Joshua Tree National Park - The Mojave Desert

The Joshua Tree

A whole bunch of Joshua Trees

Exiting I-10, pointing the Hyundai north on California 62 was like flipping a switch. Exit California. Enter desert. Wind farms - hundreds of windmills swinging in a lazy ballet, Comfort Inn, Ramada, billboards proclaiming appearances by Cyndi Lauper; Abba; Earth, Wind and Fire and lesser lights, casinos glittering like nuggets of prospector's gold in the morning sun, traffic streaming, always traffic streaming - all this was behind me like the night.

Ahead in the bright sun lay unadorned vastness - mile after mile of rock, sand and scrub. In the emptiness, I approached a crossroads with an improbable traffic light. This had to be some joke, certainly, of a bored or disgruntled Department of Transportation bureaucrat. It was green, and I raced through without touching the brake pedal. Whew!

I passed a couple towns. No Radissons here, no Denny's, no Starbucks. Instead there was the Hat Rack Motel, the High Desert Inn, the Happy Cooker, C&S Coffee Shop, Cactus Mart (Dig your own and save!) I passed a rock shop; now there was a salesman. Behind me, in the west, lay two snow-covered peaks, visible in the days to come the desert floor of Joshua Tree National Park.

Only a day before I had driven through the central valley of California, flush with emerging avocados, artichokes, lettuce, and much more. The power switch at the CA 62 turnoff from the interstate might also have been the Off switch for the technology that irrigates the farms of southern California and the golf courses of the Southwest.

I passed the western entrance to Joshua Tree in the town of the same name in favor of the north entrance at 29 Palms. Both towns are tiny, scratching out an existence providing services to park visitors. Twenty-nine Palms has an edge; it is home to a huge U.S. Marine training base.

At the entrance gate, I received a shock in the form of a sign announcing CAMPGROUNDS FULL. The attendant reasured me that the sign was posted at six a.m. and that people were leaving in droves, not to worry. She was right. Minutes later, I was setting up camp in Jumbo Rocks campground, the largest and noisiest in the park. I had a relatively private site nestled in the boulders, only steps from a ridge where at the end of a day of hiking I could sip a Corona and study the desert.

I ate lunch and set out on my first desert hike, a good workout climbing Ryan's Peak. I had arrived.

Halfway up Ryan's Peak

The mojave desert from the top of Ryan's Peak

Day's end in Joshua Tree National Park