Desert Suite

A 5-part series from my recent Mojave/Sonoran desert trip in chronological order:

Antelope Valley Part I
SuperNatural
Palm Springs
Coachella Valley Preserve
Lost Palms Oasis of Joshua Tree

You can use the links above to visit my desert posts or scroll down and find them the usual way.

Lost Palms Oasis of Joshua Tree

March 21st, 2006

Tuesday afternoon and I'm done with the conference. Now the conference was actually all it should have been: reinvigorating and educational but I'm still all washy to get out on the road. I hit the 10 and make straight away for the South Entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. I've decided to forego the northern area where the rock formations may be more interesting in favor of the Ocotillo and Cholla that I haven't seen since 1991. That was when I travelled to the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and Mexico with my then girlfriend (now Wife) Pam as part of the legendary Man and the Natural Environment (MNE) program at CSU Fresno.

Speaking of Pam, I was supposed to call her before I went dark and started my overnight wilderness hike. The facilities at Joshua Tree National Park are nothing like the facilities of Yosemite National Park or Sequoia/Kings Canyon. Get that clear in your head before you visit. There are no phones in the park. Seriously. Not that I'm complaining. Time without phones is a real vacation. But it's helpful to know before you visit.

So while I am hoping to hike in 3.5 miles, make camp and get to the Lost Palms Oasis before dark, I am forced turn around from the visitor center and head back to the highway where I can get cellular reception.
Whispy charcoal streaming clouds ghost me for a couple of miles as I drive to the trailhead and worry me about my stay for night. I haven't been backpacking for a while either (since 2000 and never in the winter) so I am not sure my tarp seals will hold up to a blast of rain. The trailhead has a few cars and visitors. There are quite a few tourists crowding the Cottonwood Springs Oasis at the trailhead but once I leave the Springs behind it's all me. Even the clouds have left me alone.

It's good to be back in the desert with all these strange creations. If you've never seen Jumping Cholla you're missing out. It is especially beautiful when backlit by the sunrise or sunset because of the dense, slightly transparent light-colored spines But if you've never felt a Jumping Cholla you are very lucky indeed. Back in MNE I remember having my own introduction to the plant.


We had been warned at the beginning of a 2-week field trip to stay away from the plant which is said to 'jump' because it seems you don't even have to touch a plant for the cactus pieces to get stuck in your clothes and skin. One expert rates the cholla at number 14 on the world's top hitchhiking plants and undisputed number one most painful hitchhiking plant on account of the hundreds of microbarbs that get caught on their way out of your body (picture velcro from hell).

I was wary the full fortnight in the field and was proud to have picked up no travelling succulents. Until the last day. Our van got stuck leaving our desert campground and I took the opportunity to relieve myself before we hit the open road. My own sense of privacy was my downfall. On my return from my distant desert lavatory trip I must have brushed a cholla with my calf. Thank God for body hair! Most of the spines were embedded in my leg hair so I was spared the full wrath of the cholla. It was painful, but not near half as much as just watching the dozens of spines get individually plier-jerked from a less fortunate classmate.


So I am happy to see my old friend cholla from a safe distance and for the first time note magenta blooms on the tall and sparse ocotillo. The first section of the Lost Palms Oasis trail is fairly flat. It drops and rises a short distance into and out of canyons sometimes following the route of a desert wash a while before returning to the ridges. A few small barrel cactus dot the open desert floor and jackrabbits cross the trail with a careful eye and ear.

Following the guidelines of the trail map I stop to make camp before the 3 mile marker and I try to distance myself the 500 feet from the trail that is required. Some good flat spots appear to rest near house sized rocks on hilltops and I find a very small perch that is out of the wind. I set up my GoLite tarp that got me and Brian through the Pacific Crest Trail (only needed it about 4 nights) and the rest of my gear and head for the Lost Palms Oasis.

En route to the oasis I find that I could have camped at least a quarter mile closer to my photo destination than I thought as I pass a day use area boundary marker nearer the Oasis. Next time. I finally drop into a canyon with tall Palms across from me and stretching away to the East. Apparently the Lost Palms/Victory Palms Oasis is part of the larget California Palm Fan oasis in existence. But most of it is down stream from where I am. I drop down into the canyon and feel the cool lushness of the vegetation that follows the hint of water sitting in the canyon floor. I reach the water just as the sun is setting and so I must leave almost as soon I come due to park policy. Dark falls quickly in the canyon and all the rustling of the many creatures (mostly birds I am sure) vying for precious little water make my look over shoulder. I begin to imagine the mountain lions that must frequent this sure source of prey, the only water within miles around.

