I know, that's a
duh statement. But I've never been to the Mojave Desert so when my mom and I planned a trip to Joshua Tree National Park we didn't know exactly what to expect.
It's hot.
As in, 90+ degrees in November. I don't know what would possess any person to visit there in the summer. Yeesh. After spending two days there, I amended my mental list of the top 5 worst ways to die to include "being lost in the desert".
On a happier note, we loved our trip! Two days was perfect for this park. Our first hike included the Lost Horse Mine for a few reasons:
1. We had never seen a mine - abandoned or otherwise.
2. This was a longer trail that would give us a thorough introduction to hiking in the desert.
3. The possibility of seeing desert animals. New wildlife!
Well, we learned several things. October and November are high season for tarantulas -
WHAT THE HELL? I didn't even know tarantulas lived there.
Also, we took for granted the accurate trail markings and map routes from our other national park experiences. The Joshua Tree map is complete crap. It's like a "generally you can find the trail in this area" sort of deal, with no landmarks and a few dotted lines. So we squinted at it occasionally and followed other footsteps in the sand. Because the entire desert looks the same.
Once we found the Lost Horse Mine, it was pretty cool. There is still a fence around it because the main mine shaft hasn't been covered, but it functioned in the 1900s as a gold mine. One of the main real life questions I had while hiking to the site was, how do people locate these areas to mine? How do they determine where to set up shop? This was literally in the middle of nowhere.
Next on the list was Hall of Horrors. This wasn't on the map (because
nothing is on the map), but we passed it on our way to the mine trail. With a name like that, we felt obligated to go. This is around the time when I had gone through about half of my water and was envisioning how bad it would be to be lost in the desert. I was still thirsty after a liter of water, but had to ration it so I didn't die of dehydration by 1 pm. Hall of Horrors was great! There were so many climbing opportunities!
"I think my ass is stuck":
On a whim we stopped at the Barker Dam trail. It's weird how luck and timing can sometimes create the coolest experiences of the day. As we walked along, a woman in front of us started yelling to her group to come and see "the deer". Yeah ok, I'll go see the deer too.
Are there deer in the desert? I thought as I walked faster. Then she added "You're going to miss the big horned deer!".
Wildlife recognition fail.
She meant: BIG HORNED SHEEP! They were staring at us from the nearby rocks. This was one of my most sought after animals at every park we've ever been to and they were just standing there. Cool!!
Day 2:
We had thoroughly explored the northern portion of the park so we went south for Day 2. I brought more water. The map highlighted a stop at the Chollas Cactus Garden on the way down so we decided to stop and check it out.
Garden may not be the right word.
The trailheads at the southern end of the park culminate in one spot, and it's like a "choose your own direction and fate" book. Because of the severe lack of trail markings we avoided the 8+ mile Lost Palms Oasis trail. It sounded like an invitation for a helicopter rescue. We went with the Mastadon Peak trail as an alternate. Also, there was supposed to be another abandoned mine out there.
After about a mile or more of hiking in, here is the sign for where to find the beginning of the loop trail. I am so confused. There is no visible trail in that direction.
We just ended up following other people's footprints again. Who knows how old they were. EVERYTHING LOOKS THE SAME.
The top of Mastadon Peak!
We searched and searched for the Mastadon Mine, but after an hour we couldn't find it. On our way down, my mom saw some timbers out of the corner of her eye and it ended up being the mine - tucked around a corner and not visible from the trail. But really, who knew if we were even on the trail.
Our final suggestions:
*Visit Joshua Tree National Park!
*Bring water! A lot of water. My big blue hiking bag was full of water and food.
*Include a compass and a flashlight. Trail markings are not great and the sun sets at 4:30 pm. At one point, when we were hiking down from the peak, we were following footprints and found cattails in the low desert. This was
not right. We would have remembered cattails on the way up so we were in a different location and had to hike back to elevation to find out where we were. Paying attention to our surroundings and local landmarks kept us from getting lost.
*Climb on some rocks. It's good for you.
