Friday 29 May

This was always planned as an explore the park day with the next two days, hopefully, being climbing days. So having picked a camp site, pitched my tent and left a note looking for climbing partners that's exactly what I did.

Keys View

I started exploring Joshua Tree by taking the drive to Keys View, a viewpoint quite a way into the park. Although the view was pretty decent (see photos) it wasn't that exciting. Then again I hadn't really come to Joshua Tree for the touristy side so wasn't too disappointed.

Skull Rock

Next I went and visted Skull Rock so named, perhaps unsurprisingly, because it's meant to look like a skull. More surprisingly, as you can see from the photo, it actually does - I think this is probably the first time I've ever seen a rock formation that actually looks like what it's named after.

Barker Dam

It was now starting to get towards dusk but I decided that I just had time to squeeze in a short, aprroximatelty one mile, walk to an old dam. A long time previously this had been used to provide water for cattle grazing. For some reason I always like old relics like this so it was worth going and seeing, even if, as you can see from the photo, it didn't look very exciting. The walk there was pretty cool as well as it was my first walk in the desert and so a lot of the wildlife was cool and exciting.

Evening

Once I was back at my campsite I killed some time mucking about on the rocks near by before heading to bed. No one had replied to my notice looking for climbing partners so it looked like another day of exploring for me.

Saturday 30 May

After a not great night's sleep thanks to the hard ground and still not being completely used to the time difference I was up nice and early and ready to go exploring by about 8am (are you shocked? I was!).

Wall Street Mill

My first walk of the day was to an old mill where they used to process the ore that was mined in the surrounding area. Lots of old relics laying around on this walk, the first being the remains of an old windmill that had been used to bring up water. As I got closer to the mill I could see the remains of an old car and then the remains of the old mill itself as well as another old car. I liked the somewhat desolute feel to the place, especially the old cars. It's so different seeing them in that state compared to in a museum. Also nearby was a stone tablet marking the spot where the owner of a mill had shot a trespasser he'd found for which he spent some time in prision before being pardoned. All in all, rather interesting.

Hidden Valley

I next went for a walk around Hidden Valley. This is known for its climbing but also for the different wildlife found there. It really is a little bit hidden with hills / cliffs surrounding it on all sides which creates a micro-climate. The way in and and out was through a gap in some rocks which legend has it was blasted by a previous owner of the site just before the National Monument was declared.

Fortynine Palms Oasis

This was the bit of Joshua Tree I liked best although going on the mile and a half walk (each way) to get there at the hottest part of the day was probably not the cleverest thing I've ever done. The walk in is pretty much all up hill for the first half and then downhill for the second. That meant that once I had completed the first hald you could just spy the top of the trees in the oasis. This didn't really prepare me for it however. Having seen the rest of the park and indeed the walk in it came as something of a shock to see all the greenery and even stagnant water. Somehow I managed to get back to the car without dehydrating and dying!

Rest of the day

The rest of the day I spent doing ot a lot - some shopping, exploring a couple of other not very interesting parts of the park and going back to Key's View just for something to do. At the end of the day there was still no reply to my climbing partner request.

Sunday 31 May

After another not great night's sleep I got up early to go on an up-hill walk - I'd learnt my lesson from the day before!

Mount Ryan

The walk up Mount Ryan wasn't that long at one and a half miles each way but it did gain 1000ft in that time so not something to be doing in the 90 degree or more heat of the middle of the day. It was a reasonably nice walk and a reasonable nice view but again nothing spectacular.

Arch Rock

Arch Rock was only a short walk from the car pack, mainly through a campsite, so the walk in wasn't very excitng. Not to be honest was the arch. Maybe if I hadn't seen the Arches in Arches National Park on a previous trip I'd have been more impressed but it just wasn't up to that standard.

Cholla Cactus Garden

Next up I went and visited a cactus 'garden' something I hadn't been sure I was going to go and see due to it being quite a way off, however I had the time so decided to see what it was like. And I was glad I did - the photos don't really do it justice as it's hard to get a view for just how far the cacti went on far and how dense they were.

Desert Queen Mine

I still had quite a large portion of the day left and not much else left to do so I took a chance and took my hire car down a gravel road to the parking area for a shirt hike to an abandoned mine site. Again I found the mine site very atmospheric with lots of remains lying around so was very glad I did decide to visit - especially when my car got back to tarmaced roads OK.

Ryan Ranch

On a similar vein I now went and visited an abandoned mine which again was a short walk from the car although no gravel roads involved this time. It wasn't as exciting as the mine and no where near as evocative but still it was something to do.

The Evening

After visiting Ryan Ranch I went back to the campsite to find that someone had finally left me a note along with a rough location where they were going to be. Of course I didn't have a guidebook so only knew the general area they were in but I eventually found them. I was quite tired by this point from the heat and all the walking so we agreed to do a quick climb the next morning before I moved on

7. I don't find a partner for ages and when one does reply I'm out for the day so only have the chance to squeeze a single quick climb in.

Later I went back to Keys View to catch the sunset which was quite nice but not one of the better ones I've seen. I also played with taking some pictures that evening by moonlight. Some of them came out reasonably well.

Monday 1 June

Was up nice and early the next morning and even had time to go and get some more water from the entrance station and saw an interesting plant on the way. I then met up with my climbing partner who was running a little late - to be fair to him he did have his kid in toe as well.

Climbing at Last!

So I finally got climbing. Seconded a 5.7 crack in not the best style. On my first attempt my inability to fist jam quickly and well was my downfall but I did it absolutely fine. Was more than a little bit hot and ended up with a bit of a head ache from all the exertion. For those that are interested the climb was Double Cross in the Hidden Valley Campground area. Once I had finished it I headed out of the park and started towards Death Valley.