After spending a week or so in Los Angeles and San Diego eating, drinking, and visiting friends and families, it’s nice to get back to visiting the national parks. Combine that consumption aspect with no exercise and we’re feeling that whatever improved shape we had attained through the first 4 months of our trip, has now disappeared. I’m itching to get back in a park and on a trail. We’re heading east (from San Diego) for the first time in over four months. I love San Diego. The weather is beautiful and it’s still got that SoCal laid back vibe, even though it’s quite a bit more built up now than when I was there last. Lots of memories of my brother here as well. But, it’s time to go. So we loaded up the RV with groceries, gas, and clean laundry and hit the highway. As we cruised up through the San Bernadino mountains and gained altitude, the landscape went from dry arid hills inland from the coast to pine trees and other types of greenery that was missing down below. We went from being able to see for miles over tan hills back to seeing only what was just around the bend. We wound our way up the west side of the mountains, crested the top and then started our long descent down the east side and into the California desert. Our destination was Joshua Tree National Park which is located in the Mojave Desert.

It wasn’t a surprise to find that there weren’t any campsites in the park available when we got there as it was a Friday afternoon and most national parks fill up fast. We were however, directed to BLM land about 10 minutes from the park entrance. BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land is free to camp on and after traveling a few miles down a rutted dirt road, rocking back and forth from rut to rut, we arrived at a huge open and flat space in the desert, surrounded by bare desert hills and an open sky that seemed to cover half the earth. There were thirty odd other inhabitants who were taking advantage of the free accommodations and the number increased as the evening wore on. The expanse of desert was probably about 5 or six square miles, surrounded by low hills, so our closest neighbor was about 300 yards away. The wind was starting to pick up and eventually turned into what was no less than hurricane like winds for the rest of the night. Crazy thing about the desert and these types of weather events. It can change in a heartbeat. It can be in the 80’s during the day and down in the 30’s at night. No rain for months and then flash floods that turn baked ground into swamps. It is an environment of extremes. A retired guy who lives in the area stopped by on his 4 x 4 and said the winds would probably die down later. That of course didn’t happen. He chatted with us about the importance of not leaving trash on the land and we whole heartedly agreed. Although the BLM land wasn’t trashed, it was obvious there had been some residents who didn’t subscribe to the “pack it in, pack it out” rule based on some of the papers and boxes blowing across the dry, crusted earth here. The conversation then drifted to dogs, the Vietnam war, coyotes and mountain lions, etc., until his wife called him on the phone and told him to stop talking to every one and get on home. She added that he was in trouble, to which he chuckled that that was the norm. We bid him farewell, he headed west across the desert, and we proceeded to make our dinner. The sunset was mesmerizing and as the sun bid it’s final adieu, the warm temps decided to depart as well. It quickly dipped into the 50’s and eventually the 40’s and the wind didn’t relent. It howled and shook the RV well into the early morning hours. In the dark, it was easy to imagine that we were in a fierce snow storm back east.

The desert is a deceiving place. It hides itself from you and makes you open your eyes and your senses to realize its beauty. At first, it seems barren and unforgiving. It’s hot; there isn’t any water; life is limited and hard to find with the exception of some cacti and scrub bushes. Birds, reptiles, insects, and mammals hide from the extreme daytime temps. Many are nocturnal. It’s a struggle for any living thing to just stay alive. It has a way however of slowly winning you over. You look up and may see for the first time, a sky so wide and clear and cloudless, save for maybe an occasional cloud that got lost and drifts aimlessly until it disappears, that is so big and blue that you may actually start to realize how big this planet that we live on actually is. You turn from horizon to horizon. You breath slowly as the blue sky that is spread out before you has a distinct calming effect. A person can think here. It’s quiet. You can think about anything you want. Your thoughts come easy. And maybe part of it is due to the lack of distractions in the desert. It’s a simple place this desert. Thinking can become a relaxed priority. It’s easy to become introspective. Lots of things make sense. The desert can do that to you. The more relaxed you become, the more you connect with the deserts subtleties. You feel the sun warming you and the cool October breeze cooling you. And then you start to notice the different cacti and scrub bushes that make this environment their home. The rocks and boulders that make up most of the landscape are piled all about you, forming hills, mounds, and piles as if someone had deliberately placed them as such, interspersed with large areas of flatness. There are boulders the size of buildings and others the size of cars and they are a playground for anyone who enjoys climbing. And then you start to notice the colors. The tans and blues and greens. So complimentary these earth colors. And when you look closer, you notice that the distant hills contain pinks, and purples, and blues and greys, and yellows. It’s so much more than tan and brown. And as you hike up desert trails, you notice the sound of your boots as they crunch the sand and rock and dirt beneath it. Each step is that dry crunching sound that is so different than the pine needle covered trails we have spent so much time quietly hiking along in the Rockies and Sierras. I suppose that Mojave isn’t any different than the other environments we’ve been hiking in. Nature requires you to take your time and open your senses to all that is around you. Take your time. Engage it. Smell the air. Feel the breeze. Feel the sun. Gaze at the stars. Look out over the valley’s below. Wonder at the peaks reflected in bodies of water. See the colors and the play of light. Listen to the birds and insects. Touch the tree’s. Touch the ground. Touch the rocks. Get out in it. Open yourself to all that is around you and become a part of it. That is what ties us to nature and being in the desert really isn’t any different. Every ecosystem talks to us in it’s own, mesmerizing way, including the desert, and that is what makes this journey we are on, so remarkable and fulfilling.

JOSHUA TREE ECOLOGY (To Follow)