What a cool day. Nope, it was a hot day with temperatures hitting the 90’s but in another sense it was ‘cool.’ It’s another day for a hike. We’re trying to ‘hike’ our legs out these two weeks in Palm Springs since we’ll not be back for a while. And, what better trail to hike than the Lost Palms Trail in Joshua Tree National Park. We hiked this trail in 2012 so we ‘knew’ what to expect. Yeah, kinda. We remembered the good parts and forgot the long sandy wash slogs.
What we remembered was that it was a good hike: challenging, varied, fun, surrounded by rocks with fantastic shapes, and encircled by lush ocotillo and yuccas ready to burst into flower. We were right. A bit of geology and botany here: you know those are my strong subjects. Remember the San Andreas Fault? The fault lines go right through the mountains on the SW of Palm Springs the mountains of Joshua Tree. These fault lines not only encourage water to seep to the surface but also cause water to pool in certain locations. The Lost Palms Hike takes you right into one of these locations where a lush fan palm forest thrives.
But it’s not just the fan palms, it’s also the boulders which are piled in huge heaps all through the NP. These formed 100 million years ago when magma in the earth cooled, groundwater filtered through the joints to round the edges and then flash floods eroded the soil around them to create the piles that we see now. That’s Geology For Idiots - even I could understand it.
Lush fan palms, cool looking boulder piles but then, to top it all off, we were walking through gardens of ocotillos. Reminded me of the Beatles’ song ‘An ocotillo garden near the sea.’ Well, maybe those weren’t the original words.
We started out early since it’s a bit of a drive from our campground and it was going to be a hot day. We wanted to be back at the car by 1:30 or 2:00 to avoid the hottest part of the day. We were not alone at the trail head but many peeled off at the 1-mile marker when they took the Mastodon Trail up into a large rock pile. We kept going and going and going. The trail always seemed to be ahead of us even when we thought we had reached the 3.4 miles that was supposed to be the length of the trail. Look, there it is ahead of us. Haven’t we reached it yet?
But along the way we loved the views on either side of the trail. Every step took us higher and the views of the Salton Sea off in the distance got larger and better.
We loved the ocotillo gardens that we saw along the trail. Lush, green, with trunks bigger than my arm. Getting ready to burst into flowers.
And, the yuccas, the flowers on some of these are ready to spring into blossom. They will be huge. It won’t be long now. That rain that we had in the beginning of January is having its effect.
But, here is the piece de resistance: the desert tortoise. We’re hiking along through a narrow wash when Gary told me to hurry and get my camera ready. I rushed over readying the camera as I went. WOW, a desert tortoise (maybe I didn’t have to rush so much.) In all our desert hiking, we’ve never seen one of these in the wild. A real treat. We both took pictures and movies. Poor thing, he needs a good agent to get him a better fee for all the tourist pictures.
Then I looked down and saw another desert creature: hiker with Go-Pro. Oh, no, that’s his iPhone in the video mode.
‘Hey, Big Gar, should I buy you a Go-Pro to capture your adventures?’
’Naw, then I’d have to jump off a cliff.’
Hmmm.
Then we reached the Lost Palms hidden down in the canyon crevice. The trail down is a steep scramble but, if I can do it, almost anyone can. To walk among these tall stately beauties is amazing, long grasses, big boulders and these trees. The last time we were here, we took time to eat our lunch. This time, we were a bit earlier and not ready for lunch. So, we sat in the shade and just soaked in the solitude. Not many get down this far.
Time to head back. We looked at our iPhone GPS which we have every time we hike and noticed that there was an alternate trail out. But how to find it. No signs, no cairns and, because few take the trail down to the palms and even fewer take this alternate trail, there weren’t many trail indicators like broken twigs or footprints or moved rocks. We missed it the first time through but Gary checked the GPS and we backtracked to where it said the trail started and we peered up this small bouldered valley. Where in the heck is a trail? Ooh, look up there? Is that a cairn? I got out my camera, zoomed in - sure enough, it’s a cairn about 50’ up. So, cairn by cairn we headed up the hill, boulder over boulder, scrambling and using our arms as much as our legs.
Yep, I’d follow that tush anywhere, he got us down here, he’s gotta get us out.
Finally near the top, we saw some people at the top watching our progress. Is that the trail, they asked? Yes, but don’t use it. Use the other one. It’s more obvious.
At the top, we headed back down the trail to the cut-off which led to the Mastodon Peak, more a huge rock pile than a ‘peak.’ Getting up to the small peak trail is all uphill. I especially liked these steps - carved into the rock. Someone carved them so that I could hike up to Mastodon Peak and it wasn’t easy. Thanks.
Then we faced the rock. Believe it or not, there is a ‘trail’ through those rocks. Scrambling is the name of the game though. The ‘trail’ is pretty vague here and actually climbs around the back of the peak and up through small cracks between bounders. If you like scrambling over rocks, ruining your fingernails, banging your kneecap on the rocks and scratching your legs - this is the trail for you. At the end you get an awesome view and you feel like the King of the Hill. Here are our pictures: one from 2011 and one from today
The views take you from the lows of the Salton Sea to the highs of Eagle Mt. at 5350’. Hey, whose knee and foot is that? Oh, gee, Gary has to get into every picture.
Oh, oh, now you’ve got to get down - more of that fingernail breaking, kneecap banging and leg scratching. What fun.
Taking an alternate trail down, we found the Mastodon Mine, abandoned a while back but with some pieces still intact. There were approximately 300 mines within what is now the Joshua Tree boundary. This one was established in the 1930’s and operated until 1971. Faulting severed the main vein and it could not be relocated. Thus what was once a promising mine never lived up to the dream the owners had.
Here Gary is looking at the original pit which has been covered over by heavy metal ties to keep explorers safe.
Here’s where they put the ores down a chute to separate them.
Back at the car, we changed shoes and took off our packs. My skin had lots of little white specks - salt or sand - you pick. But we liked the hike as much as we had before.
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