Joshua Tree National Park is on the eastern part of southern California and sits at the junction of the Mojave and Colorado deserts. The Mojave desert is the higher of the two deserts and sits above 2000 feet. With Joshua Tree National Park you can find the border when the flat southern Colorado desert hits the hills of the northern Mojave desert.
Today I am going to talk about the Mojave Desert area in the north part of the park and on Sunday I will tell you about my favorite parts on the southern end of Joshua Tree National Park in the Colorado desert. Besides enjoying this national park so much the main reason I am splitting into two blogs is because I have so many photos I want to share with you it will take two blogs. 🙂
The northern part is a good place to start because this is where you find the trees the park is named after. The Joshua tree is part of the yucca family of plants and can live 100-1000 years. They reach a height of almost 50 feet and have roots that go down up to 36 feet. Supposedly these curious looking plants get their name because Morman settlers thought they looked like Joshua when he keeps his hands reached out to guide the Israelites in their conquest of Canaan as found in Joshua 8:18–26.
Besides the Joshua Trees themselves I really enjoyed hiking at Barker Dam, because there are some old abandoned mines that you can check out. I found one that had the old equipment, several cars, mine shafts, and so much more. It was so cool to explore and find out what else I could find from miners of yesteryear who would have been so far removed from civilization at that time it would take a week or more to get back.
Some other cool spots in the northern part of the park are:
Keys View where you can have an incredible view from almost a mile about sea level. This is a great spot to watch the sunset from.
Hidden Valley sits in the middle of the northern part of Joshua Tree National Park and is where cattle rustlers use to hang out.
Jumbo Rocks is one of the giant rock formations that is very popular for climbing, camping, and hiking. A heads up for you, just to the east of Jumbo Rock are some more rock formations that you might have to yourself. Also make sure you look for Skull Rock!
These do not include all the hiking trails there are to do or the southern half of the park which I will tell you about on Sunday. In the meantime keep coming back so you can see the “photos of the day” took and will share the next couple days.
