Oh my god, this wake-up time was rough. After about five hours of sleep, our alarms went off at 3 AM and it was time to get ready for our sunrise hike up Ryan Mountain. The trailhead was about 30 minutes from our Airbnb, and to make it in time for civil twilight (which we read is even cooler than the actual sunrise), we had to be out the door by 4:00 AM. Here is the hike information!
We chose a sunrise hike since we were visiting Joshua Tree in the summer and didn’t want to be hiking in 100-degree heat. This ended up being a very good call; the weather at the trailhead was hot, but way more manageable than it would’ve been later in the day.
We were all geared up with headlamps and walking poles, and the early parts of the hike were pitch dark. Along the way, we spotted a bunch of desert tarantulas, which was honestly wild. There were all these little holes scattered throughout the desert, and when we shined our lights on them, we’d see spiders dart back inside. They were way too fast to photograph, but it was really cool to witness. I really love any wildlife spotting I can get!
Since it was still dark when we started, we didn’t get to see much of the surrounding landscape on the way up until the very end. As civil twilight began, the sky started to glow, and it was gorgeous.
We made it to the top with plenty of time to spare and got to hang out, watch the sunrise, and soak it all in before beginning our descent about 45 minutes later.
Jordan, unfortunately, had to really use the restroom, so he zoomed ahead of us. I ended up needing to pee so badly that I followed pretty quickly. Being in the desert, there isn’t much cover for going off trail! We were also wary of going off trail because we learned that the desert top soil, coined the desert crust, or the biocrust, is incredibly sensitive.
Everyone, skip this next paragraph if you don’t want a biology lesson lol
According to NPS and various other sources, due to water limitations, deserts are typically lacking dense vegetation. Instead, what seems to be a barren landscape, is occupied by a microscopic world which is referred to as the biocrust. The biocrust is comprised of various microorganisms like “bryophytes, lichens, eukaryotic algae, cyanobacteria, bacteria, and fungi, which all interact cooperatively to create a protective and productive community on the soil surface” (Belnap et al. 2001, Belnap et al. 2016). These crusts play a very important role in the Joshua Tree ecosystem because they “contribute to effective soil nutrient cycles, prevent soil erosion, improve regeneration, and stabilization of vegetation, therefore creating a healthy and stable ecosystem” (Belnap and Gardner 1993, Belnap et al. 2001, Belnap et al. 2016, Weber et al. 2016). And if they get stomped on repeatedly, the ecosystems will eventually stop growing back in these highly treaded areas. So basically, we were very cognizant of staying on trail when it was possible!
Okay, thank you for reading (or probably skimming) my brief MLA format essay on desert soil, now back to our hike!
After we all used the restroom at the trailhead, we set off on our next mission: spotting a roadrunner. That was my “must-see” bird for this trip. When I picture deserts, I picture roadrunners, so I was determined. On the way back, we stopped by Cap Rock again to poke around, but didn’t see much, so we kept going. We had read that roadrunners hang around low areas like ravines and flat zones, so we tried our luck near the Lost Horse Mine Trail off the road to Keys View. We didn’t find one there either, though we did spot some woodpeckers.
By this point, we were starving, so we headed back to town and grabbed breakfast at The Crossroads Cafe. Thankfully, the wait wasn’t bad. We all ordered their breakfast special with pancakes or French toast, two eggs, and breakfast meat. Caroline and I also grabbed slices of their banana bread to go because it was supposed to be amazing. It absolutely lived up to the hype.
After breakfast, we went back to the Airbnb for a quick nap. Normally, Jordan and I are very anti-nap during vacations, but we made an exception after running on five hours of sleep and hiking three miles with over 1,100 feet of elevation gain.
Once we were rested, we headed back out for part two of exploring the park, this time doing the half that we didn’t get to yesterday. This part of the tour had a heavy focus on the famous rocks. On our list were Skull Rock, Split Rock, and Arch Rock. Our first stop of the day wasn’t a rock, but the Barker Dam! I honestly can’t remember any fun facts about this trail, but it was about a mile and we got to see a man-made dam in the park. It was dry, but it was cool nonetheless.
Out first stop on the great rock tour: Skull Rock! Shockingly, it really does look like a skull. We spent some time climbing around the granite boulders, and since the surface is so coarse, it was super easy to scramble without slipping. Jordan and I had a blast climbing around on a bunch of rocks here.
Next up was Split Rock. This one is exactly what it sounds like—a giant boulder split clean down the middle. There weren’t any trails around, so we didn’t stay long, but it was still cool to see in person. It was a lot bigger than we were expecting.
After our rock tour, we decided to resume our roadrunner hunt. Caroline had read that one roadrunner had taken up permanent residence at the Joshua Tree Headquarters Building in Twentynine Palms, so we headed that way. On the way out of the park, I asked a ranger about it and he confirmed it! Apparently, roadrunners are opportunistic like crows, and this one figured out he could find a lot of treats by hanging around humans. Sadly, after walking around the area for a while, we still couldn’t find him. I did manage to get some cool photos of a cactus wren though, which was also on my birding wish list. Wrens of all kinds are welcome.
