Sunrise @ Joshua Tree
The noise coming out of my cell phone alarm seems louder than usual this morning. Oh yes, 3AM. I wonder if I am still on board with this early morning adventure of heading to Joshua Tree National Park to see the sunrise in Cholla Cactus Garden. It is a wonderful opportunity because it is roughly a three hour drive. Sunrise is at 648AM. There won’t be any traffic in Los Angeles (LA) at this time of the morning, and you won’t regret it. Lets do this!!
Packed all my gear the night before which included hat, sunscreen, layered clothes and filled my gas tank. National Park Service (NPS) app also recommended bringing food and a gallon of water as those are available about an hour outside the park; nothing inside the park. That right there is a must for this girl, not only for simple nutrition purposes and to prevent passing out in the desert, but I am a person who develops “hangriness”. Yes, I believe I did just make up alternative pronunciation for hangry. Heck, is hangry even in Websters? Let’s just roll with it for now. I like it.
Got my Waze GPS turned on with directions to Cholla Cactus Garden inside Joshua Tree inside the car, started driving and rocking out to my Spotify- Cake, Steely Dan and Eagles on this beautiful morning. I was correct, traffic was non-existent for the entire 3 hours. That in itself is a treat driving through LA and beyond for that matter!
I arrived at Joshua Tree park without difficulty. It was so early that the person wasn’t at the gate yet to check my NPS pass. That also equalled no traffic line to get in to the park. So far so good.
Found Cholla Cactus Garden driving through the pitch black park successfully. I can’t believe I actually made it before sunrise. Kind of not my typical time of day for activities. But it was totally worth it!! I filmed the sun rise which you can observe below and attached the U.S. National Park Service link on Cholla Cactus Garden here: Cholla Cactus Garden (U.S. National Park Service)
Amazing! Planned adventure #1 at the park in the books. Loved it!
Now, I’ll figure out where I am in the park itself to find the other areas I wish to visit. I touched the “NPS” app on my phone. While the app opened, it did not have any internet service in the park. Ugh, that means I don’t have directions that are functioning any longer. It was pitch black when I entered the park and I was following my Waze directly to the garden. OK, I’ll figure it out. I pulled out of the garden and took a right. Let’s see where this goes. I drive for about a mile. There aren’t any cars traveling the same way, but there are a plethora of cars headed the opposite way. I suspect from my stellar naviguesser skill set, I need to go the other way. Correct! I was able to run into two very generous fellas in a rest spot shortly thereafter. I noticed they were looking at a real paper map and they were kind enough to let me take a picture of it. I’m back in the game!
I headed towards Heart Trail. But before my walk down that trail, I wanted to grab my visor. I am in the desert and the sun is shining. Searched through my two packed bags and couldn’t find it. Checked the back seat, not there. I know I packed it. What the heck. Oh well.
Swung by Skull Rock to check it out:
Walked back to the car again to search for my visor again. I know I just checked, but as I get older, I realize sometimes I can miss the obvious. An example may have occurred where I was searching for my cell phone like a maniac and I was actually talking on the cell phone…….I digress. Still no visor…
Next, the hike up Ryan Mountain Trailhead. This is listed in NPS as a difficult trail. They weren’t kidding. The altitude wasn’t the exacperating aspect, it was the intermittent and inconsistent steps during the 3 mile round trip trail. When I got to the half mile marker, I had to talk myself down in my mind. “You don’t have anywhere else to be, you are here to enjoy yourself, and you can slow it down and make it up to the top”. It took about an hour and twenty minutes to reach the peak. But I did it!!!
Last stop to see is Flat Arch Rock which actually turned out to be one of my favorite sights on my visit.
Started my drive back home and as predicted, traffic on the return was at its typical LA baseline - stop and start in 5 lanes of traffic. I am grateful for cheerleading myself into accomplishing everything necessary to thrive on this adventure. Oh, and when I pulled into my driveway, I saw my most favorite Florida visor was lying there. All is well.