I hold my camera tripod in front of me ready for a quick parry of trail kung fu. But I realize with a laugh how effective the tripod served me in my battle with the barbed wire a day before. I return to the camp to find the tripod is much more effective as a stand for my led headlamp, lighting up the cooking area and bed. I peel off a couple of 1 oz cooking tablets (no stove needed!) and get the sierra cup humming. I brought a pre packaged Indian food box from Trader Joe's and some instant rice. I needed every ounce of rice to absorb the firy Indian food. I'm a fan of spicy Asian cuisine, bought I definitely overdid it this time. I wondered how I would sleep on a belly full of red pepper. Very poorly as it turns out, but not on account of the food. After I set up for bed the winds changed to strafe my side of the mountain and only got worse through the night. I eventually got up and watched the moon for a while before I set to untying knots, taking down the tarp in the dark. The tarp and lightweight Tyvec ground cloth were just a liability as they picked up every bit of breeze making a racket around my head. Without the noise of the flapping nylon I finally got a few winks.

I got to do a little morning photography at sunrise which is a rare treat considering I am not in the very least bit a morning person. Ask my wife. But I wasn't too close to any features I had speced out for a shoot so I just took what images were present and started my return hike. I stopped along the way at an especially tall ocotillo (about 13 feet) and returned a happy camper. It was my first backpacking trip since my long bout with a 'back injury' had rearranged my social calendar. And I was warmed by the fact I didn't have a spot of back pain. I'm still feeling the glow.

Storm over Fresno City College

April 6th. Strange Day. I usually only get my camera out when I travel or hike but the strange yellow storm light coming through the front window convinced me to take my camera along on my dog walk to Fresno City College. I stopped several times to stare at the clouds and wonder whether a tornado was going to form or whether I could get a good photo. After one of these staring sessions a woman who had parked her car nearby stopped her car and asked me in a very perturbed voice if I was 'scared' to have someone 'like her' in my neighborhood. And she didn't want her daughter to think this wasn't a trusting town since they had just moved here. This was all on account of my 'staring at her'. I explained to her that I was staring, but at the clouds. I would have thought that was obvious by the fact my neck was craned back at a 45 degree angle but I guess people sometimes see what they're most afraid to see because it is on their mind. If she only knew what the ethnic makeup of my Fresno City College neighborhood was, she wouldn't have been so afraid of not fitting in.

Coachella Valley Preserve

Tuesday night and what to do in Palm Springs? Well, I saw this beautiful photograph of a desert landscape at sunset on the cover of a hardbound tourism brochure on my hotel desk. It must be in Joshua Tree National Park, right? No. Coachella Valley Preserve. Where’s that? No one (including two convention concierges at the Palm Springs Convention Center who were available for consulting on local entertainment) knew where it was. A brief internet search showed it was just 10 miles outside of town. And it is free to visit. No wonder nobody knew about it. Those nutty conservationists evidently doesn’t grease any palms around town.

So after a full conference day I jet out towards highway 10. On my way out I call the preserve to check on the directions and make sure I get there straight. The preserve closes at dusk so I can’t afford to go bumbling around the desert. My directions are good but the lady who answers the phone says, ‘you aren’t planning on coming tonight? Because we’re closed’. Now it was at least an hour until sunset and so I’m thinking hmmm… either someone is anxious to get home or she’s probably just talking about the visitor center which I don’t really need to see. I mean visitor centers are just for goofy tourists right? I want to see the desert itself, not look at manufactured displays about what the desert looks like.

I drive through the preserve until I am close to one of the palm groves and there is a wide sandy shoulder to park on. One of the beautiful things about desert travel is that you can often hike cross-country without having to fight brush - there is often a great deal of bare ground. So I cross the road and head for the Palms, taking photos along the way. To get across some thick brush near a wash I do have to walk out of the way a bit to find an open crossing, possibly a game trail. So it takes a while, but man is it worth it. As I reach the grove I realize that there is a world of difference from seeing palm trees in an urban shopping mall parking lot and visiting a natural grove of palm trees.

First of all, the sound of desert wind blowing through the palms is both exotic and comforting at the same time. It begs you to close your eyes and just enjoy the sound, or picture you are in Hawaii? The Sahara? You choose. California Fan Palms in the wild have a lot of untrimmed dead branch material around the crown and the trunk. Along with the live leaves above, these shift in the wind making a sound a bit like the water in a stream.

The second thing I noticed was that there is tree litter everywhere, ivory dead leaves and chocolate fallen bark. The fact is the things you would probably rake up in your yard or have a landscaping crew clean up are just as beautiful as the standing trees. I spent a long time just looking at the color and texture of the leaves and bark on the sandy desert floor.

The bonus of going late on a week day was that I had the grove all to myself. I set up my camera for a few long exposures and just stretched out on the sand. I looked up into a sand dune about 10 feet high and noticed my lucky timing: evening primrose and sand verbena blooms. I had to try and get a shot of the wildflowers with the palms in the background. Unfortunately the same wind that made for a lush soundscape also meant it was just about impossible to get a shot of the wildflowers and palmtrees in focus without blur. I tried a few different things. I put the ISO at 400, the highest I can do without risking terrible image noise . I turned on the flash and put flash compensation at -1.5 stops to fill in the foreground and shorten the exposure time. I gave up on depth of field and just used a small enough aperture opening to keep the flowers in focus. I used the remote cable rather than the timer so I could take shots immediately when the wind let up.

