My friend and I decided to go hiking in an environment we rarely got a chance to experience during our time in California. Joshua Tree is unique because it hosts two different types of desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado. This creates a beautiful mix of vegetation and wildlife. It took a three hour drive in an unreliable car to get us to the desert location of Joshua Tree, but we knew it was an adventure worth the trip. Driving inland from Los Angeles was an interesting experience. As the palm trees faded away, windmills began to take their place. Soon, we were surrounded by hundreds of them towering over us. It was an extremely windy day so they were ferociously spinning. I felt like I was in a Don Quixote story. For a long stretch of time, those windmills were the only things that related us back to civilization. Everything else that surrounded us was desolate. This felt a bit eerie, but soon we found ourselves driving in between hills that eventually opened up to a small desert town.
Our first stop was the Joshua Tree Visitors Center located right before the west entrance of the park. There, we were able to obtain a map and information on how to get to our desired trail head. It’s also a gift shop and a place to learn about the different wildlife in the area. We then drove up the road, paid the entrance fee of $15, and found our way to the Boy Scout Trail. By this point the wind was whipping like crazy, but visibility was still high so we were intent on getting in our hike. There were little parking areas at each trail head, which was extremely convenient, and everything was labeled rather well. After finding a space in our lot we got out of the car and began our trek.
For the first half of the hike there was absolutely no one on the trail. We knew this because we had a 360 degree view of the miles of desert that surrounded us. It was nice having the trail to ourselves and really allowed us to pay attention to the different plants we saw. The Joshua Trees are an interesting species. They look like cacti with leaves, but you get this overwhelming urge to touch them because they’re so strange looking. It’s like when you eat something with an interesting taste to it. After the first bite you know what it tastes like, but you just keep eating it because it’s so foreign to you. I’m pretty sure my friend thought I was crazy for constantly touching pointy trees.
This trail was not an uphill climb, but as we got into the second half of our hike, we found ourselves surrounded by giant piles of rocks. They definitely had a mountain-esque feel to them, but the rocks had such individual features that they didn’t come together to form 
one structure. They seemed as if they were put there by a giant collecting his favorite beach finds. In actuality they came from a mixture of erosion, the build up of clay, and flash floods. As we walked deeper and deeper into the trail, their magnificence grew all around us. It’s amazing how two different sides of the same continent created such vastly different, but equally beautiful geological structures. The national park was named for the trees, but the real showstoppers were these gigantic rock piles.
Suddenly, storm clouds filled the sky. That, coupled with the strong winds and the fact that the woman at the information center versed us on how dangerous it was to get stuck between the rock piles during a rainstorm led to our decision to turn around and head back. The sky grew darker and darker as the wind whipped the sand into our eyes. A large group of campers passed by us, headed farther into the trail. I’m sure in a normal setting their smiles would look jolly and excited, but to me they seemed off their rockers. It’s one thing to hike in an area that is used to getting rain, but when a rainstorm hits the desert, it becomes a dangerous affair.
My friend and I sped up as we noticed that the majority of bugs and small critters we saw on the walk there were no longer up and about. Animals have great instincts so if you feel as if something is wrong, look towards their actions to determine what they indicate. That’s an important rule to remember for forest fires. Always run in the direction that the animals are running in. The path that we walked on was all sand so our leg muscles were screaming at us as we hurried back to our car. The temperature in the air suddenly dropped so the pressure in our ears was causing us extreme pain as well. Finally, we made it to the car. It was just in time too because as soon as we unlocked the doors and collapsed into the seats, the clouds released buckets of rain.
It’s funny, the two times I went hiking in the desert I got caught in rainstorms. Joshua Tree was the lesser extreme of the two, but they equally remind me how important it is to respect mother nature because she will show no mercy. Sometimes you don’t need to be on top of a mountain to feel humbled, all you need is to get caught in the rain.
Memoirs From The Trails 