On our way back into the park, we made a quick stop at the orrery in Twentynine Palms because Tyson, our resident astronomy fan, had seen the sign and wanted to stop. I’d never heard of one before, but it’s basically a scale model of the solar system showing the real-time positions of the planets. This one is set at a 1:20 billion scale and is apparently the only one in the world that’s actively maintained. Workers update the positions of the planets weekly, which is honestly so cool. We also stopped to take the obligatory photo in front of the national park sign.
We had planned to see Arch Rock next, but we were running low on time and decided to skip it since it required a longer walk. Instead, we made a last-minute decision to try one more time for a roadrunner sighting at the Porcupine Wash trailhead, which is about 15 minutes past the Cholla Cactus Garden in the Pinto Basin. I’m really glad we had the tour going while we were driving, because we wouldn’t have known that this part of the park marks the transition between the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. As we drove deeper into the Colorado side, the landscape changed drastically, there were fewer Joshua trees, and more cacti and desert grasses. Apparently, Joshua trees need the slightly cooler elevation of the Mojave to thrive, which is why they disappear as you move further into the Colorado Desert. No roadrunner again, though.
We were cutting it close on time and had to race back to catch the end of the sunset at the Cholla Cactus Garden. We didn’t realize how much earlier the sun sets behind the mountains. We made it just in time to walk through the massive field of cholla cacti in golden light. It was crazy how concentrated the cacti were here! Fun fact about the cholla cactus: it’s often called the “jumping cactus” because its segments break off with the slightest touch, almost as if they leap onto you. This adaptation helps the cactus propagate, as the detached pieces can hitch a ride on animals or people and root elsewhere. We read that the spines are barbed and super difficult to remove once stuck, so we definitely avoided coming into contact with these guys!
There’s no restroom at this stop and Caroline really had to go, so we left quickly in hopes of finding a trailhead bathroom soon. Thankfully, most of the restrooms in Joshua Tree were vault toilets and honestly not that bad. Once Caroline sprinted to the next one, we were officially on our way out of the park. None of us were ready to say goodbye.
We hadn’t eaten in hours and were starving, so we went to the Joshua Tree Saloon for our last dinner out. Unfortunately, after we placed our orders, our server casually mentioned the kitchen was backed up and food would take over an hour. It was already 8 PM so after some deliberation, we canceled our meals, ordered a few appetizers and one drink each, and decided to eat the frozen pizza we had picked up at Walmart on our first day. In hindsight, I’m so glad we didn’t wait. We were exhausted, still had to pack, and waiting another hour for food would’ve been miserable. That said, I’m still bummed, they had a bunch of specialty burgers on the menu and they all looked soo good.
We wrapped up the night with a soak in the hot tub, and Caroline made us s’mores on the backyard firepit, which hit the spot!! It was the perfect ending to our trip after all the hiking and exploring.
Epilogue: The Travel Home Disaster
This doesn’t deserve its own blog post, but I need to vent. Our plan was to leave Joshua Tree around 8:30 or 9:00 AM to catch our 1:00 PM flight out of Anaheim. But Delta had other plans. When we woke up, we had texts saying our flight was delayed by an hour and a half. Not great, but we’d still make our connection. Then, at 8:15 AM, we got another message saying it was delayed even more, which meant we’d miss our connection to Tallahassee—and that was the last flight of the day to Tallahassee from Atlanta.
We scrambled to rebook through the app, but Delta was wildly unhelpful. They tried putting us on a 9:00 AM flight from Anaheim to Vegas with a connection from there to Atlanta, but we were still two hours away from the airport and there was no way we’d make it.
At this point, I had the idea that maybe we should just drive to Los Angeles since it was also about two hours away but had later flights available. After being on hold forever, I finally got through to an agent who was able to switch us all over to a 1:00 PM LAX flight. From there, it was full-on panic mode. We were on an extremely tight timeline and had to race through what turned into a super stressful drive to LAX. We were cutting it so close, and of course that airport is a much bigger hassle when it comes to security and rental car returns. On top of that, we had to call the rental car agency to change our drop-off location, which was a whole separate headache. Just to add to the chaos, we got stuck in a construction zone with standstill traffic. With everything working against us and the clock ticking down, I genuinely don’t know how we made it to the airport, but somehow, we did!
We somehow made it, but Delta wasn’t done messing with us. Even though I had checked in through the app, when I got to the gate my boarding pass wouldn’t load and they claimed I hadn’t checked in, meaning I had been bumped. Thankfully, there were still seats left and they reissued my ticket, but it was absurd. Just when I thought the stress was over, I noticed that for our final leg from Atlanta to Tallahassee, my seat said “unassigned.” When we checked the app, I was third on the standby list.
So now we’re the last people boarding the final flight of the night, literally powerwalking to the gate hoping I’d get a seat. Luckily, one opened up and they assigned it to me. I’m so grateful because I overheard someone else say the next flight to Tallahassee wasn’t until the following night. Delta really tested my patience, but somehow, we made it home.
Lauren and Life 
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