Three walks and a hike.

Sunday was a day of rest for us, rain was predicted and although it didn’t rain during the daylight hours it was cloudy enough that we stuck close to home. We got a few odd jobs done and we did our weekly cleaning.

Today we drove back to Twentynine Palms and into Joshua Tree through the north entrance. Our plan was to drive a portion of the Pinto Basin Road stopping for a few quick walks and if we had time take a longer hike somewhere in the park. We had several choices for the hike but wouldn’t decide until we knew how much time we would have.

Our first stop was the Arch Rock nature trail; the trail is accessed at the White Tank campground and is only 3 tenths of a  mile long. White Tank is the type of granite rock that this formation is composed of, the rock has been eroded into interesting shapes.

 

Rock formations along the Arch Rock Nature Trail.

 

The Arch.

 

The Pinto Basin Road began a slow decent to our next stop at the Cholla Cactus Garden. The cactus garden is located at a point where the environmental conditions suit the Cholla and they grow in a large community. The nature trail through the garden is a quarter mile in length.

 

Sandy disappears into the Cholla Garden.

 

These Cholla were not burned, the brown color is normal.

 

Our last walk was at the Ocotillo Patch that is located a short drive from the Cholla garden. There was no marked trail that we noticed so we walked to several of the flowering plants to take a look. As with the Cholla garden there was a lot of moisture in the ground here.

 

When there is sufficient moisture the Ocotillo has green leaves.

 

These were also blooming.

 

The Pinto mountains may have been named for their color scheme which is similar to the Pinto horse. 

 

We turned around at the Ocotillo Patch and returned to Park Boulevard and then drove to the Sheep Pass Campground where we parked and ate lunch. We chose to hike the 3 mile Ryan Mountain trail which ascends to the summit at an elevation of 5461 feet. The trail can be accessed from the Sheep Pass Campground but it added another mile to our round trip.

 

Ryan Mountain.

 

The trail was steep and rugged in places.

 

The trail was steep and strenuous in places with muddy stretches near the summit. We maintained a good pace (for us), and hoofed it to the summit where the wind was blowing hard. We had a great view of several surrounding valleys from the top but we didn’t spend a lot of time there due to the wind; we walked down to the car and returned to the mothership which was also rocking in the wind.

 

This part of the trail reminded us of spring in Wisconsin, melting snow and mud.

 

John was happy to make it to the top.

 

Nice view.

Of these three rock peaks, the one to the left was where we saw the rock climbers on top of on Saturday; looks small from up here.

 

On the way down there were other hikers on the trail ahead of us, the trail cuts across the center of this image, one of the hikers is wearing red.