Interpretive Hiking
Have you ever gone to a place with certain expectations? And when you get there, the experience is completely different? That pretty much sums up the first time we visited Joshua Tree National Park. Local trails around Orange County have spoiled us because they have clearly marked signs and paved roads.
On our first trip to Joshua Tree, we got a taste of driving on dirt roads, using bathrooms with no plumbing, and hiking with no guideposts. That isn’t to say that all of Joshua Tree is like that, but some parts are. And it is awesome! Having the freedom to explore where we wanted was such a great and unique experience. The term “interpretive trail” is one I look forward to finding now, as I could almost feel my entorhinal cortex and hippocampus, parts of the brain important in establishing place memory and navigation, going into hyperdrive. Enough neuroscience talk, let’s get to some photographs!
What is a Joshua Tree?
The Joshua tree is quite a unique-looking tree! It is a member of the Agave family and has very distinctive green spiky leaves. Joshua Tree National Park is full of them, and the largest one towers at over 40 feet and is located in the Queen Valley forest. Many years ago the Native Americans used the tough leaves to make baskets and sandals. The seeds and flower buds were a healthy addition to their diet. Joshua Trees provide food and shelter for a lot of organisms. In fact, if you look closely you might spot some bird nests on the leaves!
Hidden Valley
There are quite a few areas in Joshua Tree that have two things: lots of Joshua trees and unique rock formations. Oftentimes the landscape here can look quite similar from site to site, but uniqueness is actually quite abundant. Hidden Valley is one of the more popular areas, and I could see why. There are numbered “exhibits” that have informative signs, marked trails, and plenty of views. Also, the trail loops around and is super easy. That being said, some of the trail is still interpretive, which offered some unique views of the area, including the expanse of Joshua trees with the background of rocks in the first photograph.
I really like this photo because it begins to show the sheer vastness of the desert. I used a wide-angle lens here at 12mm to try and capture most of the view. But it really does continue for miles in both directions. At f/11, I wanted to get most of the scene in focus. However, I accidentally left my tripod in the car and some of the Joshua trees ended up slightly blurred. In hindsight, I should have shot at hyperfocal distance instead (more on this technique in a future post), but oh well!
This next photograph took a bit of climbing to get. I was walking by this rock formation along the path and decided to climb some rocks because from the side this looked like a staircase. I’ll have a more detailed post on the rock formations later but briefly, these rock formations came about because of volcanic activity over 100 million years ago. Erosion at the surface followed, leading to the unique landscape found in Joshua Tree today.
Cholla Cactus Garden
One of my favorite areas to visit whenever we visit Joshua Tree is Cholla Cactus Garden. It’s located in the center of the park, and is well worth the detour. Cholla (pronounced “choy-ya”) cacti are super sharp! At the garden, medical kits anchored to the ground and a bunch of warning signs signaled us to be cautious. As long as you stay cognizant and on the trail, you have a low chance of getting pricked. The specific cholla found in the garden is the Teddybear Cholla. What’s really cool is that the entire garden may just be part of one individual cactus! This is because the Teddybear Cholla seeds are actually infertile. New cacti arise from fallen stem-joints!
Have you ever been walking outside and notice that the sky looks either more orange or more blue than usual? You may have been experiencing “golden hour” or “blue hour”, which are times of the day where the sunlight gets reflected in unique ways to change the hue of the sky. The PhotoPills app is a great tool for photographers to plan shooting during golden and blue hours (more on the app in a future post!). After a full day of hiking, I wanted to be at the Cholla Cactus Garden during blue hour for some unique composition opportunities. If you contrast the image below with the image above, hopefully you can appreciate what shooting during blue hour brings to a photograph. Shooting at f/2.8 allowed me to blur the background, keeping the focus on the cactus in the foreground.
Final Thoughts
Joshua Tree is such an awesome place to visit! I’ll be the first to admit that the first time we planned a trip to Joshua Tree, I thought we could knock out the entire park in one day. I naively thought that it was going to look the same everywhere, but I could not have been more wrong. In fact, we have visited Joshua Tree an additional three times so far this year! Unique landscapes are everywhere, and it’s simply too much to try and squeeze it all into one post. Would you believe it if I told you that there are actually bodies of water found in this desert? And no, they are not oases, although some of them are!
Have any of you been to Joshua Tree? Where are your favorite places in the park?
A Bit of History of Joshua Tree
Where to start? This post already has some history of Joshua trees, and rock formations, and some information on the cholla cactus.
The discovery of triangular projectiles, spears, and scraping tools helped reveal that the Pinto Culture, the namesake of “Pinto Basin”, inhabited Joshua Tree 4000-8000 years ago. It was thought that they hunted big game and harvested seasonal plants. As the climate grew drier, human inhabitants adapted as well and started hunting smaller game and harvesting seeds. Following the Pinto Culture, the Native Americans (the Serrano, the Chemehuevi, and the Cahuilla) inhabited Joshua Tree, followed by the first cattlemen in the 1800s.
Joshua Tree has a long history of changes to its size. A Pasadena resident named Minerva Hoyt worked tirelessly to protect the desert plants. Her efforts resulted in the protection of 825,000 acres in 1936. In 1950, Twentynine Palms Corporation deeded a portion of the Oasis of Mara to the National Park Service. In the same year, Joshua Tree was reduced by 265,000 for mining purposes. It wasn’t until 1994 that Joshua Tree was promoted to a park (before it was a monument), and the bill that promoted Joshua Tree also added 234,000 acres. Of Joshua Tree’s current 792,623 acres, 591,624 acres are designated wilderness.
There are a lot of historically interesting stories about Joshua Tree. It’s too much to include in a single post, so I’ll continue with this in a follow-up!
As usual, comments, conversations, feedback, and messages are always welcome!
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Great pics Matt, I especially liked the Joshua Tree one!
Thank you so much!