Joshua Tree

where we sleep under the stars, see a coyote and debated over the sound a rattlesnake makes

Once again we found ourselves up early and on the road to a campsite in a national park. This time we were headed to the Black Rock campground in the Yucca Valley, part of the Joshua Tree National Park. We stocked up on some coffee for the early morning drive and navigated our way through early morning LA roads.

The park was a three hour drive away and the traffic thinned out gradually the further we got from LA. The scenery became more and more desert-like and the temperature crept up and over 30 degrees celsius.

When we turned off the main highway and up towards the campground we were meeting very few cars and really feeling the heat, with our car’s air-con only just about managing to keep us cool. As with all our previous campsites, the sites in Black Rock weren’t reservable so we were aiming to get there early, hoping there would be plenty of free space. We were somewhat confident; from speaking with people in LA we’d heard that people often found it too hot to camp in the Yucca Valley during the height of the summer months and as it turned out, the number of free sites we found on arrival proved just that. Only about five of the forty or so campsites in Black Rock were occupied. For once we had our pick of places!

There was a little bit of a buzz going on around the camp office with a school bus of little kids being treated to a nature talk but otherwise there was seemingly no-one on duty to check campers in. Instead, we found a stack of registration envelopes, filled in our details, put in our money and dropped it in the deposit box.

We picked a nice site and parked the car under the semi-shade of a few tall Joshua trees, taking care not to park too close to them in case we damaged roots or woke up to find the arm of a Joshua dropped on our car. We just about managed to pitch the tent in the morning heat but by 11 o’clock the temperature was already really starting to climb.

In our first hour alone we saw all sorts of wildlife around the campsite, probably helped by how quiet it was. We saw lots of tiny lizards and black-tailed jack rabbits seemed to be just about everywhere we looked. Small packs of quails were the most entertaining of all, scurrying around as if they were late for something before stopping suddenly as if they’d forgotten where they were headed. As we were setting up the tent a tiny hummingbird graced us with its presence, hovering over the still collapsed tent for a few seconds, inspecting our work, before flying away once it had decided we were beyond help.

This was also where we saw our first coyote. Just minutes after the hummingbird we looked up and she/he was just a few empty campsites away, no more than forty feet in distance. It spotted us too, stopping momentarily before strolling on, seemingly not too interested in us or anything we were doing. It spooked us a little but we were glad to see it was a lone coyote rather than a pack. Still, we kept a better eye on our surrounds after that.

We also heard a strange noise in some bushes not all that far from where we were camped and we had some big debates about what exactly was making the noise. One of us was sure it was just cricket or something equally as non-threatening, the other was convinced it was a rattlesnake (update: a few nights after this we heard an actual cricket and agreed that we may have heard our first rattlesnake in the bush that day….).

Surrendering to the Joshua Tree heat

Once we had set up camp and had a bite to eat we were eager to get in from the heat. Despite parking the car in the shade it was already stifling inside and a no-go area. Similarly, the sun had heated the tent up to a point beyond comfort but it was still our best option. We draped one of the sleeping bags over the tent in an effort to deflect any more heat getting in and opened up all the vents to get the air moving through, though with zero breeze outside this was more hopeful than anything. We drank some more water, ate some salty snacks (to help avoid heat exhaustion) and then drifted off to a heat-fuelled snooze.

We woke three hours later after a not-so-good snooze. It was still unbearably hot. We went off on a 45 minute drive, only partly for the scenery but mostly to pick up more water – which we were starting to get low on – and ice cream. A gallon of water per day per person is the Park recommendation and we’d past a place that did 30c refills between the campground and the highway. It’s not a nice place to be if your water is running low so it was nice driving back with a few spare gallons, and the ice-cream wasn’t half bad either.

Back at the campsite the temperature had thankfully began to cool making it bearable to sit out without working up a sweat. We cooked a great dinner between the fire and primus (usual camp fare of beans and fire-roasted potatoes along with some slightly fancier things like bagels and vegetarian sausage)

The sun started setting over the Yucca Valley just as we were ready to eat and we saw the beginning of the famed Joshua Tree sunset as the sky started to turn orange and pink where it touched the horizon and the Joshua Trees themselves cast an incredible silhouette. Apparently, the story goes, that the Mormons were among the first to visit this area and thought the now famous trees looked like Joshua pointing to God. Whatever about the origin of their name, the sight was truly special.

Just as we were settling into the peace and calm of it all (the campsite had remained as empty as when we’d first pulled up), we heard an approaching rumble and then saw the lights of a coach as it drove into the campground. Inevitably it stopped at a spot not all that far from ours and soon it’s passengers were off and fanning out all around it. It turned out to be a Trek America group or something similar. With dusk properly on top of us they quickly went about putting out dinner and setting up their camp.

Having the sudden rush of people didn’t take from the Joshua Tree experience at all. The chatter off in the distance was welcome (not to mention it eased any worries we had of circling coyote packs). One guy inevitably had a guitar and kept a singsong going at their campfire for a good hour before his fellow travellers tired of it.

The sunset we witnessed was beautiful and worth the visit alone. With a completely cloudless sky above we took the opportunity to pull the rain sheet right off the tent and slept under the stars, with only the transparent sheet to keep the bugs out. We both woke up at different times during the night to the sound of a howling coyote calling to it’s pack all of which were right beside our tent only to drift off back to sleep after a appreciating the sight of the stars above. What a way to sleep, even the coyotes couldn’t take from that view.

We were up early the next morning feeling refreshed (though a shower would have been welcomed! No such thing here though). The day hadn’t quite heated up yet and we sat out to eat our breakfast. The Trek America coach was packed up and leaving before we finished eating and quite a few of the other campers were doing the same. It was time to hit the road for us too and after taking the tent down we were on the way. Next stop Las Vegas via the Mojave desert!

our next destination: Las Vegas ⇒