One Day in Joshua Tree National Park (Ryan Mountain, Keys View, Cholla Cactus Garden, & MORE!)

After spending a few days road tripping from San Diego making some fun and unique stops along the way we have officially made it to Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree National Park is located east of Palm Springs and is known for unique rock formations, desert terrain, and its namesake the Joshua Tree. And first up we're headed to the Hidden Valley area where there is said to be a high concentration of them. This is a Joshua Tree but despite its name it's not actually a tree. It's actually part of the agave family. Both Native Americans like the local Cahuilla and homesteaders consider it to be a very useful plant. Their tough leaves could be made into baskets and sandals. The flower buds and seeds were a healthy addition to their diet and their limbs and trunks could be used for fencing and corrals. Unlike pine or oak trees they don't have growth rings so it's difficult to estimate their age but they grow on average between half an inch and three inches per year. And some researchers believe they can live over 150 years but many in the park could be much older and some of the tallest in the park are around 40 feet tall. The best part of the park to see Joshua Trees is the northern part of the park so we came to the Hidden Valley area for sunrise. There is a quick loop trail here but we found this other trail right behind the picnic area that is just completely surrounded by the Joshua Trees. Most of the things we're doing today in the park are quick and easy but we wanted to get in one decent hike while we're here so we're at the Ryan Mountain Trail. It's about three miles and it has about a thousand feet of elevation gain and it takes you to the summit of Ryan Mountain which is the second highest peak here in the park. This hike does not play around it gets right to the point it's just up up up up up with no relief. We made it to the summit of Ryan Mountain which is 5,457 feet and check out the view right behind me there's a snowy mountain which is really cool to see when you're out in the desert all these crazy rock formations down below it's a little windy it's a little cold but it's super beautiful. For the rest of the day we're going to check out some of the quick and easy spots in the park and quick stop number one is Barker Dam which is a short one mile loop. We made it to Barker Dam but it's not exactly what we were expecting and all the photos online you see this beautiful pond surrounded by all these rocks but as you can tell there is no water it's totally dried up so it's not what we were envisioning we were going to see but the surrounding area and this trail has been really cool there are huge boulders everywhere it's basically just a giant playground there's kids climbing on them there's people bouldering so i think it's still worth the mile trek since it's not very long but just maybe don't expect to see water. But we did find the Barker Dam which was built in 1900 by ranchers who needed water for their stock they eventually left the area so it's no longer used for that purpose but you can still see its remains today. Right next to the Barker Dam trail is the Wall Street Mill Trail which as name implies takes you to the Wall Street Mill. Along the way you'll see the remains of the old mining operation including a mill, machinery, a well, a well pump, and a few rusty old cars. So the Wall Street Mill which is just up the trail there or almost there was built by Bill Keyes who was a local rancher and miner and in 1943 he got into a heated argument with another prospector in the area named Worth Bagley. He ended up shooting and killing him and you know most people might want to cover that up try to hide it this guy no way he built a monument to it which there's still a recreation here the original one's in the park museum. Here is where Worth Bagley bit the dust at the hand of W.F. Keyes May 11, 1943. I don't know if that's not the wild west I don't know what is. Next up we're driving up to Keyes View which is about a 15 minute drive from the main park road and it's the highest point you can drive to in the park at 5,185 feet. From up here you have panoramic views of the Coachella Valley down below and you can see the San Andreas Fault which is where the North American and the Pacific tectonic plates meet and I might get blown off of this this viewpoint here. It's so beautiful but holy cow it's windy get me out of this wind. For lunch we made ourselves these dynamite looking sandwiches here so we got a beautiful bun we just threw a bunch of different meats on here there's um there's salami there's ham there's prosciutto melted some cheese we got some spinach some tomato and then we have like the Trader Joe's garlic spread with some spices on there oregano or herbs I guess oregano and what is this one basil looks pretty dang tasty all right now it's time to see does the famous skull rock look like a skull it does look like a skull but it is hands down the most packed part of the park that we've been to today we didn't want to wait around with the masses to take a photo so it was a pretty quick experience for us while skull rock didn't really work out there are tons of rocks to play on here this is such a fun area and the rocks have a nice kind of sticky grippy texture to them so you don't really feel like you're going to slip and fall it was fun I played we've got one more interesting rock formation we want to check out in the park which is arch rock and it only requires a 1.2 mile hike to be honest I wasn't that excited about all the rocks here at Joshua tree I know a lot of people love to come here and climb on the rocks and I severely underestimated how much fun it is this stop might have been my favorite of the entire day and I was just not expecting that at all for our final stop in the park where the cholla cactus garden this is a 10 acre area filled with teddy bear cholla which aren't seen that often in the rest of the park especially in this quantity and it said that the best time to come here is around sunrise or sunset when they glow this gorgeous golden color I don't think the camera is doing this spot justice at all it is so magical I didn't know if they'd actually look like they were glowing and they totally are this was the perfect way to end our day here at Joshua tree national park we originally planned to do more in the area but due to some hotter weather we decided we're going to book it to death valley national park a week earlier than planned to take advantage of some cooler weather so tonight we're driving two and a half hours and then tomorrow we're going to drive the rest of the way to the park with some really cool stops along the way it's super windy and cold today so fashionista Catherine's here stay warm look stylish I might have to break out my bonnet again today little Adam of the Joshua trees this time where are we going next Adam next up is Bob Barker dam come on down you're the next contestant at Joshua tree national park is right more twerking I don't even know how to twerk