Lost Palms Oasis, Joshua Tree National Park

 

Although the image of Joshua trees probably comes to mind when you think of Joshua Tree National Park, there are actually five native California fan palm oases in the park. For our last hike with Suzanne before we went our separate ways, we decided to hike the trail to Lost Palms Oasis at Cottonwood Spring, just 7 miles from our campsite.

In the southern portion of the park there are no Joshua trees at all, as this is the Colorado Desert (part of the Sonoran), not the Mojave, which is the higher desert where Joshua trees grow. But the scenery is still beautiful, with lots of rocks and colorful blooms.

And if you only want to walk a short distance from the parking lot there is a smaller fan palm oasis near the start of the trail at Cottonwood Spring.

Looking back at the oasis towards the parking lot.

We were here at a good time as so much was in bloom.

Ocotillo.

Yucca and more ocotillos.

My favorite, the sand blazing star.

Desert globemallow.

Mojave astor.

The rocks were nice to look at, also.

Zipper rock.

Dead fish rock. See the spine?

There were quite a few birds, including this phainopepla. or silky flycatcher. Not the greatest photo but I like how you can see his crest. They also have a very pleasant call.

Jim has been playing lizard whisperer lately. Doesn’t this Blaine’s horned lizard have great camouflage? Sadly, due to increased temperatures and decreased rainfall they are being pushed out of their range and may eventually vanish from the park.

A face only a mother could love.

Many of the cacti were beginning to bloom, like this silver cholla.

Barrel cactus.

And beavertail cactus.

This is a fairly long trail, about 3.5 miles to the palm oasis overlook, with lots of ups and downs, but nothing too strenuous.

There’s the Salton Sea again.

Then we finally arrived at the view of the palms.

Jim and I actually hiked this trail back in 2010, but neither of us remembered it except that when we got to this point we turned around and didn’t go all the way down to the palms. This time we were going all the way, but it felt like a long 0.2 miles down the steep rocks to get there. This is the worst part of the trail.

We finally made it down among the palms, which are numbered at over 100, but who’s counting.

We just admired them and listened to the wind rustle through the palm fronds. Did I mention it was another windy hiking day? Seems we haven’t been able to get away from it lately.

                          

Here’s a goofy selfie. Jim, Gayle and Suzanne.

It was another good day on the trail, and after we got back had the pleasure to meet Alex and Ellen, fulltime RVers who were parked just down the road from us. Then a green Lazy Daze pulled in belonging to Nancy (Wish You Were Here!), who we haven’t seen since last summer in Colorado. She and her dog Dolly were taking her daughter back to college and just pulled in for the night. It was nice visiting with everybody.

The following day we said our goodbyes to Suzanne and made the 80 mile drive full circle back to Jojoba Hills. As you might have guessed, we’ve temporarily put up our hiking boots and cameras in exchange for pickleball paddles. So far it’s been great fun.

Slots and Ladders

 

On Tuesday we hooked up the car and took the long and winding road from north to south through Joshua Tree National Park. Our destination was the south overflow camping area on Cottonwood Springs Rd just past the south entrance, about a mile north of I-10. The sites aren’t very level, but it’s free and convenient, and we have good 4G Verizon, which you don’t get inside the park.

When Suzanne was at Jacumba a few weeks ago she emailed and asked if we had heard of the Mecca Hills Ladder Canyon hike, as one of the hiking club members there recommended it. I was familiar with the name and had wanted to hike this slot canyon when we stayed at Lake Cahuilla in La Quinta several years ago but we never got around to it. I saw that the trail started just 20 miles from the south Joshua Tree overflow area, so we put it on our list.

The drive from here along Box Canyon Road is lovely. After 15 miles it’s a right turn onto the unpaved washboard Painted Canyon Road for another 5 miles to the huge trailhead parking area, which surprisingly was nearly full. Guess some schools are still on Spring Break, as there were quite a few families. We were a little disappointed as we thought on a weekday there would hardly be anyone else there, but after the first canyon we only saw a couple other people.

After entering the high-walled canyon in about a quarter mile we came to a not very visible sign pointing out a trail to the left.

There is also a giant rock arrow in the sand, but we almost missed both.

By the look of this rock fall it  just didn’t look like there was a way into a canyon but there was no one else around to ask so we gave it a try.

This might be the way.

We lost sight of Jim so figured we’d better follow him.

We knew we had gone the right way when the first of many ladders appeared. I am not keen on climbing ladders, but with our recent ring climbing in Mojave I was up for the challenge.

But there are other challenges more difficult than the ladders along the way.

Slots and more ladders.

In some places they ended a bit short of the top, which made it even more challenging.

At the top of one of the ladders we encountered sweet little Mila, a very friendly girl. I watched her mom hand her off to dad after he got on the ladder to go down. No way could I hold a dog and climb down that ladder. I could barely move my hand to the next rung!

More slots.

And another ladder before the end of the slot.

After exiting the canyon we walked along a ridge for over a mile while overlooking the Mecca Hills and the Salton Sea.

The trail then takes an abrupt turn down into Big Painted Canyon.

Don’t know if it’s called Painted Canyon because of the variety of rock colors,

Or the places where it looks like someone flung paint all over.

Jim found a big handsome chuckwalla crawling around the rocks but wasn’t quite able to get his whole body in the photo.

We found an interesting looking side canyon with the tallest ladder yet, so we went to check it out. Jim and Suzanne climbed to the top but it was a bit too high for me so we continued on the main canyon.

As it was we came to two more ladders before we got out of Painted Canyon. This one not only was difficult to get down to, but there was a swarm of bees just above it. They were all flying around Jim as he was headed down.

The bees were all congregated in one spot on the ground, which we had to go by in order to get to the ladder.

Suzanne and I tried to stay as far away from them as we could, which made it even harder to reach to the ladder.

I hate bees even more than I hate ladders, but we all made it down without getting stung.

The final ladder was short and sweet, and although they made the hike more unique and memorable I was glad to be done with them. Kudos to whatever hiking club it was that installed them so people like us, who aren’t climbers, are able to explore these beautiful canyons.

We hiked a little over five miles, but with the ladders and walking through sand much of the way, it felt longer. We would definitely recommend this hike if you find yourself near Mecca, CA.

Next up, one more Joshua Tree hike, then a little hiking hiatus.