NP#4 - Joshua Tree Revisited

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Joshua Tree Revisited

(click on picture to enlarge)

Camp Jumbo Rock - Site #64

CDawg fending off the Flies!

Skull Rock

Bean Stalk Joshua Tree

Jumbo Rock Formation

More Rocks!

Rock 'n Tree

Sunset over Joshua Tree

Moonlight Magic

Joshua Tree National Park – Revisited                                         
June 13, 2013

You’ve all heard the saying “poo happens.” (Or something of that nature!) On our latest Trek to the Parks, it did.  The three of us (Terry, me and C-Dawg) left Phoenix at 2:30pm on Thursday, June 13^th heading to Joshua Tree National Park. Our plan was to stay a couple of days revisiting Park #4, then visit Tosh, Greg and Khai for a couple of days before heading north to Park #42 – Pinnacles.

Now I’m one who likes to get going on vacations early in the morning. Departing at 2:30 in the afternoon makes me a bit grumpy! It’s gonna take us close to 6 hours to get to our destination. And that’s if we don’t make many stops! I’ve never liked getting to a campsite late in the day for two reasons. #1 – most campsites are gone by noon. Number 2 – setting up camp in the dark is undesirable!

Because it’s hotter than Hades outside (106° when we left Phoenix), the chances of all campsites at Joshua Tree being occupied this time of year is about as good as winning the lottery! Setting up camp in the dark…well, there are worse things that can happen…so I settle into the saddle and drive west into the setting sun.

A couple house into our road trip, it was time for a potty break. Many years ago when traveling thru Blythe, CA, I found a Starbucks located just off the freeway. Clean shitter. Decent coffee. Perfect place for a pit stop.

Just across the street from the Starbucks there is a Motel with a grassy knoll ideal for dogs in need of doing their duty. This would make for great place to “rest” C-Dawg as the pavement is tortuously hot on his paws. Terry coaxes C-Dawg out of the Highlander. He sniffs a couple of trees, lifts his leg twice, and then hops back into the air-conditioned SUV!

Once reloaded, we’re back on the freeway on our way to Joshua Tree. Two minutes later…poo happens! C-Dawg’s bowels erupt! The smell is excruciating!  The next exit is 5 miles down the road.

The good news, if there is any in this scenario, is that his explosion happened all over his bed and did not smear over the car! The bad news is we’re out in the boondocks with a crappy situation on our hands!

I pull off the freeway into a Valero Gas Station. Out back, there is an Air/Water station. For a buck, we get 5 minutes worth of low flow water to rinse the crap off C-Dawg’s bed! When she owned her Daycare business, Terry became well accomplished at dealing with shitty situations. She was on C-Dawg’s bed like flies on….you get the idea. She was successful in rinsing off the poo…however; there still remained a rather rank odor!

At this stage of our journey, I’m weighing the options: head home and call this a bad idea or continue on and hope C-Dawg controls his bowels? Once we’re on the road…there’s no turning back! We venture on!

We arrive at Joshua Tree’s southeast entrance at 7 pm. We’ve got about an hour of daylight left and a 45- minute drive to the campground. We opt to seek a campsite in the Jumbo Rocks area. After making a couple of loops around the Campground, we settle in at site #64 just as the sun sinks below the massive boulders that line the horizon.  C-Dawg sprawls out on the decomposed monzogranite floor. 

This site is semi-private, close to the Crapper and very clean. The temperature is hovering around 88° as we finish setting up the Hob. Once camp has been established, we dine on a couple of Safeway Salad Kits and quench our thirst with a couple of Mike’s Hard Lemonades.

Friday morning – up early. Crispy Bacon and Hot Cakes for Breakfast. No Engine 2 diet on this trip! First order of business – drive into Twenty-Nine palms and seek out a Laundromat to wash C-Dawg’s crap-stained bed! After we clean up the mess, we explore the Park.

Skull Rock is located near the Jumbo Rocks Campground about 50 feet from the road. The info guide tells us that a drive up to Key’s View is worthwhile. No so much. A brownish-gray cloud of dust and carbon monoxide taints the view of the valley below! We spend most of the day driving around the Park. In fact, we drove out the West entrance and into the town of Joshua Tree. From there, we traveled east on Hwy 62 back to Twenty-Nine Palms where we stopped off at the Oasis Visitor Center were we bought the National Parks Monopoly Game.

Back to Camp. Dinner consisting of Chile, Chicken and tortillas. A couple more Mike’s. We break out the Monopoly Game and Terry bankrupts me in no time at all!

Overall experience – pleasant. Nothing outstanding and outside of the Poo Happening, nothing too dramatic. 

Next up – Park #42 – Pinnacles.