Sounds of the Desert

It’s a sad day in Ohio as I step off the airplane and the first thing the air traffic dude says to me is “and where’s your coat”? It was 48* and rainy stepping off the plane in a short sleeved t-shirt, jeans and sandals. The weather matched my mood as a great trip came to an end….

It’s Tuesday, Oct 18 and I have a plane to catch. After flying all over the stinkin’ continental US (I flew from Ohio to Newark, NJ and from NJ to LAX) and sitting next to the most obnoxious person I’ve ever met in my life (sincerely… ), I finally arrive in LA at 7’ish. I walked straight to the phones to call the car rental agency to send a shuttle for me. When I tried for about 10 minutes and no one answered, I decided to head out to the shuttle pick up area. Waiting for another 15 minutes and decided to try and call again. Just as the phone is ringing I see one of the dang shuttles go past. Argh! So, I head out to the pick up area and decide to be as patient as I possibly can. Yea… 15 minutes later, the shuttle finally comes around to pick me up. I get to the rental place where the guy tries to get me to purchase insurance and then tries to get me into a bigger car that includes insurance. We go around for a good 15 minutes about why I don’t want their insurance and why I don’t want a bigger car. So… I head out to the garage to get my car and my slot is empty, but one of the car guys pulls in. He informs me that isn’t the car I’m supposed to have. Hmmm By now I’m a little upset. I head back in and get set up with a new car and head to the hotel. Finally….

The next morning I head to Rancho Cucamonga to do a little light shopping at REI. Haha… I also went grocery shopping which apparently I’ve never done before as it took me an hour and a half to complete that little task. And it was off to Joshua Tree National Park to meet up with Tarbubble and her 2 kids.

I got to JT at around 3:30’ish and was scouting out the campsites in White Tank, where I would be meeting Tarbubble and Desert Dweller. I decided on a spot and sat on the picnic table waiting for Tarbubble who I figured wasn’t too far behind. While looking around and taking it all in, I heard my first coyote. It was a lone howl and very cool. It put a smile on my face.

Tarbubble and her kids pulled in around 4’ish and had brief introductions. She, the kids and I walked down a little and scouted out the sites when she decided on a site next to mine, which happens to be the trailhead to the natural arch. It also had the loosest sand in the entire campground…. So after getting tents pitched and making home for the next few days, she, Paul (I think I’ll call him ‘Stink Bug’) and her 4 month old all went for a little hike to find the arch as the sun was starting to go down. It was a very nice little hike and the golden colors of the sun played on the rocks from behind us. We went back to camp before the sun completely set and got supper going, sat around and chatted and played with stink bugs. 

That night was extremely damp as the storm that moved through California had just cleared out of the JT area the day before. You could see evidence of washed out roads throughout the park.

The next morning was chilly, but it warmed up extremely quickly. I took my fly off my tent for a couple of hours to allow it to dry in the morning sun. Desert Dweller had mentioned that he was going to leave the day before after work and camp in the desert somewhere and try and get to camp early on Thursday morning. I hung out until around 11 and decided to head to Cottonwood Springs to do a day hike which consisted of a loop around Mastadon Peak. It was a nice little hike, but when I encountered a bush of bees, I decided it was time to turn around and head back from whence I came.

By the time I made it back to the car, it was about 2:30, so I decided to head up to Twentynine Palms to pick up some water and gas the car up. I stopped at the Cholla belt on my way up where I thought this wasn’t the best place for a cluts like me to be.Thankfully, I didn’t have any ‘run-ins’ with the cholla cacti. I turned my cell phone on when I was in reception range and Desert Dweller had left me a voicemail that morning stating that he was heading out from Tucson at 8am that morning and he’d be at the White Tank campground at around 4’ish. By the time I was finished doing my errands in Twentynine Palms, it was 3:30, so I decided to head back to White Tank and wait for Desert Dweller to pull in.

I scoped out some shade across the drive from my campsite and hung out until I saw the white truck pull in. It was 4:30 and DD came strolling in. After some brief intros, he found a spot to park his truck and put up his tent in his truck bed. It was fun to watch. 

