Joshua Tree N. P. - Part 1 Feb 2022

I left Saguaro SKP Co-Op at 7:10 am, Sunday 1/30/22. It was a a very nice day, temperature was around 40 degrees, and the sun was shining low on the horizon. It been a very long time since I have ventured west of Phoenix, even longer since I had been to Joshua Tree NP. Nancy & I first went there in 1995 during our three month rock climbing road trip, which was three years before we hit the road full-time. We returned in 1999 and again sometime after 2010. I have fond memories of rock climbing, hiking and one not so found memory of our Itasca motorhome rupturing a rear axle seal and “bleeding out” in the driveway of a RV Park in the town of Joshua Tree, CA. Needless to say, the owner was not pleased as we were towed to a local repair shop and then spent three days camped in a tent in the National Park, waiting for the repair.

460 miles and eight hours after leaving the Co-op, I arrived at site 60 in Jumbo Rocks Campground. It was a very nice site, but I was barely able to parallel park the truck in the site. I was pretty tired after the drive but I did manage to go for a little hike from the campground and get my 10,000 steps done. I crashed very early that night. 

Monday morning, was a partly cloudy day and I hiked up to the summit of Ryan Mountain, Elevation 5457 ft. The hike was 2.8 miles round trip with a 1000 ft elevation gain. I thought I was moving pretty slow, but did manage to summit in 53 minutes. I arrived shortly before a large group of hikers from Las Vegas. We did the usual exchange of photo taking, chatted a bit, then I slipped away to a quieter section of the summit and spread some of Nancy’s ashes. 

We never hiked this trail but the peak has a splendid view of a large portion of the park and I know she would have liked it. I hung out on top for about 45 minutes before heading down and back to the truck. The day was still young so I did some more hiking from a roadside pull off, around some boulder islands and through a mini Joshua Tree forest. 

Camping with my “geezer pass” is only $10 a night but unleaded gasoline is $4.33 a gallon in Twenty One Palms, CA, so that really offsets the cheap camping.

Monday afternoon I stopped by the visitor center to inquire about the old miner’s shack which is not promoted by the park service because it still has artifacts and is pretty intact. I described it to the ranger and said I had visited it about 18 years ago and wanted to go back. The ranger said he didn’t know what I was talking about. I hung around and looked at maps for awhile, hoping I might discover a hint or even the name of the place. At one point I was the only one in the visitor’s center and the ranger called me over to the desk and took out an old guide book. He turned to the description of the hike to the miner’s cabin and let me photograph it. He asked me to respect the cabin as well as it’s privacy. Needless to say, I won’t be naming it or providing directions to it in this post.

Tuesday morning, I set out to find the cabin. The trail to the cabin begins at a popular trailhead, but then breaks away. As I was getting ready to head out, three other people arrived. I let them get out in front before I headed up the trail. The trail to the cabin was more traveled than I had anticipated and was pretty easy to follow, especially with the guidebook pages. After about a half mile I caught up to the others, they were also trying to find the cabin. They had researched it online before coming to the park. We continued together and hoped the internet had not spoiled this pristine historic place. We found the cabin and it looked exactly as it did 18 years ago. There may be hope for our historic places after all.

The hike is only 2.5 miles round trip. I suspect it would not be pristine if the park service promoted it. The cabin was built within a pile of large boulders. It utilizes the boulders for its walls and a portion of the roof. There is a fireplace, the remains of an oven, wooden shelves with rusted cans, and even some old utensils. Part of the roof is constructed of dead boughs and flattened tin cans. There is even a six pane window. The four of us hung out for a while, then they said goodbye, then headed out,  I stayed and just enjoyed the place by myself for quite awhile before heading back down the trail. 

I drove into Twenty-nine Palms to replace the headlamp, which I dropped and broke Monday night, checked in with the outside world via my phone and then headed back to the park to hike to the Wall Street Mill and the Worth Bagley Stone. The story goes that Worth Bagley and William Keyes had an ongoing dispute regarding access to water near the claim. There was a gunfight, Worth Bagley lay dead, the dispute was settled and Keyes was sentenced to nine years in San Quentin Prison for manslaughter. There are a number of old cars and trucks along the trail. The Wall Street Mill was a ore stamping mill. Miners would bring their ore to the mill to be crushed and processed for gold. It was a three story structure, but it lies in ruins now, fenced off by the park service. 

Joshua Tree N. P. has changed as has most things, 18 years ago it was the winter location for climbers. Long before that it was the winter home for the hardcore Yosemite climbers, who put up many of the first ascents in the park. When Nancy & I climbed here, we would spend hours trying to locate routes using the guide book, dead reckoning and beta from other climbers. Now as I hike along well trodden trails I find sign posts pointing to climbs by name and rating. 

Wednesday morning, I awoke to lots of wind rocking Enzo. I must have slept through the worst of it, because when I stepped out of Enzo I discovered my neighbors had packed up their tent during the night and left. Turns out I was wrong. The real wind arrived later in the afternoon. I was pretty much wind bound in Enzo, except for a short 2 mile hike and a small wind protected hang out spot near camp. The wind blew most of the night and finally subsided Thursday morning.

After hiking the Contact Mine Trail Thursday morning, I discovered I had 5G coverage in the trailhead parking lot, so decided to post Joshua Tree NP part 1.

Tight lines and safe travels