Fun things to do in Joshua Tree National Park

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An oasis in the desert forms when there is a crack in the earth's crust and water is forced to the surface. This life giving moisture supports the trees and attracts wildlife along with people. The Oasis or Mara has long attracted human habitation. The first recorded people using the oasis were the Serrano Indians who called the place "Mar-Rah" or "little springs and much grass". By the time white settlers came in the early 1900s, the Indians were gone. Today the park service has to pipe in water so the oasis can continue as a home to the plants and animals.

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Minerva Hamilton Hoyt was a Pasadena gardener and civic leader with a strong love of the desert and its plant and animal life. In 1930 she formed the International Desert Conservation League and by 1936 convinced President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to establish the Joshua Tree National Monument.

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Just before you enter Joshua Tree National Park from the north you will see the Oasis Visitors Center on the right. This is a great place to get maps and brochures and to gather information to help you plan your visit based on your interests and the time you have. The rangers can also arrange for camping permits.

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I was only here for one day so I did not get to tour the Southern Part of the park. I did, however, take these pictures I'd like to share.

I returned to the park in October 2012 and have now toured the Southern part of the park too.

There are pictoglyphs and petroglyphs throughout the Park. There are also books available to read about them and the cultures that have inhabited the area. The Serrano, the Chemehuevi, and the Cahuilla were three "vanished" groups that lived in this area but their mark can be found throughout the park. (Not in an invasive way, either)
This history of these cultures is amazing.

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There is such a lot to see in this place and it pays to be prepared for the unexpected.

In certain lights the park assumes quite a magical. mystical atmosphere.

A very special place to remember and hopefully return to,

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The Rock formations in the Park provide one of the most visually dramatic aspects of a visit there. Not only in size, shape and colour but equally in the surreal way some of them overhang or are balanced as though on a pivot on the one below.

As we walked along the Barker Dam trail, following the sketch map we had from the Park Office, I was thrilled to be the one to find, on the rocks beneath an overhang, the most incredible display of "petroglyphs".
We clustered round all taking photographs . Wow, we thought, such colours so beautifully preserved for so many years!

It was only later that talking to a Park Ranger we were told that the Park had been used as the location for a film in the 1950's and a helpful crew member, thinking the paintings a little faded, had brightened them up with modern paints!

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About 85 million years ago the formation you see here was formed 15 miles underground from magma. It became Monzogranite and a force called Mountain Uplifting pushed it towards the surface. It was once a solid rock but many years of groundwater, wind, rain and other forces of erosion carved it into the formation you see today. These forces are still changing this rock.