Coming to Joshua Tree National Park was going to be a nice area for me to finish my recuperation for foot surgery and help me to rebuild the strength back into that foot. With the park being paved and mostly level, I am able to get back into walking.
Then I wanted to try a short hike and was told it was a fairly easy hike to do. So we took the half mile (one way) hike to check out Skull Rock.
The foot felt good and had no trouble, so I think that I’m ready to adventure further now.
The winds die down, the temps warm up and it’s time to do a little exploring around Joshua Tree National Park. We start our drive leaving the campground and heading west.
First stop is to naturally get some spectacular pictures of the Joshua Trees themselves.
Next stop was at Sheep’s pass, in hopes to maybe spot a sheep or two. The rock formation at this point is much different than what we have seen in the campground and throughout the park.
Just up the road a ways was also Ryan’s Mountain that we stopped for a couple of pictures. Here there was a strenuous hike, that we didn’t do, since my foot is still on the mending and didn’t think that I should attempt that kind of hike just yet.
As we travel down the road we made a turn towards Keys View. It was a very narrow blacktop roadway, that strongly suggest no rv’s to travel on and if they do-it’s at their own risk. As we near the top curiosity won out. Here is what we came upon:
Yikes! We are overlooking part of the San Andreas Fault Zone! sure hope we don’t have any earthquakes while we are visiting here! The fault line travels all the way up the CA coastal area and into other areas that we will be visiting this summer yet.
It was a very windy day and a bit chilly, so we didn’t stick around too long and wanted to keep going on our tour of Joshua Tree. After a quick bite to eat it was time to keep moving. Next stop would be to Barker Dam-where maybe we will see a little water. Also this will be my second hike since foot surgery and felt up to the challenge.
Needless to say, to our disappointment, we came across no water what-so-ever! there was even a plag talking about water fowls migrating, but due to two years of severe drought-everything dried up.
After hiking back, and the foot doing just fine, I still want to adventure yet a little farther. There is a hike to the Wall Street Mill that was over 2.5 miles of a hike. Way back when, when Keys had a portion of the Joshua tree and a mining claim, he fought another gentleman over land rights-and won. Here lies the poor guy that lost, I believe his name was Bagley:
Once back into the Wall Street mine, we found it interesting and even some old vehicles as well. There is a guided paid tour of Keys Ranch, but we have seen enough other ranches and this one just didn’t peg our interest.
Whew, now that we did all that, I’m done wore out and the foot started to slightly swell, so it was time to call it a day. We had fun. There is still lots to see of Joshua Tree National Park, but they are all towards the other end. Not sure if we will get a chance to hit anymore sights or trails. But know for sure what we did do, we enjoyed greatly.
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