Not far from where we are camped is a great hike in Joshua Tree National Park called the Lost Palm Oasis. This hike was 7.2 with over 1050′ of climbing.
We got a fairly early for us start and passed a few people pretty quickly but then had the palm oasis to ourselves. The trail starts in a little grove of palm trees and then climbs steadily out into the mountains. It isn’t very difficult hiking, just sandy in some sections with a couple steep climbs thrown in. Not very far into the hike the rocks start. There are massive boulder piles everywhere!
When we reached a sign at the end warning something about it being the end of the trail proceed at your own risk, we picked our way down a pretty precipitous pitch of rocks and dirt until we reached the bottom. This is the jewel of the hike…all the California Fan Palm Trees. They are giant and it’s quite impressive that they are buried all the way back here. We hiked around marveling at the scenery and then continued along the canyon until we found a way that looped back up the cliff to the main trail.
This little loop at the end is where all the tough hiking occurs. It was a fun adventure but definitely not for everyone. It’s really rugged and steep and on a hot day it could be rough. This day the weather was perfect and we were thrilled to get to do this hike.
I finished reading The Other Americans and Malorie. The Other American is the Deschutes County Novel Idea pick for 2021 and I can’t wait to hear the author talk. Malorie is the sequel to Birdbox which I liked better. I’ve always got one or two books going and if you have any suggestions, shoot me an email!
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