I miss camping in the desert. Who wouldn’t with a campsite like this? It may have been one of our most epic campsites, ever! This isn’t the last of the amazing campsites that made up this particular road trip either. For a sneak peek, check out the Campsite Photos page that includes almost every campsite where our Eureka! Sunrise has ever spent the night.
This post is full of desert eye candy. Be sure to read the captions on the photos!
Day Six: Part One
Tuesday, June 4th, 2019
Joshua Tree National Park
Hidden Valley Campground
Our second morning at Joshua Tree National Park started at 6am with puttering around camp for a bit, taking photos and getting organized to leave. I couldn’t help but take lots of photos of our tent in this site. Looking at them now, it’s kind of funny how not flat that site was and we didn’t care! We had the tent situated so we could sleep with our heads higher and it worked out great.
Our view from the tent featured a few Joshua trees and some rocks. When we stopped at the visitor center the day before, we talked to a ranger and when we mentioned what campsite we were in, she told us we could take a hike from our campsite on the social trails. We decided that would be our plan for the morning!
This is a view of our campsite and neighboring site, from the start of our hike away from the campsite. We saw the neighbors climb partway up the rocks nearest their site, but we didn’t have a way to get up that high from ours. Our group photo above was about as high as we could go and we could see pretty far, even from there.
Joshua Tree Wilderness
According to the label the Gaia GPS app gave our hike when I saved it, we hiked in the Joshua Tree Wilderness. Our little wander through the desert felt like a real adventure. There was no marked trail, no cairns to lead the way, and no signs anywhere. There were footprints that seemed to be everywhere…and lead nowhere.
We knew where we started from and I could see our track from the previous night. We knew we were never at risk of getting lost, but it felt like you could get lost easily among the giant rocks and weird trees if you didn’t know what you were doing. I was glad to have learned about tracking our hikes because that allowed us to explore somewhere we maybe would not have thought to explore otherwise. There’s no way I would’ve trusted us to find our own way back to our campsite through this maze of rocks and trees without tracking where we started!
I’m thinking that tall plant is a yucca. In doing a little research, I learned that some varieties of yucca can grow up to 12 feet tall. We can grow yucca plants in South Dakota, but they just grow the short tuft of spikes and die off in the winter.
I never imagined there would be so many colors and varieties of plants in the desert. I love the color palette with pops of gold mixed with the sage green, hints of pink, and desert tan. The textures are interesting, too. The rocks are rounded and contrast with the spiky yucca and whatever that webbed-looking gold stuff is. There was a new scene around every pile of rocks.
We had the whole area to ourselves, which also felt adventurous for us. It’s one thing to take a hike on a trail that’s all spelled out for you and has plenty of people on it, but another thing entirely to make your own path, alone in the desert. It was exciting!
We hiked for a while and eventually met up with some familiar rocks from the night before. I had been watching the GPS track we were making, so we wouldn’t get too far away. Eventually, the new track lined up with the previous track as we joined the trail that goes around the campground.
I love all of the prickly pear cacti we saw. The buds look so…juicy…for something found in the desert. I also thought it was interesting that there were pink and yellow flowers mixed together in the same little patch of cacti. I’m assuming when that happens, it’s more than one plant growing together. There are many varieties of prickly pear and they bloom in several colors.
The Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park are all so unique and interesting to look at, but I think the rocks really steal the show.
We followed the path around the outside of the campground and then went back to our campsite to pack up. This was such a fun little hike. According to my Gaia GPS stats, we hiked 1.81 miles that were a relatively flat 31 ft of elevation gain. It took us a little over an hour, but we stopped a lot for photos and did two sets of group photos where I set up my tripod and used the self-timer
One Last Look at Hidden Valley Site #44
This was such a great campsite! We were far enough away from any neighbors to enjoy the peacefulness, but close enough to feel the safety in numbers. It’s definitely not the flattest campsite for a big tent, but the slope wasn’t bad with the tent turned just right. That picnic table was pretty useless at such an angle, so I’m glad I was not into camp cooking or that would’ve been a troubling spot to put a camp stove. Our campsite even had a pit toilet that didn’t smell horrendous on the other side of the loop for the two campsites. If conditions were all the same, I’d camp here again!
We departed Joshua Tree National Park going toward the town of Joshua Tree, so we could see more of the famous trees on our way out. The drive from the Oasis Visitor Center had been rather underwhelming when we arrived at the park two days before. We wanted to end on a high note and stop at the visitor center to finish off the junior ranger books.
When we arrived at the Joshua Tree Visitor Center, it was packed with people and we would’ve needed to stand in line for quite a while to talk to a park ranger. The line for the gift shop was much shorter, so we shopped for t-shirts to commemorate our time at the park. We found some shirts, but the park ranger line had not diminished, so we decided to try the Oasis Visitor Center instead.
That turned out to be a great choice because the place was almost empty! We didn’t wait long to visit with a park ranger, who said he rarely gets out of his office to do Junior Rangers, but he was happy to go over the books. The kids earned their badges and I asked about visiting Mojave Preserve. Our ranger was super helpful with information on what roads to take to get there.
On our way out, I spotted a shirt I liked better, so I exchanged the one I bought earlier. The volunteer who rang me up told us we had a rare experience earlier with the ranger who did the Junior Ranger pledge with the kids. As it turns out, he was the park superintendent! The volunteer said he doesn’t usually do Junior Rangers, so we got the special treatment that day! How fun! Now it was time to hit the road!
Thoughts on Joshua Tree National Park
Was Joshua Tree National Park worth the long drive from the midwest? I think so. We had an amazing time in a place that’s completely different than anywhere else we’ve ever been. The nights in our tent were peaceful. It wasn’t the darkest sky we’ve ever experienced, but we could see the stars and a little of the Milky Way. We visited in early June in order to avoid extreme temperatures and enjoyed gorgeous weather!
But would we go again? I’m not sure. At the time, it was a bucket list park, and now we’ve seen it. It’s been five years since we’ve visited, but I don’t find myself wishing we could go again. There are much closer places to soak up the desert sun. It feels like a once in a lifetime kind of place, especially when we enjoyed our time so much…if that makes any sense?
Mojave Trails National Monument
Once we were on the road, our route looked pretty much like this for several hours. I don’t think I have ever driven on a more desolate road. Thankfully, we were not alone out there. The folks with California plates passed us like we were standing still.
I didn’t know it at the time, but the road where this photo was taken was in the Mojave Trails National Monument, with the Cleghorn Lakes Wilderness to the left and the Sheephole Valley Wilderness to the right. There was a lot of nothing out there.
To Be Continued…
We’re only halfway through this day and I have so many photos to go, so I decided to break this day into two posts. We’ll meet back up in the middle of nowhere to continue on this journey next time. We have a six hour drive to our next campsite, with lots to see along the way!
Until next time…subscribe if you haven’t already. Hit the little heart if you enjoyed the post. Leave a comment if you’ve ever visited Joshua Tree National Park! Share this travel blog with someone who loves road trips!