Out of all that I got a couple of decent shots. I also took some photos of the palm trees with longer exposure times than usual just to capture the sense of wind and movement in the leaves. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. For some reason the effect of the motion blurring on the digital sensor was a little different than what I am used to on film but I liked it.

I stayed until sunset taking photos. I had spent all my time on the outskirts of the grove and on top of the dune. How about a different route back, walking down the dunes through the thick of the palm trees to experience the full force of the grove? I quickly noticed a fence with the back side of a sign facing me. Not good. I must have bumbled into the rear of a closed area. I head back on the trusted route from my trip in. After about 25 yards of walking I realized that the return to the car was not going to be so simple in the failing light. I pulled on my headlamp to make route finding easier. Of course using a headlamp or flashlight really helps for lighting the path just ahead but peripheral and distance sight get sacrificed.

Somehow along the way I find a better path than the one I came in on which seems like a good find until I happen on another barbed wire fence and the back side of a sign. So I take a lateral route hoping to circumvent the fence. But I keep coming up against fence. How on earth did I find a route in so easily with no fence but everywhere I turn on the way back is surrounded by barbed wire? I even turned away from the fence blocking my route to the road and came up against another fence as if I had walked into a yard. After a bit of stumbling around I realized it was now officially dark and besides being trapped I was probably no longer welcome on this private reserve.

I sat down for a minute just in time for an owl to make a stop about 15 feet above me and give me a good scolding. I really didn't want to crawl under the barbed wire so I got up to try another route. I finally came to the end of the barbed wire and loosened up into a jog heading towards the road, with my tripod held in front of me just in case. I immediately was picked up by an invisible wall and bounced back just like a scene I remember from one of Pam's old Clifford D. Simak's sci-fi books. Of course I had just imagined an opening in the barbed wire. The fence line just wasn't straight. Each one of my limbs stung a bit but other than that I was alright. After another 10 minutes of wandering I found a fencefree zone and returned to the car to assess the damage. I had scrapes on my right forearm, left hand, and left thigh from the barbs and a sort of dark circle in my right shin where either a strange blister-bruise had developed under the skin, or I had a hole that started clotting already. I am so glad I had to get tetanus and hepatitis shots for canal survey work.

On the way back to town I stopped at a drug store but was dissapointed to find they had no first aid kits or anything for a bruised ego. So I settled for Neosporin. I seem to learn everything the hard way. Maybe stopping in at the visitor center during office hours and finding out the lay of the land wouldn't be such a bad idea. I could have gotten a preserve map and found out where to (and not to) access the groves.

But that's the great thing about this blog. Not to say that you'd do the same foolish things that I do, but maybe you'll learn from some of my mistakes and be better prepared!

Palm Springs

Monday, March 20, 2006

During the GIS conference in Palm Springs it was pretty tough to get out and do much hiking between the end of the conference day and sunset. The wind was blowing upwards of 40 mph out in the desert making it difficult to open the car door on the windward side. I didn't want to sandblast my lenses either so I had to be careful when and where I took my camera out. But I managed to get a few decent photos on Sunday and Monday nights. Sunday I only had time to drive out to the highway and photograph the storm coming over the San Jacinto Mountains.

Coming up next .. the Coachella Valley Preserve

Public Service Message

We interrupt your scheduled programming to bring you the following important announcement..

Millerton Lake wildflowers are now at their peak. So go visit now! The hills are still green thanks to the recent storms. The orange fiddleneck (Amsinckia), white popcorn flower (Plagiobothrys?), and Lupine are all flowering and carpeting the hills in color. There are some other flowers like Blue Dicks with a little less frequency but easy to find. Pam and I went for a date Friday night with Digby. It was his first outdoor adventure outside of town. We went during a storm that kept everyone else away and made for a perfect quiet night overlooking the lake on Sky Harbor Road and at the park at the end of the road. It rained on our way in and out but our stay was fairly dry. If you haven't been to Sky Harbor Road before it starts right next to Table Mountain Casino. It winds up around the ridge to Pincushion Mountain. The native people had a different name for it and held that the mountain played a part in the bringing of thunder. It gets very windy (must slow down) before it ends at a small picnic area and a trailhead to the San Joaquin River Trail. Not only will a storm keep away the teenagers who go to neck but it also makes for an interesting skyscape. Go before it gets hot and dried out. If you hike one of the trails out of the Winchell Cove Marina instead of Sky Harbor you might get to see Chinese Houses, a four-spot Clarkia, or wild cucumber (Marah).