Joshua Tree – National Park

I spent a great weekend with family in the Orange County area- Sky and Zulu relaxed and so did I. I wasn’t sure of my destination after my weekend with family until the night before I left. I had been torn between the idea of driving the coast along the Pacific Coast Highway or, since I was already south, heading to Joshua Tree. The news of a landslide in the Big Sur area made me decide to steer clear of the coast for now and make my way to Joshua Tree. I had found a BLM campground via my trusty app, FreeRoam. When I pulled into the BLM campground I found around 15-20 others were already there and that it was overall a busy spot but on the road towards the campground I had found a couple of nice pullout spots so I found my campsite at a more private location not too far from the official BLM campground.

Today was spent driving through Joshua Tree Park – stopping along the way at some cool spots. Joshua Tree is the sort of place that you really can’t experience it in a single day. Most of the attractions seem to be at the north side of the park but the drive itself is fun and relaxing. The pass is good for seven days so I intend to make the most of my time here.

I drove through a couple of parks to possible consider as a place to spend the night but overall the parks were too popular for me until I drove into Indian Cove. Indian Cove is not accessible from the main road through the park. I had to exit the park and then drive back in through another route just a couple of miles eastward of my exit point. Once I found Indian Cove I knew it was the perfect campsite for me. It seems popular with rock climbers but it is so huge it feels like you can have a decent amount of space to yourself.

I found a campsite and then I headed off to catch the sunset at Keys point – that was a good 40 minute drive to get to Keys point from Indian Cove. I got there by about 4pm and there was already a crowd collecting for the inevitable. There were some great shots at sunset but the best photos came after the sun had dipped from view. The impatient had already left and there were only a few of us who really witnessed the beauty of the pinks, reds and purples of the final goodbye for the day from the sun.