The view from the parking lot to the southeast.
My coworker who is a wildflower enthusiast organized a trip to Joshua Tree to look at the wildflowers that were in abundance as a result of the record rainfall southern California received this winter. Keith described it a 100 year bloom.
Jonathan and I got up early, and after a breakfast at Denny’s, drove from Pasadena out to Joshua Tree National Park, about a 2 to 2.5 hour drive out interstate 210 and 10. As we drove past Palm Springs, swarms of painted lady butterflies crossed the interstate, leaving a very bright yellow mess on the windshield of the car. The rains and the blooms were beneficial for these insects providing much pollen for their consumption. Leaving the interstate we drove northward into the park where the road on either side was ablaze with pale yellows, golden yellows and blue purple. Would you believe we didn’t even stop to snap one photo of the scene? I guess we were so determined to get to the visitor center where we were to meet the others in our party. Would you believe we didn’t even wait? We were really anxious to try the trail to the Lost Palms Oasis, so we drove out the road to the parking lot (which was full) and parked the car on the road.
The trail starts at Cottonwood Spring and heads off in a southeasterly direction for about 3.8 miles to the Lost Palms Oasis. As we starting hiking out to the oasis we stopped frequently to take pictures. I had used my income tax refund to buy a new 8 megapixel camera, an Olympus C8080, to replace my older Olympus D400 series that I used in Chile. Applying the lessons learned there, I also bought 2 large (512MB) cards to use so I set the image size at the maximum for JPEG, 3264 x 2448. The C8080 can accommodate two cards, and xD picture card and a CompactFlash card – both of them are 512MB so the camera has 1GB of memory available. I also bought (or had Jonathan buy for me) a polarizing filter to help cope with the bright sunlight we were going to encounter on this hike.
So we dawdled down the path stopping every couple hundred yards to snap pictures of things that interested us. In retrospect, if I wanted some really good photos of the wildflowers, I should have gotten down on my belly to get them. As it was I would kneel to get closer and use the zoom to do the rest.
We continued our way down the path which sometimes seemed to disappear, although it was easy to follow the footprints of the hikers that had passed before us. The initial path was relatively flat, but after a mile or so, started to dip into ravines and washes making the walk much more interesting (and strenuous).
The view from the parking lot to the southeast.
Rock formations.
A desert flower
Closer look.
Another wildflower.
Jonathan taking photos.
The trail winding its way through the desert.
The trail passes an ocotillo.
More rock formations.
Looking back towards the trailhead.
More rock.
Mixed wildflowers.
Another shot of the same.
Posing Mr. Lubin.
He does it again.
Down in the ravine.
He was there too.
The trail winding up the hillside.
The far view as we approached the oasis.
Looking down into the oasis.
The far view taken from above the oasis.
Another view down into the oasis.
Down in the oasis where we ate lunch.
The view up towards where I took the "far view" photo.
After about 2.5 hours, we reached the oasis, which lies at the bottom of a canyon. The climb down into the oasis was the most precarious of the hike being very steep. At the bottom was two dozen or so people spread throughout the oasis taking in the scenery. We located a suitable place to sit down and had our lunch that we brought with us.
After gathering our energy we scaled the trail back out of the canyon, pausing at the top the wheeze a bit. Our cameras remained in our daypacks on the way back. It was fascinating the difference between the mentality of getting to the oasis, where we had never been, and hiking back to the parking lot, where we had. Our pace was quicker and as we didn’t stop for any pictures, we made good time, about 2 hours, returning to the car at about 3pm.
When we got there, there was a note from Keith letting us know where he was taking in the wildflowers. Both of us were tired and wanting a shower, so we hopped into the car and drove back to Pasadena. Once there and suitably showered, we made our pisco sours to toast our hike in the desert with the wildflowers.