Blooms in the Desert

Last weekend we headed out to Joshua Tree to see how Spring brought life and color to the usually barren landscape.  Like last Spring, we arrived the night before and headed to our hike in the morning.
Once again we stayed at the Super 8 on the north side of the park, because it was the most reliable choice closest to the park. Carlos advised me against booking anything on the south side of the park due to the meth towns there. Our evening was Del Taco, a few beers, and a nice conversation, and in the morning we promptly headed out, driving through the whole park to get to the south, making a couple of stops to take pictures along the way.

 Last year we covered 49 Palms trail and Lost Horse Trail, where we saw an old mine, and later a bed and a chimney. This time we went to the south part of the park and did the Lost Palm Canyon trail. Most of the landscape was pretty flat, so i would say that it was physically easier then the previous hikes, but longer in distance. Most of the flowers we encountered were in the first 1 mile of the hike. I still think that 49 Palms is probably the most colorful destination, with the most wild life. We did spot a smaller lizard and frogs in the water pools, but no one else.
It was weird walking on a flat plane not knowing how far we've gone and how much more we have to travel. I guess i am accustomed to the mountainous terrain where you can either see your destination, or surmise how far it is by watching landscape. Hiking flat surfaces is more like traveling blind ( i guess a GPS or a map and a compass would resolve that), but we were there for the whole day, not in a rush, and mainly for taking pictures. Toward the end of the trail we started to see some views, finally, and it became less monotonous and more beautiful, at least to my eyes.
When we finally arrived at the Lost Palms Canyon, the trail down was not very clearly defined, so we hopped down the best way we found. At the base, a large group of palms seemed inviting, but was occupied by a bunch of boy scouts, so we moved on following the canyon and encountered a number of smaller groups of Palms. We took a lunch break at the last palm collection, before heading back. Perhaps next time we would attempt to climb up to the upper oasis, which definitely has no trail and would require scrambling.
On the trail back we met a park ranger, an elderly lady who was eager to make conversation. She told us she was from Boston and she works as a campground host, living in the RV for several months with her husband. She enjoys the outdoors and is clearly living a dream retirement. After finding out Carlos was from Guatemala, she proceeded to share memories of her time volunteering with habitat for humanity there in Guatemala. Super fun and adventurous lady she was. Carlos and i talked about how much it would cost to be able to do what she does when we retire.

On the road back home, driving through the south road, we stopped for dinner in Cathedral City, finding these awesome Mexican restaurant on yelp. It didn't look much on the outside and was located next to a grocery store, or a dollar store, and some sketchy Chinese carry out place, but it exceeded our expectations by looking super cute and super busy on the inside. Although they were out of oysters, and substituted octopus for abalone on the menu without telling us, the food was actually very good, my cranberry margarita was nice.
The only difficulty was driving back home, because we were both super sleepy and tired, and it started raining. Thankfully Carlos managed to get us home safe.