Monday, March 10th, 2025, 0650-1740
Pinto Mountains Wilderness mm 63.5 to Joshua Tree National Park, mm 84, Section 8, elevation 4100′
20.5 miles.
Coyotes woke me in the morning, the sweet sounds of the desert. It was cold when I started, only 39 degrees. I proceeded up the wash, which forked into a bunch of branches. I took a wrong turn at one of them and had to do a short up and over to get back in the right wash. Luckily it was pretty easy.
A series of passes and washes repeated through the morning. The going became more tedious as the washes got pretty thorny, narrow, and rocky. I took yet another wrong turn and had to do a short backtrack. I got a little frustrated with the rough terrain, mostly because I was simply anxious to finally get to Joshua Tree NP. The Pinto mountains weren’t my favorite range along the route, more so just a section to get through before the really good stuff. They were hot, dry and with very little plant life. It’s like JTNP sucked up all the best attributes before they could make it any farther east.
Eventually I made it down into a big wash that turned into a dirt road. I followed it and its tributaries for miles, which led to a ridge on the border of JTNP. Finally I was in the park! I took a break to survey the view and try to get cell reception…no dice. I headed down the ridge and did some shenanigans to avoid a park service maintenance facility. I retrieved my water and food cache, the last one of the journey. I was relieved to find it still buried and undisturbed. All my caches were a success!
Having been to this part of the park already before, I knew there was a nice campground less than 1 mile away. So I wrangled my additional food and 2 gallons of water to the highway and got an easy hitch to Belle. I didn’t really plan to camp there again, but I was longing for the shade of the boulders, picnic tables, pit toilets and a dumpster. I sorted my food and distributed my water. I even did sock laundry, using one of my cut-up water jugs as a basin. It worked pretty well.
I spent several hours doing these chores, then simply walked back to the route, cutting straight across the land rather than following the roads. My months spent freely walking across the desert had reshaped my thinking. Roads were unnecessary. The landscape was generally very conducive to just going the way I wanted to go. I felt absolutely free.
I got back on course and followed the route into a beautiful canyon. It was fantastic, with large pinon pines and junipers…real trees! I found a great camp spot in the wash surrounded by the characteristic Monzogranite boulders. I was excited to have plenty of food and water so that I could take my time over the next few days. But the weather had other plans. A big storm was forecasted to arrive on Thursday and last for several days. So I now planned to hike across most of the entire park in one day, then walk into the town of Desert Hot Springs the day after. So much for treating myself at the end. But I was still going to experience most of the park during pretty good weather. The next few days would be my reward for making it across the desert.
