Joshua Tree recommendations, please

Look into Carey's Castle in JTNP on localhikes.com

Although to get there its off the 10 fwy, not the main park entrance. Also you'll need to GPS your way or be really good at following instructions with a map. Very easy to take the wrong canyon.

read the localhikes.com trail reviews to get an idea on what to expect, and look for the GPS waypoints around google.

its a sandy canyon, very minor boulder climbing, if you can climb on your desk you will be fine.

no rope or special skills required.

leave the hiking poles at home, they will get in the way.

thorns are present in some places, so don't be a hippie. wear boots, not sandals.

bring some tweasers or multi-tool pliers to pull the inevitable cactus thorn out of your boot. my friend wanted to smell a cactus flower and got a thorn on his nose. DOH!

a fun thing to do with those giant 45 degree leaning fallic-looking cactus, is to pose with it between your legs, and take a silly photo that will be used against you when you run for government office.

Careys Castle has double history.
first it was an ancient indian area, evidence of metate grinding stones.
inside the castle, you can see some faint indian petroglyphs. very faint, if you look upside down.

then in 1940s a gold mining prospector did a neat job with masonry to build his shelter, and water system. there is chicken wire fence, and a rusty egg beaters.

There is a closed mine entrance nearby.

and a small monolith headstone, probably someone is buried there, I'm not digging it up.

there's some rusted out artifacts in the "castle"

my friends got some ghost apparitions on the digital photos inside the shelter, but I think it was just the way the light bounces.

There are plenty of mouse droppings inside, and a rusty old bed.

There used to be girlie nudie mags from the 1940s, but they've been snaked out by hikers.

The park rangers will try to discourage you from going to careys castle, for 2 reasons:
1) it's a part of the park that doesn't require payment since there is no ranger entrance, I think it's a Edison road.
2) in case you get lost, its on the opposite side of the park for them to rescue someone who didn't pay an entrance fee.

This is do-able on a day trip, granted its a long ass drive from LB or OC to JT. but if you do camp there, you can explore around, and the sunrise / sunset photos are amazingly rich in color, like a tequila sunrise drink orange red yellow etc.

every time I have been there, no one was around, although the footprints in the sand point to a lot of traffic.

if there is a chance of rain, remember that you are in a canyon. hint: flash flood.

lastly, don't follow the footprints. lost people also leave footprints.

There is a spot halfway, where the trail looks like it turns left, and going forward is impassable, trust your map and go fwd, climb those rocks and it makes sense afterwards. there are some cairns stone piles along the way. some are misleading too.

the beginning canyon entrance is misleading, depends where you start counting, it's not the second slot, it's the third one to take. again GPS coordinates on localhikes reviews,
http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/CareysCastle_4472.asp

http://ronslog.typepad.com/ronslog/2007/03/careys_castle.html

http://dzrtgrls.com/careys_castle/careys_castle.htm

look on flickr for photos. but if you learn too much, you'll spoil the adventure for yourself.

the national geographic map is useless. it just shows this place as a random X on the map, and it's not even accurate.

There is an abundance of short pitch class 5 in the ranges you mentioned but I would grab a guidebook.
The hike previuosly mentioned is great, nostalgic euphoria is threantening to strike.
Personally I would head out to Hidden Valley and just strike out from there with the loop, then do an out and back to Indian Cove, Barker Dam, or Queen Mountain.
A word of warning the rock in JT is a little hard on gym climbers at first, think really big cheese graters.

Re. climbing in Joshua Tree

first off have you ever climbed outside, or are you just a gym climber ?
second, will you try and lead climb or just toprope at J-Tree ?

if you have only done lead climbs in a gym do not even think about lead climbing at J-Tree first time there. Bolted climbs at J-Tree are NOT sport climbs, and even the ones that call themselves sport climbs will feel scary if you are used to bolts 4 feet apart in a gym … more like 10-20 feet apart.

if you plan to top rope only, do you know how to set up anchors with gear ?
many/most climbs will require gear anchors, although there are some that have bolts if you use long slings.

if you give a bit more detail on your climbing experience level, I could offer some climbs … been there many times over 20 years.

climbing at J-Tree is much different than gym climbing, especially at the lower grade levels.

in the gym you climb 5.7-8 vertical stuff with big jugs.
5.7-8 at Josh is mostly low angle slab climbing or slightly higher angle crack climbing.
while slab climbing can be fun, it is a much different skill set than that required in the gym. finesse rather than brawn. foot work rather than arm work.

the rock is very rough, and if you don't have callouses on your fingers they will be raw after one day of climbing at J-Tree.

still … its lots of fun in a beautiful, increasingly crowded, setting.

Hello Art. I would love some advice for gear in JTree. I have climbed JTree before but would like to have a full gear list so not many climbs are out of the picture due to gear as was my last trip to Yosemite (bummer). I have a strong anchor I use from a 15ft cordalette as well as 2 slings (3ft), rope, a grip of quickdraws (15). I guess I'm looking for advice on extenders and slings/and or webbing I should pick up for climbs as I have heard of many climbs where extenders or long slings are needed. I will lead most climbs but would also set up TR climbs as well.

Thanks in advance!

-Trevor

Trevor
are you talking about a trad rack recommendation?
all you mentioned was quickdraws ?

Toprope Anchors
1. the usual biners, lockers if you prefer them
2. an assortment of stoppers, hexes, and a few cams
3. two or three 4-5 ft runners. these runners can always be doubled into 2 ft runners so are more useful than 2 footers. size them so that when doubled they fit easily over your shoulder.
4. occasionally a really long 20ft runner to wrap around a boulder when there is no gear placement available.

Bolted Climbs
you rarely need more than 8 draws for a Josh bolted pitch.
not all bolted climbs end at a bolted anchor. get a guide book and hopefully it will tell you what's up.

Trad Climbs
1. one or two sets of Black Diamond stoppers from #5 thru #9 or #10.
stoppers work really well on J-Tree cracks. BD is the brand I use but any brand will do. do not use a stopper smaller than a #5 BD at Josh unless you are a really experienced trad climber. The rock is very grainy and smaller stoppers can rip out easily. I don't use the larger size stoppers because they are too heavy. I would either use a cam or a hex in the larger spots.
2. one partial set of hexes in various sizes. these are cheap and work well in many Josh cracks. be careful about trying to use hexes in the many "flaired" cracks at Josh. They are hard to seat properly in flaired situations.
3. One set of cams from maybe 3/8" (#2 metolius) up to 4" (#4 Black Diamond).
a second set of cams if money is no object. but you can get by with stoppers and hexes very nicely.

p.s.
you didn't say what level you lead at.
if you are leading trad 5.8 or below then one set of cams with hexes and stoppers should be fine. The lower grades have good stances for fiddling with hexes.
if you are leading 5.10 or above then consider two sets of cams rather than hexes. stoppers work great at any grade.
5.9 is a grey area. many old school 5.9's are at least 10b by many peoples estimates.

Thank you for the insights, I appreciate it. I lead at a 5.8-5.9 range comfortably. I plan on staying in that range for the trip and climbing sport and top rope routes. I do not have much Trad experience so I will save that for a later time.

Thanks again,
-Trevor

just be aware that most bolted climbs, especially those in the 5.7-5.9 range are Not sport climbs. they are what you'd call bolted trad climbs.
this means that bolts are typically 10-15 ft apart and 20-25 ft is not uncommon.
also most bolted climbs in this range are slab type climbs.