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Joshua Tree National Park and its Christ trees
This park with its whimsical Joshua trees and huge granite blocks remains iconic and never gets boring, even if it’s not the first time you’ve visited.
Hidden Valley Trail
The Hidden Valley Trail (2 km) is a very nice walk, maybe a bit technical because of climbing up and down the boulders, but absolutely not dangerous or difficult.
Barker Dam Trail
The Barker Dam Trail is even more beautiful and simple, because most of the hike is flat.
It is an accessible route that takes you past rock formations, Joshua trees and a small waterhole, with a surprising amount of variation in the landscape along the way.
Here we met a couple with mattresses on their backs.
They turned out to be climbers who use the mattresses as crash pads, intended to absorb a fall during bouldering .
Whether they really always offer solace in practice remains to be seen.
Although the park has many trails, you don’t have to walk dozens of them to understand the essence of the park. After a few walks you can already see what makes this landscape so special.
The only park with waiting times at the entrance
The waiting time at the entrance of the park can sometimes increase. Because this is often the first national park that visitors visit after arriving in Los Angeles, many still have to purchase an America the Beautiful Pass or entrance ticket on the spot.
This was the only park where we actually had to queue at the entrance, moreover at a busy weekend time. Also when leaving the park our pass was checked again.
Emma
And just like in Joshua Tree, silence overwhelms you in Kodachrome. A silence that you not only hear, but almost feel. Read more about this in our next story.