a unique place full of its iconic name sake as well as world class climbing and beautiful desert landscapes. There’s a ton of scrambling which really makes it seem like one giant playground.
Where we camped: Indian Cove Campground ($20/night), Black Rock Campground ($20/night)
Where we hiked: Pine City (2mi), Ryan Mountain (3mi), 49 Palm Oasis (3mi) Total miles: ~8 Where we climbed: Quail Springs, Broken Boulder When we went: March 10-13, 2016
Thoughts
While northern California is getting deluged, I decided that I wanted to spend my birthday with at least the slight chance of sun. So south we went…
Joshua Tree’s been on my list for a while, not just for my national parks exploration, but because its a mecca for rock climbing. I wouldn’t say I’m a great climber but I am getting better. Jtree has a wide mix of bouldering, trad and sport climbing all with a desert backdrop and open fields of Joshua trees. I get a kick out of these trees. They look like half cactus half tree. The branches(?) seem to grow without rhyme or reason. The limbs and sometimes trunk are covered in old foliage like a palm tree, making it appear almost furry. They are spread out sporadically across the desert which I assume is so they don’t compete for water. But the spacing makes it seem almost orderly and planned. Or as if they trees themselves dislike being near one another. Not so much a forest but almost like an orchard, but for miles.
The moment I decided I wanted to go to Joshua Tree, I started looking up campgrounds. Good thing too, because, up until the end of my trip, I didn’t know it was also spring break. I managed to snag campsites for 2 of the nights. I had hoped on grabbing one of the first come first serve sites (there’s a ton) but even getting there Thursday night wasn’t good enough to grab one. 100% full. Thank God I was able to get those two sites at least. Both Indian Cove and Black Rock are separated from the interior of the park. You can hike/backpack into the the park, but there’s no road access. At Indian Cove, we were at campsite 9. A nice cozy little site that sits up against some huge rock formations that you can actually rope climb on the opposite side. Here’s D up on the rocks next to our campsite.
When we pulled into Indian Cove, it was around midnight. Outside temperatures were a comfy 60 degrees with a slight breeze. The sky was clear and the stars shown brightly due to the lack of light pollution. We set up our tent and left the rain fly off so we could fall asleep with the stars above.
The next day we got a late start. The drive to Jtree is pretty monotonous and long coming from the Bay Area. We made breakfast then played around on the rocks next to us. We love climbing, but we also love scrambling. You don’t need a bunch of gear to scramble. You just go out and do it and end up going places people don’t normally go.
I had a couple spots I wanted to hit up just because it was my first time in the park. Joshua tree is a clash between two different desert systems. On the east side is the Colorado Desert which has a lot of creosote bush and cholla cactus. On the west side is the Mojave Desert which features all the Joshua trees. We started our drive in from the North Entrance station and got a glimpse of aspects of the Colorado desert side. As you go further in it starts to be a bit of a blend between the two.
We stopped at Skull Rock to take some photos then took a detour on Desert Queen’s Mine road. We did the short jaunt to the view of the old gold mine. Not a whole lot to see. Then did the short hike out to Pine City. After, we headed over to the Ryan mountain trail head. I was a bit deterred from driving all the way to Key’s View and had heard that Ryan mountain had some good 360 views. The wind started picking up as we would later find out a storm was coming in. At the peak of Ryan mountain the wind was probably going 30-45mph. I attempted standing on top of the pile of rocks at the peak and physically couldn’t without getting blown down. The sound of the wind through the Joshua trees really exacerbates the intensity of the wind. Also occurs slightly before you really feel the wind pickup so its sort of like a warning.
As the sky started clouding over, we headed over to Black Rock campground, in the far west corner of the park. The sky turned black and started to rain as we were making dinner and the outside temperature tanked. Could not wait to jump inside the tent and eat our warm meal. I was also feeling a bit bummed that I wouldn’t get to enjoy the night sky. Half the park is after dark, or so they say. We sat inside our tent as the wind was giving it a thorough beating. After about an hour we started hearing people outside. The rain had the stopped. We got out and were treated to a half hour of starry sky before the next storm blew in.
The next morning it looked as if nothing had ever happened. Ground was dry. Sky was blue. Perfect day for hiking. We headed off to go hike 49 Palms Oasis. I wasn’t really sure what to expect of this hike. I kind of just figured it’d be desert until it wasn’t desert. I’ve never been to a real oasis before. All I could really recall about it was cartoons. And mirages.
The trail was in good condition. A ton of people had the same idea as us but there were times when we weren’t around anyone else. The trail inclines slowly and then levels off for a bit before dropping down into a small valley. The tops of palm trees slowly come into view. Sprigs of green on a canvas of brown. Once we got to the oasis though we pretty much couldn’t escape them. Its a pleasant place to have lunch and get out of the sun for a bit. I heard one guy exclaim that there were actually 52 palms, not 49.
Before our trip I trolled the climbing forums in search of a good, broad spectrum, climbing guide for Joshua Tree. Couple options came up. I opted for Joshua Tree Rock Climbs by Robert Miramontes. Its a general overview book with both roped and bouldering routes. Very good quality photos of the rocks and marked routes with brief beta. After the hike, we grabbed lunch then headed back into the park one more time to do some climbing. Our short climbing experience can be summed up pretty well by a passage from the climbing guide “Why go to J-Tree and flail 5.10s when you can go to Red Rock and cruise 5.12s?”. We brought the crashpad over to Broken Boulder to try our luck. D got a V1 and half of two V0’s. I got maybe 1/4 of a V0. We were pretty much shutdown. One V0 was a high ball that started off fine but made you top out on a featureless slab. The V0 I tried was unstartable by either of us. D could do the second half easily. I struggled a bit from the big moves. But that grind is part of the sport and I can’t wait to go back. I definitely want to do more climbing there.
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