Joshua Tree National Park--Cottonwood Campground

From Salton Sea to the southern entrance to Joshua Tree National Park is not far, only about 45 miles going to Indio and then taking I-10 east to the Joshua Tree exit.

 We thought about taking Box Canyon Road between Mecca Hills Wilderness Area and Orocopia Wilderness Area, but out west the roads are not always paved into wilderness areas. The drive only took about an hour and a half. We had a long uphill climb on I-10 east of Indio. Once we were set up, Bob wanted to watch the Georgia/Alabama game, but alas, we had not TV reception, no Internet and no cell phone.

 So we got in the car and headed north to 29 Palms. Turns out it is probably the only small town we have visited that did not have a sports bar. I finally tuned the radio to an AM station that was broadcasting the game and we drove back to our campground . Once in the RV, Bob tuned the RV radio to the AM station and continued to cheer for Georgia. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear the end of the game--reception went to static and he didn't find out until Sunday how the game ended.

Sunday we decided to go geocaching along Box Canyon Road just to check it out for future travels. Turns out it is paved all the way and as it goes through the canyon, there was no elevation change. We could have saved 20 miles by taking Box Canyon Road...now we know!

Monday it was time to hike some trails. There were 2 trails near Cottonwood Campground that we wanted to hike. We chose to hike Mastodon Peak Loop (3miles) since it had been a while since we had done serious hiking. Along the way we stopped at an abandoned mine and tried to guess how everything looked when it was a thriving enterprise.

Above the mine was Mastodon Peak.

 Of course no desert hike is complete without cholla. The spikes on this one look like plastic needles. I am pleased to say that neither of us got stuck on this hike.

  We had a great view of Salton Sea and the surrounding area.

 We enjoyed the Mastodon Peak Loop trail.

 

 Last sight on the trail was Cottonwood Springs. There was no water, but during the spring and summer it is more of an oasis than it was when we saw it. It still had California Fan Palms that looked out of place in the desert.

Tuesday we hiked the much longer hike to Lost Palms Oasis. We hiked through several slot canyons...

... and across many ridges.

 At the end of the trail was an overlook of the palm oasis.

 We decided that since we had walked all that way (3.2 miles) we should continue down to the oasis.

 There were pools of water at the base of several palms.

We took a thirty minute break before climbing out of the oasis area.

It was a great hike, one of our favorite on this trip.

Wednesday we went geocaching outside the southern entrance of the park. A series of caches was in an area where troops trained with Patton in WWII.

There was also a museum dedicated to Gen. Patton.

 Bob went in this big barrel to get one of the caches.

 After geocaching, it was time to move to Belle Campground about 28 miles north of Cottonwood Campground. We would spend the rest of our time at Joshua Tree in the northern area of the park.