“Thruhiking” the Joshua Tree Traverse

We hiked the 40-mile California Riding and Hiking Trail across Joshua Tree National Park. This route has also been deemed the “Joshua Tree Traverse”. The Joshua Tree Traverse has no water sources, so we carried nine liters of water each. It is lined from start to finish with Joshua trees, prickly pear, hedgehog cacti, and yucca as it weaves its way across the park. The California Riding and Hiking Trail was first proposed in 1944 as a 3,000 mile trail circling California, but building the complete trail was abandoned.

Day 1: Mile 0 – 3.8

We have wanted to come to Joshua Tree National Park for ages, but this was the first time we actually made it, so we were very excited as we pulled into the park. There is no water for the entire 40-mile route and no reliable sources anywhere in the park that we could detour to. Therefore, we loaded up 9 liters of water each and stuffed it all into heavy backpacks.

We got a late start, as we often do, and began our hike at 7pm — less than an hour from sunset. The trail took us past Joshua trees, boulders, cacti, and beautiful views before night fell. In the dark, we struggled to find a clear spot large enough for cowboy camping, so we decided to set up our tent. It was windy as we set up and it looks like we’ll be in for a windy night. We are super pumped to be on the trail and excited for a full day of hiking tomorrow. For dinner we had homemade dal with rice. Yum!

Day 2: Mile 3.8 – 28

Sleeping last night was a challenge. It was very windy, and our tent stakes kept pulling out of the sandy ground. Eventually we got some rocks to put on top of the stakes and that solved the problem.

It was a beautiful morning when we started hiking. Not too hot, but we could tell the heat was coming. In the morning we saw horny toad lizards, rabbits, Joshua trees, yuccas, and a strange pine tree with needles in single groups. We learned it is called a single-leaf piñon pine, and it’s the most drought tolerant pine tree in the world. Tim almost stepped on a snake and then it bumped into his feet as he tried to avoid it. He was scared, but as the adrenaline wore off we both got a good-enough look to know it wasn’t a rattle snake (we looked it up later and found out it was a coachwhip — not venomous). We also spotted a baby rabbit that seemed to be half paralyzed and dying. It may have been recently attacked by a venomous snake.

Partly into the morning we changed our plan for the hike. Initially we had planned to do an out-and-back, but we decided instead to hike the whole Joshua Tree Traverse and get back tomorrow by hitchhiking. Hopefully that won’t be too hard (you never know how long it will take to get a ride, especially in National Parks where tourists tend to be wary of picking up hitchhikers). As soon as we decided to change our trip to a mini “thruhike”, we were invigorated and excited!

In the afternoon it got really hot but we didn’t want to drink too much too fast and run out of water. We found a patch of shade under another single-leaf pine and had cold-soaked shepherds pie for lunch.

As we finished the day we enjoyed the Joshua trees and tons of flowering cacti that lined the trail. We hiked a little bit farther than we wanted to looking for a place to camp that was sheltered from the wind. We eventually found a perfect spot sheltered behind huge rock formations and “cowboy camped” without pitching our tent. It was beautiful! For dinner we had mushroom risotto (which is one of the recipes in our book). Yum!

Day 3: Mile 28 – 38.5

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise between the rocks. It was still windy, but a little bit calmer. We enjoyed coffee and granola before hitting the trail. This side of the park seems dryer than yesterday’s, probably because the elevation is about 1,000 feet lower.

We saw tons of animals again: rabbits, zebra-tailed lizards, a rattle snake that hissed and rattled at us, and some mating beetles. We never saw a roadrunner even though they are in the park and we had hoped to. We also never saw or heard coyotes, even though we spotted tons of scat and prints. At 10 miles to go, we had 2 liters of water left each, meaning we rationed perfectly (we aimed to drink one liter per five miles). The trail today was mostly flat but slightly downhill. We hit the end of the trail and began our hitch back to the car. It didn’t take long until a very friendly German couple picked us up and drove us all of the way back to our car. Thanks!