This past Wednesday, while Paulette was busy with her Quilter’s Group, I took Molly and Rylie along with me for another trip to the Joshua Tree National Park. This time, however, we entered the park at the North entrance and drove south along Pinto Basin Rd. all the way down to I-10. I hadn’t been on any part of Pinto Basin Rd. during our earlier trip to the park last month.
How’d you like to be camped under this boulder during an earthquake?
An added advantage of going for a drive on Wednesday was being in an air-conditioned vehicle as the temperature was in the mid-90’s in Palm Springs. Also, because of the elevation, the temperature in Joshua Tree was about 10 degrees cooler which was quite nice when I wanted to get out of the truck to take some pictures or just walk the dogs a bit.
The Joshua Tree for which this National Park is named
We left the Sands RV Resort just after 10am and drove up the 29 Palms Hwy passing thru Morongo Valley, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree and Twenty Nine Palms before reaching the North Gate at 10:45am. The drive from the North Gate along Pinto Basin Rd., with no stops, would normally take a little over an hour. It took me close to 3 hours as I made quite a few stops along the way.
There were a lot of campers out scrambling up these rock faces
There were 3 campgrounds along the route and all were very well maintained and looked to be great places to camp for up to a 2 week limit - especially, if you happen to be into rock climbing. The campground sites were mostly tucked into huge boulder formations that offered a lot of privacy. While a majority of the campers were in tents, I did see a few MH’s and a large travel trailer tucked into sites as well.
The fact that this is fun to some, only goes to prove “it takes all kinds..”
At all of the campgrounds, which were mostly full, there was a lot of rock-climbing going on. I stopped to chat with a couple of guys who were looking at friends scaling a rock face. They kindly explained to me how they drilled holes in the face and then inserted the pins to hold their ropes so they could rappel back down to the bottom. They assured me it was all quite safe but it looked pretty terrifying to me. I much preferred a nice cool spot in the shade under one of the big boulders – it was a perfect place to watch.
One of the rare empty campsites we saw in any of the campgrounds
As we started to descend from the higher elevations down towards the desert floor, I was hoping to see a lot of desert wildflowers – but, no luck. There were signs of the flowers but it looks like it might be another week or so before they reach full bloom. We saw this a few years ago during a previous trip and it was an awesome sight – I just may go back before we leave here.
Joshua Tree NP features no end of interesting rock and boulder formations
A few miles before the end of Pinto Basin Rd. I saw a sign pointing to Cottonwood Springs so I turned left and drove about 3 miles where I found a parking lot just packed with vehicles. I walked towards the signs pointing to the entrance where a trail led down to an oasis and then continued for a few miles to the springs. It looked like a great hike, but unfortunately, it was a no dogs allowed zone, so I had to get back in the truck and we just headed for the I-10 which took us back to the park just before 3pm.
The hiking trail at Cottonwood Springs meanders down thru this canyon
By that time, Paulette was just finishing up her quilting session, so we quickly decided to head for the pool as it was just sweltering outside – 95F. We enjoyed a nice swim to cool down a bit and then headed back to our site for some reading and relaxing outside in the shade of our fiver. It was just another great day!
Have a great Friday, and thanks again for visiting!
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