My valentine and I planned a trip to Joshua Tree this past weekend. We stayed at the fabulous Joshua Tree Inn.
We left Hollywood around 2:30 but did not arrive in Joshua Tree until just after 7. Along the way we stopped for dinner, groceries and sanity. The Drive should have only taken 2.5 hours max, the actual travel time of 5 hours was ridiculous. Arriving at the Inn really melted that all away. We checked in and were led through the gorgeous courtyard to our room.
On the drive out we had been listening to the most recent episode of the Howard Stern show. We were surprised to hear the interview guest was Donovan, because we had selected to stay in the Donovan Suite at the Joshua Tree Inn. Sad to say it but Donovan comes off as a bit of a Turd in interviews, yet he makes up for it by being full of himself and boring. Perhaps this wasn't always the case.
After we settled in we walked to the store nearby for some water and hot chocolate. Then we went for a drive to search out the surroundings. We watched a little TV and Angela fell asleep. I smoked a cigar on the patio and joined her soon enough.
I was surprised to find myself wide awake at 6:45 on Saturday. I ventured into the common room to grab some coffee creamer and a few snacks from the snack basket. We had coffee in bed and woke up to a quiet morning in Joshua Tree. I wanted some more morning shots of the Inn so I ventured out to snap some pics.
Just before 8am we headed out to Joshua Tree National Park. A short five mile drive through the sparsely populated desert found us at the entrance to the park. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the park was actually free entrance all weekend due to Presidents Day. That's $15 saved right there. Entering on a cool February morning to get our first look at the park felt amazing. The desert has always been a place where I could easily see beauty, but this was something else entirely otherworldly. We followed Park Blvd. through the beautiful landscape until we came to our first exploration at Hidden Valley (please make ranch dressing joke here, we did).
Next up we hiked to Barker Damn.
This was the only place in the park where I witnessed water not in a bottle or latrine.
the return trip from Barker Damn also has some petroglyphs:
The hiking and the early morning had us pretty hungry by this point, so we headed back to our little cabin to enjoy a bit of brunch. Our odd choice for this meal was a falafel wrap that we had picked up the night before while on traffic sanity break. Angela swears by this wrap from trader joes, but only if you are willing to take it apart, add additional vegetables to it, remove some falafel, and re-wrap it yourself. My oh my was she right about all of that. The morning sun and the food and the quiet then all fell upon us, and we could not resist the tug of a mini-nap. Like I always do during the day I slept a delicious 10 minutes. I quietly crept out of bed and onto the patio where I could plunk on my guitar and take in the day.
Once Angela awoke and we decided to walk down 29 palms highway into the town of Joshua Tree for a bit of random shopping. We came upon a farmers market and picked up some sweet potatoes. Then we visited a few thrift stores where we got a sequin shirt, a dvd copy of Garden State and a the Nick Hornby book "juliet, naked". What a haul!
Then we got back in the car for a little more desert adventure. I'd heard about a place called the integratron and wanted to check it out. Though it wasn't open it was still nice to see it in person and snap a few pictures.
After the Integratron the grocery store in Yucca Valley was rather mundane. Yet learning we had a barbeque grill made it a necessary stop for charcoal, steak and salmon.
After stopping back by the Inn we decided to head back to the national park for the rest of the evening. It's here that I should mention that Gram Parsons died in room number 8 at the Joshua Tree Inn. They have erected directly in front of number 8 a beautiful memorial to honor his spirit.
The odd story of Gram Parsons and Joshua Tree really only begins there. It ends again within the park itself, where his manager to some degree was able to partially cremate his stolen remains. The entire story is told rather well here. And so it was that I was interested in finding the spot at Cap Rock where his manager had set his spirit free. The park chooses not to memorialize Gram here, because people love to graffiti the final resting place of dead rock stars. So it's a little tough to find, but with the help of the internet, not really. Here is what it looked like when we visited:
Cap Rock in itself is pretty impressive and as the afternoon sun faded I couldn't resist climbing as high as could and playing on the rocks. Angela watched from below, until it appeared to dangerous when she yelled to me that she could no longer watch and that I should scream if I hurt myself.
When I climbed down to meet Angela she had developed a new plan while watching me bounce on the rocks, which she related in this manner: "Tomorrow morning why don't I wake you up early, and you can come back here to hike on your own while I pack up the room."
and I said: "well that's not really fair, I don't want to split up on our Valentine trip."
which she shut down with: "Can we just skip your 15 minutes of soul searching here and move on with this plan? I don't have time for it."
Next we drove further south into the park to Keys View, where we just missed the sunset but still got to take in incredible views.
This sign says "what's wrong with this picture:
Answer: the couple making out in front of dozens of people in a national park. (see lower left hand corner)
As darkness fell across the park we drove back to the Joshua Tree Inn. Once home I set up the BBQ grill and played guitar on the patio while we had beers and fun.
I prepared our Surf and Turf with mashed sweet potatoes which we enjoyed on our dining room table. We were both rather pleased with how it turned out. Soon the sand man came for us and we were off to sleep.
True to the idea of the day before I awoke early on Sunday to make my solo trek to the park. I had poured over the guide book before I left and settled on a hike up Ryan Mountain. It was the only attraction with the word strenuous in the title so that sounded good. I was a little alarmed when I read the sign at the trail head as I checked my clock. The sign called the 3 mile loop a 2-3 hour hike. After a 30 minute drive deep into the park I didn't have that amount of time left to do the hike, drive back, shower and still make check out. I decided I'd really turn on the speed and see how far I could make it before I had to turn back.
Trying to make good time took the hike from moderately strenuous to huffing and puffing hell. Luckily the trail was fairly empty allowing me to make good time.
I stopped to check my time when I was about 3/4 of the way up and I was confident that I could make it if I pushed it.
at the top I snapped some photos, soaked in the view and then headed back down as fast as I could.
The whole way down I beamed. It was so pretty as the sun burnt through the morning haze. I felt blessed that Angela recognized that I could do with a bit of "real" exercise and time in the park by myself. It's such a nice feeling when some one knows you well enough to give you what you need without asking for it.
From base to top and back the Ryan Mountain hike to just shy of 50 minutes. Here is a nice summary of the hike.
Sweaty and happy I headed back to Inn to check out. After a shower and loading the car I dropped a guitar pick in the metal cup at the Gram Parsons Memorial, as many have done before me.
We had lunch at Santana's in Joshua Tree, cheap Mexican food at it's sort of best. Full of cheese and salsa we headed back into the park. This time we drove the entire length of the park to meet the 10 freeway on the south side. Along the way we listened to Dub Step and stopped at a cactus garden.
Once on the 10 it was just a Sunday drive back to LA. Joshua Tree National park is a treasure, I hope to go back soon.
