Heading back to my roots on this one. Kind of. Although a couple of years ago Clare and I went for a run in the southern end of Joshua Tree (the Cottonwood entrance off the 10), it wasn’t really what I remembered from the Joshua Tree of my youth. You know, what you see on the U2 album. And, it was Clare’s first time there so it was kinda disappointing. So we decided to go back and go in the West entrance (from 29 Palms Highway, turn onto Park Blvd). This is where I used to go when I was a Boy Scout to launch model rockets and camp. It’s also where I headed to camp when I was in school to get away from it all. It has become much more popular since but it’s still a very, very remote place and simply magical. If you haven’t been and have the chance I strongly recommend you suck up the $30 admission fee (there are a lot of options – including a yearly pass for just $55 if you’re in the area) and buy it in advance from recreation.gov.
The stats:
- Distance: 15.52 km / 9.64 mi
- Elevation 185m / 607 ft
- Calories 1,816
- Elapsed Time 2:56:33
- Clear
- Temperature 22° C /72° F
- Humidity 18% (Feels like 72 ℉)
- Wind Speed 9.1 km/h
- Wind Direction SSE
Since I used to come out here as a Boy Scout we decided to do the Boy Scout Trail. It was a bit late of a start so I wanted to do something relatively well traveled and not too much off the beaten track.
For the first stretch its a moderately wide sand track winding through the Joshua trees and among some well marked bouldering / rock climbing areas (if you aren’t aware, the park is a haven for climbing and, yes, where I go my start in the sport another lifetime ago).
The trail is well marked throughout and after a couple of miles you exit the valley and start some moderate climbing through some low foothills. The full trail has a much more dramatic elevation loss (and gain when you make the turn on this out and back trail) but we turned a bit before the major drop into Indian Cove.
