We stayed two nights at Desert Drifter RV Park so that we could spend one full day at Joshua Tree National Park. After getting the RV set up, we drove to the nearby Pioneertown for dinner at Pappy & Harriet’s. We split a full rack of ribs, fries and Mac & Cheese and enjoyed it all! I can’t say as much for the female rock band that was doing a sound check while we were there, though. It was LOUD and not music I enjoy listening to, so I’m glad it didn’t last too long. The vibe of the restaurant was fun, though, with its rustic, log cabin interior and a lot of old photos hanging on the walls. We walked up and down the town’s Mane Street (they misspelled it, ha, not me!) then stopped at a Walmart and gas station before heading back to the RV.
The next morning we drove to the West Entrance of Joshua Tree National Park, which was 20 minutes away. After driving through and seeing the most popular sights, we left via the North Entrance then drove back to our RV.
We started with the half mile Creosote Trail that took us back away from the road and into an area with boulders and Joshua Trees. Then we did a 1 mile loop trail in Hidden Valley, which sits ensconced within a circle of huge boulder formations and was used as a hideout by cattle rustlers in the late 19th century. There’s a video below that shows us surrounded by the boulders. It was nice start to our time in the park!
After getting back to the truck, we drove to Cap Rock for a quick photo of the precariously balanced boulder. Then we drove to Keys View and walked up the short, steep sidewalk to an overlook with great views.
Our favorite part of the day was climbing around the Hall of Horrors area. There is not a well marked trail here, but fortunately, I had copy/pasted some notes and landmarks from Quirky Travel Guy to help us find the actual “hall” that we saw photos of online. (There is no cell service in the park.) We found it without too much trouble and got some fun pics. We explored a bit on the other side of the hall, but I was worried about getting turned around and not finding our way out easy enough, so convince Randy to go back the way we came. On our way back to the parking lot, we saw people climbing around on another formation, so Randy climbed up really high to get a similar pic. The last two photos in this Hall of Horrors section show him sitting on a rock high up. You can barely see him in the first one, but then I zoom in on him to show where he is.
We were both getting tired by this time, so we decided to skip the 2 mile hike to see the Arch Rock, since we’d seen amazing Arch Rocks at Arches National Park before. We got lucky with getting a parking spot at Skull Rock, so we stopped and got a quick pic there. And we drove down the short dirt road to see Split Rock since it didn’t require any hiking either. And our last stop was the Cholla Cactus Garden, to see fields of Cholla Cactus, also known as “Teddy Bear Cactus”, but they should NOT be cuddled! “The barbed spine functions like a razor-sharp blade that easily punctures skin going in but is hard to pull out because the spine catches on the victim’s muscle fibers. Once stuck, the cholla cactus segment breaks off and is given a free ride to a new location where it will begin growing as a new plant.”
And that was our day at Joshua Tree National Park! Neat place with a variety of things to enjoy and great weather!
Also, I found the Guide Along audio guide app that did a nice job of balancing facts and guidance with stories, in an expressive way that kept our interest. (As opposed to several others I tried that were way too monotoned and boring to listen to for very long.) As we drove along the route, it would pipe up and tell us relevant info, including describing possible places to stop and how to get there. We liked it so much that I bought the US Pacific Coastline Bundle that has most of the National Parks that we’ll be going to this trip — Yay!
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