Joshua Tree Exploring

Vacation Races strikes again! This is the company that, with their amazing video advertisement, had us running ultramarathons in Arizona back in March. Mike saw a cool video of a night time run in Joshua Tree National Park. We decided, sure, let's do it.

Eight months later, we flew into San Diego. We met my friend Melissa for breakfast then headed east to Joshua Tree. Mel and her husband were supposed to go with us to Joshua Tree, but had both come down with nasty colds. Rather than share those with us, they opted to stay behind and we planned dinner on our way back to Hawaii.

Since we had a spare bedroom in the Airbnb, I called my mom to see if she and my stepdad were free for the weekend since it's only a 3.5 hour drive to Joshua Tree from Las Vegas. They were! Yay! We beat them into Joshua Tree by a few hours. So, we went into the park to see what we could see.

The park is GORGEOUS! If you haven't noticed in my past posts, I love the subtle beauty of the desert. I enjoy all the different colors and creatures that go unnoticed at first glance. Having spent the past three years in the super-saturated landscape of Hawaii, it's really nice to go back to my desert roots occasionally.

A two lane road navigates park goers through groves of prickly joshua trees. Apparently these trees only grow about an inch per year. There are cool bouldery rock formations everywhere. The park is known for its exceptional rock climbing. However, after scrambling around on that rock for a few days, I'm not sure I'm ready to shred my skin on the rock faces. We'll have to come back and try someday.

We ended up at Hall of Horrors, which is a climbing spot. Mike took one look at the rocks and immediately decided the trail through them was boring. An hour later, we'd ditched our shoes and climbed all around the big boulders looking for views and just enjoying ourselves. The sun was starting to set, lighting all of the rocks and flora up in the most beautiful golden light.

We arrived at the Airbnb just as mom and Wayne were coming into town. We had dinner, played games and caught up. It was so nice!

The next morning we threw all of us into the rental car and drove through the park to the cholla garden. Cholla (choy-ya) are these cool cactus that grow super tall and prickly, but their bases die beneath them. The plant spreads when the base collapses and it builds up from all the points around it. There were warnings not to touch it since the barbs were near impossible to remove.

Afterward we visited the Ocotillo Patch, which is more of just a few of these woody brush trees here and there. It looks like several have died fairly recently.

Skull Rock is apparently one of the popular areas for boulder scrambling. It's named as such for the obvious reason that one of the rocks looks like a giant human skull. It also has some beautiful trails on the opposite side of the road.

Because I heard it was awesome, we took a short detour up to Keys View Overlook which has fantastic views of Coachella, Palm Springs and the Little San Bernadillo Mountains.

We tried to stop at Boulder Dam to see the petroglyphs, but there was absolutely nowhere to park. So many people. I gave up and it was well past lunch time anyway. Mike and I took off for the race expo to pick up bibs, shirts and a headlamp. Mom and Wayne ended up going back there for sunset and had no trouble finding parking.

The race was... maybe not what I expected. Yes, you run in Joshua Tree, but it's the town and a ways away from the park. It's on super sandy dirt roads. If you've ever run in loose sand, you know it's brutal. That's definitely not my favorite thing. However, the worst part about it was the dust kicked up by 2300 stampeding humans. I could not breathe. It hurt to breathe. I hadn't planned ahead and brought a bandana to wear around my mouth because I honestly didn't think about it. For this reason, the run was very hard. Mike was a dreamboat and stayed with me the entire run, which, of course he did in his sandals. Weirdo. We started the race at the tail end of a gorgeous sunset and finished with a sea of stars overhead. We finished the race only 4 minutes slower than my goal time. So, not bad considering.


The next morning we packed up the house and hiked the Fourty-nine Palms Oasis trail. This is a way cool three mile out and back that starts in stark dry desert and ends at an honest-to-goodness desert oasis. We loved it! The shade of the oasis was wonderful! The hike was low-key enough that our tight legs didn't bother us. They weren't really the issue anyway. My lungs felt burnt. It was like someone was sitting on my chest. On the way back, we found a desert tortise walking down the trail toward the oasis. I wonder how long it will take him to get there.


Shortly after, we parted ways with mom and Wayne and headed back to the city. As we checked into the hotel, the power went out. So, we had a room number, but no keys. We waited half an hour and finally just left for dinner. We met Mel and Ryan for Mexican food in Old Town on Dia de los Muertos weekend. It was not calm or quiet. The people watching was fabulous! Lots of sugar skulls and floral headbands. Three hours later, we finally said goodnight and went our own way. The hotel power had only been back on for 15 minutes when we returned.

Joshua Tree was amazing! There's so much there that I didn't have time to do. I would've liked to hike Ryan Mountain, Mastodon Peak, Hidden Valley, the Boy Scout Trail, and Boulder Dam. I would like to do some actual rock climbing. I highly recommend coming this time of year. The days were mid-70s with cool nights. This area is known for its incredibly hot days in the summer. Joshua Tree, we'll be back.

Disclaimer: Despite not loving the dusty night run, I still want to do every single one of Vacation Races half marathons.

National Park 15/61.