A couple of months ago, member Matt P put out a thread looking for people to go on a weekend trip to Joshua Tree while he was in southern Cal for the summer. I had really wanted to get up there myself, but wouldn't have gone solo in the summer. So I jumped at the opportunity.
We both took Friday off and drove up Thursday night to cache water. When I had called the ranger station I had expected them to try and convince me a summer trip was a bad idea, but the lady was fairly helpful, told me to drink plenty of water and warned us about the bees. We go to the park around 8pm, hid water in two locations (near the road intersections of the trails we would be on) and drove to the northern trailhead of the Boy Scout trail in Indian Cove.
The plan was to hike down the Boy Scout trail a bit that night, so we strapped on our headlamps and took off. It was overcast and cool, and didn't feel much like a desert. Within 100 meters of the trailhead we stumbled upon our first rattlesnake; a little sand colored guy just sitting in the middle of the trail. At about 10:30 it started raining, and it came down steadily for 15 minutes or so. We laughed at our luck of getting rained on in the desert in the summer, but were glad for it. By 11pm we made it to the top of the first ridge (after a few night-time induced shortcuts) and set up for the night in a nice, sandy, secluded wash.
We awoke with the sun around 5:30, and after a quick breakfast were on the trail by 6. It was a little over 4 miles to our water, and the going was quick thanks to a route compacted by the tiny footsteps of a thousand boy scouts.
We filled up our water and took a break at Quail Valley, and then got back on the trail towards the base of Quail Mountain, the tallest peak in the park (5800').
There are no trails up to the peak – only a couple of loosely described routes in guidebooks. The 1800' of gain over a few miles didn't seem too bad, and the early sections of the climb were scrambles and boulder-filled washes. Near the top the incline picked up quite a bit, and the clouds which had mercifully sheltered us from the sun all day disappeared.
Matt was an animal and just flew up the top of the mountain, patiently waiting for me catch my breath every so often. We made it to the summit around noon, entered our names in the little stashed logbook, set up a tarp for shade and relaxed with some lunch. We had both opted for a no-cook meal plan, and I was quite happy with my selection of meats, cheeses, bars and nuts.
After descending Quail Mountain, we headed south to try and pick up the California Riding and Hiking trail. Unable to find the connector trail we had planned to take, we wandered through washes and scrubs for the rest of the afternoon in the direction of our second water cache. We made it by 4, again set up shade and relaxed until the sun dipped behind the mountains around 7:30.
A quick hike up the CRH trail to the supposed intersection confirmed that this connector trail did not exist, so we turned in the general direction of the next days hike and set up shop for Friday night. The stars (and moon, after it finally came up) were so bright that I had to cover my head.
After another early start Saturday morning, we made our way back to the first water cache in Quail Valley, got there by 10 and hid in the shade of the rocks until noon. While on route, we stumbled across our third rattlesnake; a big guy with a big rattle who made it very clear that we were in his neighborhood.
After lunch we took off north, towards Willow Grove and the Wonderland Rocks. Our plan was to camp somewhere near the grove that night, and then hike out Sunday morning, but we decided to go all the way to the car instead (a wise choice in hindsight).
We were both amazed by the amount of standing water and vegetation in the park at this time of year. I would be have to be desperate to drink it, but it was there.
Even more amazing was Wonderland Rocks. While the whole northern section of the park is rocky, the rocks here were HUGE. We descended out of WR into Rattlesnake Canyon through a gorge choked with these massive boulders. This was the most fun – jumping and scrambling and climbing. It was quite a descent. Most of the time we were at least 20 ft above the canyon floor, and you could see a tiny little trickle of water way down at the bottom.
Scrambling down things like this
Really pretty smooth granite wash/waterfall that we tried to descend but could not
Exhausted, we finally made it to the road and hiked the last ~2.5 miles back to the car. After a good rest and some dinner, we drove back around and picked up our water cache buckets, and slept right beside the parking lot of our second cache (it was late and a very quiet section of the park). Sunday morning we drove back, only stopping to indulge in some pancakes at IHOP.
The trip was great, not too hot for a summer desert. We did 4mi Thursday night and 12mi Friday and Saturday at about 75% off-trail (about 90% of our time)
Unknown elevation gain, but lots and lots of scrambling.
