Joshua Tree National Park

We arrived at our campground, Jumbo Rocks, in the afternoon, and were surprised to see that our campsite had no direct access from the little four stall parking area – you had to cut through one of two adjacent sites. Awkward, but not too bad. The four stalls were labeled with little posts (in the general area of each stall -- not directly at the head) from left to right – 116, 115, 114, 113, corresponding with the four campsites. We parked in the stall closest to the 115 sign, our site. The stalls were within a five second walk from the three other campsites. This layout is important for later.

We were also surprised to see that the campground was completely reserved but no cars showed up for maybe 35% of the sites, consistently. Some parks seem to treat this differently (King’s Canyon for example, stated 24 hours of no occupancy and you forfeit the reservation), but most parks we’ve been to so far – the policy is if you’ve paid for it, it’s yours for the duration, even if you don't show up. This seems kind of backwards to me as there are people who would love to get a last minute spot, and otherwise, not having the opportunity for last minute walk-ups is a barrier to enjoying the park.

Because we had to pass through another site to get to ours the backside of our site was pretty private – easy access to the rock formations and spots to watch the sun set. Shade was once again lacking, the only source nearby being a creosote bush in the later afternoon.

After setting up camp we explored the rock formations in the area – visually similar to our first campground at Arches – although here, intrusive granite that had solidified below ground had gradually become exposed. It was here we discovered that the rock was slick. It’s all granite with very limited soil crust – so if there was some of that very fine granite sand on the granite rock -- you had, in practice, zero traction.

The next morning we drove out to TwentyNine Palms (the town to the north, where a Visitor Center is) to utilize cellular service, check the visitor center for hiking information, and fill up our water reservoir. The 2”x3” sticker for my passport book – which is usually $1.99 or $2.99 – was a whopping $4.99 here. Highway robbery!

We also did a short walk through an actual oasis, where water (historically) sprang up along the fault line and created a lush pocket in the desert for life. The spring has since dried up though so now it’s piped in… There was also a really beautiful art installation by a Cahuilla artist Lewis deSoto about a girl and boy who fall in love. And later are killed...

Back inside the park we went and hiked the Barker Dam trail – but were disappointed to see even though all the pictures showed beautiful pools at the dam– no water was to be found. The first lie of Joshua Tree.

We also stopped by the Split Rock trail, which was hot hot hot. We were pretty certain we saw a split rock, but unsure if we saw the split rock. Lie number two... After that we decided to drive back into town and cruise around to beat the heat…. grocery store, auto parts, antique shop, coffee… When we got back that afternoon we hiked over to Skull Rock, which -- you guessed it -- looked like a skull.

When we got back to camp, we saw that sites 114 and 113 were now occupied, along with four cars stuffed into three spots, with one spot left for us – but the furthest spot, near 116. This was not a big deal to us because the stalls seemed interchangeable. The big group partied a bit but thankfully we were around the corner of a rock formation from them and didn’t hear too much.

Our final day there we would do the Big Trees trail, which we had some difficulty locating and then completing, and ended up walking back on a road instead of the trail… Interestingly… there were more big trees along the road than along the Big Trees Trail. Lie number three...

We then drove over to the Cholla cactus garden, which was a particularly dense area of teddy bear cholla. You'd stand in between them and in all directions was the furry glow of their spines.

Back at camp, a red vehicle came, our new neighbors, for 116. We were pulling in to park right after the new people had apparently asked the other adjacent camps (113 and 114), who still had four cars stuffed into three spots, to move one of their cars because it's one car per campsite. They were in the process of removing the vehicle. Vitali asked the guy if he wanted us to move our vehicle (since we were in 116) and he said it was fine.

We had asked him if he wanted us to move our car one stall over, as a courtesy -- not expecting him to hassle us with moving when his car would only be 8' further away. We start unpacking our stuff from the day and the guy from 116 comes back (wearing two masks, outside) and says he's changed his mind -- so we confirm that he wants us to move.

And he responds: "Yes, yes please, I’d like to be as close to my car as possible." ... ...

So we agree to move our vehicle, one stall over. Maybe 30 seconds pass while we gather the rest of our stuff from the trunk and he shouts “Come on! Can we get a move on? We've been driving all day!”

This guy then starts berating us – "Y'all aren’t even wearing masks!" Buddy... we're outside and standing 30' away from you... I was pissed at this point and pointed out that we had to walk through his site to get to our car as a way to indicate the stalls were not really assigned... And he didn’t respond.

We moved our car and watched as they spent 90 minutes putting together their tent, so maybe they really did need their car right there...

We’ve had a handful of people rave about this park to us – it was their favorite, like being on another planet, incredible, etc., etc.

We enjoyed it, but by no means were we blown away. The hiking was very monotonous; the Joshua trees had none of the charism of the Saguaro; and the trails were mostly flat. The rock formations were super cool but not that fun to climb on considering how slick they were. 6/10, would visit again.