Joshua Tree National Park

Located in southeastern California about 40 miles due east of Palm Springs is Joahua Tree National Park. This park is an old friend because I used to camp here annual when I was in Boy Scouts. It marks my nineteenth national park of the year.

The Joshua Tree area has been inhabited by humans for at least 10,000 years. During the last half of the 19^th century, cattle ranchers and mining operations in search of gold began arriving in the region. By the late 1920s, the development of new roads in the desert brought an influx of land developers and cactus poachers to Joshua Tree. Minerva Hoyt, a Pasadena resident who was extremely fond of desert plants, became concerned about the removal of cacti and other plants to the gardens of Los Angeles. Her tireless efforts to protect this desert region led to the creation of Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936. As part of the Desert Protection Bill, Joshua Tree National Monument was elevated to National Park status on October 31, 1994. Today, the park consists of 792,623 acres in which three-quarters of which is designated as wilderness.

Joshua Tree National Park encompasses two different deserts – the Colorado and Mojave. The eastern half of the park, less than 3,000 feet above sea level, lies within the Colorado Desert where jumping cholla cactus, spidery ocotillo, and creosote bush survive in an arid climate. The western half of the park, at elevations over 3,000 feet, lies in the moister and cooler climate of the Mojave Desert. The wild-armed Joshua tree is truly a sign that you are in the Mojave Desert. All throughout the park, fan palm and cottonwood oasis can be found where natural springs provide water to small patches of the parched desert.

The park’s namesake, the Joshua tree, is actually not a tree at all but rather a member of the yucca species with the same vascular structure as grasses. Like other desert plants, its waxy, spiny leaves expose little surface area to efficiently conserve water. Joshua trees grow at a leisurely rate of about an inch a year and can reach a height of over 40 feet. They only grow in the Mojave Desert side of the park and you will not find a single Joshua tree in the eastern side of the park. Clusters of cream-colored flowers bloom February through April, followed by the growing of branches. Many animals make the Joahua tree, dead or alive, their home including the Scott’s oriole, red-tailed hawk, and ladder-backed woodpecker. The rock band U2 also named their iconic 1987 album Joshua Tree.

There are over 800 plant species found in the desert landscape of Joshua Tree. The yucca dots the landscape throughout the park. On the Colorado Desert side of the park, there is a large grove of cholla cactus that is a popular tourist stop. Sometimes referred to as “teddy bear” cactus, you don’t want to get too close to these cacti because they have the ability of “shooting” their sharp thorns when a creature gets too close. The manzanita is perfectly adapted to the extreme climate of the high desert. It has a distinctive red bark and develops pink and white flowers in the spring that develop into small apple-like fruits. Manzanita, in Spanish, means “little apples”. In the park’s numerous oases where there are natural springs, you will find palms, cottonwoods, and even a few eucalyptus trees.

One of the legendary characters of Joshua Tree was a man named William F. Keys who lived on a ranch called Desert Queen (Keys Ranch today). He had several ventures in the Joshua Tree region including livestock and mining operations. Between 1930-1966, he operated the Wall Street Stamp Mill to process gold ore from his mines and mines of others in the region. In 1943, Keys was involved in a shootout with a man named Worth Bagley whom he had land disputes. According to Keys’ testimony, the disputes culminated in a gunfight after Bagley ambushed Keys. The gunfight ended with Bagley dead and Keys being convicted of manslaughter and serving five years in San Quentin. Upon his release from prison, Keys erected a marker to celebrate the demise of his rival. Numerous sites in Joshua Tree National Park bear his name including Keys Point and Keys Ranch.

On my way out to Joshua Tree National Park, I stopped by a unique roadside archeological site located along the Arizona/California border. The Blythe Intaglios were discovered in 1932 by pilot George Palmer who was flying between Las Vegas and Blythe. From the air, he observed large figures drawn in the desert landscape which archeologists refer to as geoglyphs. The largest collection of geoglyphs in the world are in southern Peru where there are over 700 figures. Geoglyphs are a little bit of a mystery to archeologists because they can only be seen from the air. Some believe they were images for the Creator in the heavens, while others have suggested they suggest contact with ancient aliens who view them from the sky.

There are a total of six distinct figures at the Blythe site and I visited two of them that were easy to access with my RV. The human figure has outstretched arms and feet turned outward. It measures 102 feet head to toe and the arm span is 65 feet. The figure is male for it is the only one of the Blythe Intaglios to have a phallus between its legs. Many Native American oral histories mention mountain lions and scholars believe that is what the animal figure is at the site. The figure is 54 feet head to tail with a body measuring 7.5 feet wide. Each leg is 26 feet long with a half circle to represent its paws.