After setting up his camp, we decided to catch the sunset amongst the rocks on the Natural Arch trail again. We did a little boulder scrambling and got close up to the arch. We also attempted to find the Tank, but to no avail. It was cool hopping around on the rocks.

By the time we got back, Tarbubble and the kids had come back from their day in JT. More introductions and we sat down to chat a little while Tarbubble made supper for she and Stink Bug. DD made a small campfire for the kids and shortly after that, it was bedtime for them. The moon had come up and we decided to go for a night hike in the desert.

It was unlike anything I had done before. Usually where I hike, the moonlight seldom breaks through the tree cover. We hiked by moonlight only and the rock formations looked completely different than during the day. It was a completely different world in the desert. We found this awesome rock that created a tunnel as it leaned against another rock. As we walked through I said something like “I wonder if there are any bats in here”. When we got back to my campsite, DD informed me that we had scared a bat out of the opening. So, we sat and looked up at the stars and watched the night sky. It was a perfect night…..

…..until about 2am when a vehicle pulled in and a couple of guys met up with another person in the campground. They were up until around 4am talking quite loudly.

The next morning, Tarbubble made the decision to pack she and the kids up and head home. Stink bug was missing his Dad. Regretfully, DD and I helped get she and the kids packed up. We took some pictures and she was on her way.

DD and I had discussed moving camp to another area in JT. So, we scoped out a couple of places. We went to Hidden Valley campground which was packed with rock climbers for the weekend, so we went to Ryan campground and snatched up the first spot we found next to Ryan Mountain and looking south into the desert. Of course, the spot we found was on a rock so there would be no staking down my tent tonight. Some strategically placed rocks kept my tent from falling over. I went flyless this night. My inner tent is all mesh, so I had complete view of everything.

After getting camp set up again, DD and I headed off to the 4WD road called Desert Queen Mine and decided to do a day hike up to the Pine City Site. Here’s some information about the site. http://shop.joshuatreeexperience.com/shop25/item-detail.cfm?ID=PCTA&storeid=14 Before reaching the site, we decided to go off trail and follow an animal trail over some hills. On the other side of the hills, we found some more incredible boulders and the Pine Spring! At least, we thought it was. The recent rains made the plants in the area green and there was just enough water in the spring to provide for wildlife. We doubled back to the trail and headed on up to the Pine City Site where we sat down amongst the huge boulders and listened to the sounds around us. It made for a very peaceful afternoon.

We started making our way back as the sun was setting and made it back to DD’s truck with about an hour of sunlight left. We headed back to our campsite where DD shared his chicken and rice with me. What a guy…. That night we decided to forgo a campfire again as it would’ve ruined the night sky. We sat and watched some hikers trying to get down from Ryan Mountain using their headlamps and watching the shadows of the cute kangaroo rats and caught what I believe was the tail end of a meteor shower from the night before. While watching the night sky, we heard a little dog in a campsite nearby start to yip and carry on and before we knew, we heard a pack of coyotes not far off calling to it and trying to lure it out into the desert.

But, the fun was just beginning. A little after 10pm, some kids drove in and found an open campsite a few spaces over from us. They were extremely loud and were all over the place for a few hours. I think they finally settled down, or passed out, at around midnight. I mentioned to DD that we should’ve just packed out to the Pine City Site and stayed there for the night. It was a lesson learned…

At around 3am, I was awakened again by the howls and yips of coyotes. It seemed like they were passing right through the campsite. I sat bolt upright. I was in awe of the sound after being surrounded by silence. They called again closer to dawn.

That next morning, we lazily got up and started getting packed up. We decided to head into Twentynine Palms for some brunch. On our way out of JT, I noticed DD was stopped at the entrance gate talking to the ranger, so I waited for him to finish. Shortly after that, he passed me and it took a little bit to click, but I figured he was asking about a place to eat. We ended up at this little family restaurant called the Carousel. It was very cute and had some great breakfast. After eating, it was time to part ways as I was heading northwest to meet up with Sequoia and finishing off my vacation amongst the big trees.

It was awesome meeting up with Tarbubble and Desert Dweller. I learned a lot from those two desert rats. The desert is truly a remarkable place and I can’t wait to get out into it again.

  My full picture album can be viewed here.