Joshua Tree - NP #1

Skull Rock

What I looked like the whole trip

Sunset at Key's View

We are funny, we know.

John's idea of rock climbing

John climbing a big version of a Joshua Tree

The top of our first hike, Panoramic Loop!
John wants this year to be the Year of the Mountains for us so we are getting an early start on our National Park adventures with a trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Most parks aren't good for camping until late spring but due to JT's location in the desert it is ripe for the picking in March. We bought our National Park pass just to show our commitment to the outdoors and spent the whole weekend camping in the desert.
We left work at 4 and drove 2.5 hours east, with no major traffic jams which was a miracle. On a side note: I started getting a cold on Thursday but just told myself that going to the desert would naturally dry me out an cure my cold. I chose not to take any medicine which proved to be a mistake. Joshua Tree sits at 4,000 ft elevation which climbing that much in elevation might cause your ears to pop. What I found out is that when you have a head cold your ears don't want to pop. Instead I felt like a little kid on a plane that can't pop their ears. By the time we got to a town near Joshua Tree I was about to cry from the pain in my ears. We stopped at the first gas station and they only had one box of cold medicine and 4 tablets were like $8.50 and if you read my last blog you know there is no way I am paying that. So I told John I would be fine once we got out of the car. Since this crappy gas station didn't have bathroom we had to stop at another one and they had 2 tablets of cold medicine for like 1.50 so I was sold. Needless to say after I took some medicine I got some relief. We finally got to our campsite around 7 and it was very dark and windy. We managed to get our tent set up and a fire started despite the tornado like winds around us. That night I made pasta with marinara sauce, mushroom, garlic, and Italian sausage. We also had bread and smore for dessert. The only big problem with dinner was that it was so windy that when we got our food all served it was cold within 1 minute from the wind. So that meant we had like 2 good warm bites the rest we just ate cold. Also due to the high winds the fire didn't really warm you up that much. It had been a long day (we both were awaken at 5 AM by our east coast family making sure we weren't washed away in a tsunami). So we climbed in to our tent at like 10 PM. We each had a stiff drink which is necessary when trying to fall asleep camping. We also had our air mattress pumped up and our portable DVD player going. I picked the movie The Devil because who doesn't like a good scary movie when you are camping. We were asleep not long in to the movie but I watched just enough to get myself all paranoid. The wind was blowing so hard I kept thinking the tent was going to cave in and I was freezing despite my 2 layers of clothing and 3 layers of blankets. John was sound asleep and I was convinced someone was walking around outside our tent. In my mind I really knew it was just the wind but I just kept getting scared. So I of course woke John up to tell him about the scary sounds the wind was making and then he got paranoid and had to get out of the tent to make sure we weren't being stalked. He was then annoyed that I had awoken him from his uncomfortable sleep. If you have ever slept on an air mattress with 2 people that stays inflated for 8 hours please let me know and I will run out and get it because I have yet to find one. This isn't such a big problem for me because John is the heavier person so he is the one that ends up on the ground while I stay inflated but it is still annoying. We both finally fell asleep and were awake nice and early because when you camp you pretty much wake up when the sun comes up.
Saturday morning John made us eggs, bacon, and pancakes for breakfast. You know we like to eat. Then we got all geared up for a long hike from our campsite. We packed our lunches and lots of water and took off. This hike was a total of 8.5 miles and was very pretty and not to hard. It was hot starting out but once you gain some elevation there was a nice breeze. We got back to camp around 1 and got some stuff ready for dinner and relaxed for a few before heading in to the park for some light exploring. Our campsite was like 5 miles from the park entrance. The campsites in the park don't take reservations and unless you get there Thursday you aren't getting a spot. We could hike in to the park from our campsite you just couldn't drive in. Our campsite was one of the few that had running water and a flushing toilet. No shower but a sink, you can imagine how nice we smelled by Sunday. (I did bring some dry shampoo and lots of wet wipes so that helped a little.) So Saturday afternoon we drove in to the park and the second we got in the car my ears went crazy again but I thought it would be fine once we got out of the car. I insisted I didn't need any medicine, big mistake. From about 2:00 PM on my head pressure just started building. We did a couple more 1 mile hikes and saw some really cool stuff. It is an amazing place and you feel like you are in the Flintstones. I have never seen anything like it and it feels like you are on another planet. We then drove to an overlook area and watched the sunset. By the time we got in the car and back out of the park I was pretty sure my head was going to explode. It is one of the most painful times I can remember. We stopped at the local Walmart and got firewood and I bought the largest package of off-brand cold medicine they had plus a box of extra soft tissues because my nose was hurting from all the paper towels and toilet paper I had been using. I was in so much pain by the time we got back to camp that I just went and laid on the air mattress wanting to cry. I felt like such a party pooper and left John making dinner on his own. I was so sick to my stomach that I didn't even know if I would be able to eat. Luckily John had recorded the Cats game earlier and was listening to it while he made dinner so he wasn't to bored. I just hated that I was being debbie downer on the camping trip and I was mad at myself for not taking anything sooner. After about an hour I started to feel better and helped finish up dinner and we had a good meal and evening after that. John brought out all his old CDs from high school so we chilled by the campfire listening to some classic songs. We made steak and veggie kabobs. We also had sauteed mushrooms, bread, and smores again. Did I mention we don't just go regular chocolate bars on our smores that we change it up with rolos or reese cups, so good. We got in our tent, luckily there wasn't any wind this night, and settled in to finish our movie again. We only made it about 10 minutes before were fast asleep. John said around 1 AM he was sleeping on the ground again. I was freezing so I had the covers over my head and tried to stay away from John so I wouldn't be sunk on the ground with him.
Sunday morning we lost an hour with the time change so we were up about 7:30. I had a nice wet wipe bath and then we got our campsite all packed up. John made us steak, veggie, and cheese omelets, along with some pancakes and then we headed in to the park to work off some of our breakfast. I was now overdosing on cold medicine which helped my ears but didn't stop my nose from running. Hiking with a running nose is tricky because you have to look down a lot which doesn't help the dripage. The whole time I was hiking I was blowing my nose and trying to breath. The first hike we did was 3 miles but it was 1.5 miles straight up. Needless to say after that John and I were both sore and tired and not up for any other big hikes. We did one quick hike to skull rock (which we found out after we hiked a half mile to that you can drive you car right out to it, idiots). John wanted to hop around on some more rocks but I think we were both so tired that just driving through the rest of the park sounded like enough adventure. We drove out the south side of the park which is like a 30 mile drive but now we can say we saw the whole park. The north part of the park is definitely better and since it is like an hour closer to our house we know not to waste time on the south side in the future. I think I would like to go back again and just leave our house at like 5 AM get there at like 8 and hike all day then go home at night. Now that we have tried out the camping there I won't need to do it again. Also, this is really the only time of the year I would want to go there because it would be way to hot during the day or way to cold at night any other time of the year. The campsite wasn't as cool as the ones in the park but there is a benefit in being close to running water. We also got to do a lot of people watching since we were surrounded by hippies, boyscouts, and old drunken men. I had a really great time and appreciate that quality time with my husband. We were a pretty good team and it gives me hope for future group projects.