The photo I wanted to upload is a little too large and I don't have time here in the mcdonalds in Arizona to resize it. Check out Facebook.com/beanart to see it! It's a pretty awesome one, not oging to lie!
We made it to Joshua Tree by midnight on Thursday night, parked on a side road inside the park and slept yet another night in the car. The entrance was free here after hours as well... I guess we know how to get into parks for free now, just come at ridiculous hours of the night. Simple enough, right? It's warm here. Very warm. Friday it hit mid 60's and yesterday it was lower 60's. The nights are much more comfortable as well, reaching close to 40 degrees. Still not ideal, but certainly better than what we've had to deal with before (15 degrees in Arches NP). Friday we spent the day just exploring this enormous playground of rocks. It's quite bizarre actually, there are massive piles of rocks and boulders on top of one another, forming an out of place mini-mountain of rock in the middle of a desert. There are dozens of these unique rock formations too, all for us to climb and play on. It's just phenomenal to say the least. The Joshua Tree is the funniest looking tree I've ever seen. It looks as though someone crossed a palm tree with some sort of conifer tree. As a sapling it literally looks like a large pineapple, but as it grows up, the bark starts to turn into something more like a pine tree or maybe even like a maple tree. The leafs are spiny, tough and yet succulent, but look like the leafs to a palm tree. It also seems as though they have no rhyme or reason to the way they grow. There are tall ones that look like giraffe necks and just one poof of leafs at the top, then there is the lush Joshua Tree with many branches spreading out wide and full. Then once in a while you'll see a Joshua Tree growing at a 90 degree angle, and bending down back toward the ground as though making an arch. They're very fascinating.
As we were climbing and exploring the rocks, we would come across crazy caves and holes in the formations, some bigger than others. We found one that went deep into the formation. We climbed under, over and around boulders, but finally found ourselves in a beautifully constructed cove deep inside. It had it all, a small doorway, just big enough to fit a human body through, a tall ceiling, even stocked with a natural skylight. The ground was flat with sand that wasn't TOO cold, and a corner that would be perfect for a fireplace. It was begging to be camped in we decided. I must stop and say how disgusted I was to find broken glass everywhere throughout the park. It very well might be an unspoken law of the hippies to smash beer bottles whenever visiting the park. Glass just everywhere. Carrying on, we continued playing on the playground until dusk, when we parked the car inconspicuously at a campsite along with other "campers" and made our way into the back-country with our packs on our backs. I carried nothing more than a small sack with food, my 30 degree sleeping bag, a tripod and my camera. Doesn't sound like much, but when you have to walk more than a mile to the campsite, climbing up and over rocks with all that strapped to your back, including the thread like straps of the sleeping bag and nap-sack cutting into your shoulders, it's more than just a chore. Once inside the cave we set up camp, or lack thereof now that we didn't have a tent. We collected wood and started a fire and proudly chilled in our newly acquired cave-home. The night was more than comfortable, the cave did a good job of retaining heat while removing the smoke out the natural chimney/skylight. First night I slept the whole night without waking up more than 3 times. Success? I think yes.
Saturday we spent the day exploring the park further, we visited an abandoned gold mine, which was technically blocked off from the public, but there were many access points which me and Chris took full advantage of. There were about 6 entrances, it took us several tries to find the main entrance that would take us further than 20 feet before a dead end. Once found, we began our spelunking. Heights is my phobia, though I'm beginning to get over that fear ever since climbing angels landing which you can read about in earlier posts. Chris' fear is being in tight spaces, or claustrophobia. The mine was PERFECT for overcoming that fear! I personally had no problem squeezing through dark, cold spaces just big enough for a human body, Chris on the other hand refused to do so. The mine winded back into the heart of the mountain at least 150 yards, equipped with everything from supports, braces and even a railroad track for carts. With a dull and cheap flashlight, we made out way all the way until we hit the dead end. Quite often I would turn the light off just to freak Chris out. It worked well I must say and I got kicks and giggles from it. If not for a flashlight, returning to the entrance would be near impossible. It was the kind of dark, where you weren't sure if your eyes were open or closed. Oh I almost forgot to mention what we found just about everywhere in the mine! MORE GLASS! In case you were worried, we made it out of the cave just fine, didn't even encounter bats of a crazy hermit with a shotgun. Imagine that.
Joshua Tree National Park has easily been the most entertaining park we've been to yet. Zion NP was easily the coolest place I've ever been to, but Joshua tree provides so much free reign and freedom. It's much more chill than other national parks and don't restrict you from nearly as much. This obviously creates a much more enjoyable atmosphere. Last night, Saturday night, we slept under the stars aside a warm fire, and this morning we're gonna start yet another day exploring the unexplored!
Next stop Saguaro NP
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