Camping in Joshua Tree National Park
Watching the sunset and moonrise over the rocks by the Arch Trail in Joshua Tree National Park is not a bad way to spend an evening! Getting up to sunrise over the same rocks, and exploring the park just after dawn is also pretty cool! When it's 32F at night (we did not foresee that!) and you don't get much sleep, you have to remind yourself of such things!
We only did one overnight in the park during our stay. This was partially because we were staying so close to the park. Partially because Rufus is not allowed on trails (and frankly doesn't much care for hiking), so it was wiser to leave her at home when our main aim was to hike. Partially because you have to plan ahead to get a camping spot. There are 500 sites throughout the park. (Note: Most have no access to water, and the few water sources are at ranger stations, which are ~20 miles+ drive from the campgrounds. The park is BIG. ) All sites are often taken starting early on Thursday. (People arrive early and hold them for the weekend.) So we were limited to Monday- Wednesday nights, if we just wanted to roll in for a leisurely evening.
But the big reason was weather. When we were making tradeoffs on Vanagon enhancements, we opted not to spend $1,000 on a fancy heating unit. We thought, we hate the cold! We are never camping in the cold! (That's number 37 on a growing list entitled: "What were we thinking?!" We recently figured that we have only camped twice when we didn't wake up in 40F or less temps!) Clearly, we did NOT succeed related to the weather. Our sleeping bags are only rated to 40F...so you can probably guess how the night went for everyone.
But the cold made it quite easy to get up at 6am for the sunrise. Once the sun came up, we were immediately able to feel our hands again, which was another bonus! The previous evening, Curt had taken advantage of the full moon to explore around Arch Trail in the "dark". Wendy explored pre-dawn. Our low-light photography skills still aren't up to snuff. We are working on it, because we'd love to be able to better share with you guys what we are seeing with our eyes. (Which we realize are the greatest lenses ever!)
We packed up and explored the Pinto Basin area of the park in the early morning. This is the lower-elevation Colorado desert eco-system,which doesn't have the Yucca Trees (e.g., Joshua Trees) of the Mojave desert regions of the park. There are some wildflowers blooming in this area and the MOST AMAZING cactus garden. Can't really put into words how cool it is to see it in the distance and wander around in it. Surely worth one night in the cold.