Joshua Tree National Park

We visited Joshua Tree National Park on the way back from our great white shark diving experience, visiting Joshua Tree and then continuing on up through the Mojave desert. Joshua tree National Park is a unique place where two distinct eco systems meet, the Mojave and the Colorado, resulting in an area home to fascinating plants and animals and a landscape formed through thousands of years of wind and rain.

The visitors center is located on Park Boulevard, just off the 29, Palms Highway, its a busy area with surrounding shops and residential housing. Not where you would expect to find a visitors center, but this is the main road into the park and leaves any built up area behind after around five miles becoming pure desert. We popped into the visitors center briefly and then drove into the park heading for the Barker Dam Nature Trail. A trail that seemed to promise a lot.

The Barker Dam Trail is only a short trail, its a loop around 1.5 miles, but in the desert heat it can be enough. Whilst we were there the car thermometer was topping 42 to 43 Celsius. From the main car park we crossed a short area of open scrub and then passed through a more rocky area, this broken rock continued until we reached the dam area. 

The dam area was still holding back some water as it has done since the early 1900`s when first built by cattlemen and creating a small water hole. To our surprise there were a good number of Desert Bighorn Sheep attracted by the water in the heat. Apparently the best time to see any wildlife in the area is first thing in the morning when visitor numbers are lower and temperatures are cooler.

We carried on past the dam following the circular route until we came across the Petroglyphs area. These Petroglyphs are found in a cave a short walk from the main path. The images are thought to be around 2000 years old and include Petroglyphs (carvings into the rock) and Pictographs (mineral paintings o ht e rock) and seem to be in very good condition, however some were thought to have been "touched up" in the 1940/50`s by Hollywood film crew.

From the Petroglyphs its only a short walk back to the car park. We then drove up to Keys View, this is a great spot to look out over the desert and the mountains in the distance, its only a short drive, but really worth the detour.

Keys View has no trail, just a short loop to raise you above the car park and get you the best view of the desert in the distance below. We then drove down to the Skull Rock Trail. Again a short trail that takes you on a loop around the road and past the rock that it takes its name from, an unusual rock formation that resembles a human skull.

Skull Rock actually does look like the top half of a human skull, its quite funky, there are also some really nice Joshua trees around this area. Following the Skull Rock Trail we returned to the car and left the park via the Utah Trail Road heading towards the Mojave Desert.