Finally back to my true love, the desert, for a trip I have long fantasized about: a traverse through Joshua Tree's vast rock wilderness known only as the Wonderland of Rocks.The Wonderland of Rocks is a 2.5 by 4.5 mile natural maze of great granite monoliths, boulders and cactus. No trail passes through its interior and it is seldom visited beyond its fringes. Having the means to set up a car shuttle, we sought to do a full lengthwise traverse from one side of the Wonderland to the other, fully realizing turning back might be necessary. Arriving at the car well into the dark was a strong possibility. A poorly-chosen route could easily find us cliff-ed out at an insurmountable obstacle and forced to find another way.
In short, it is a great place to explore and a superb place to get lost.
While I knew a route existed through the Wonderland, we proposed a more ambitious route involving numerous on the ground decisions. We set off across the Joshua tree-ed washes between the rockpile islands, heading roughly north, but improvising where necessary. Often climbing one of the rockpiles found us staring down an insurmountable back side, and another route would need to be found. Often the view from the top of a rockpile extended only as far as the next rockpile. In this sense, our hike reminded me a bit of caving, where typically only the next obstacle can be seen and the end goal can seem like a long way off.
For much of the trip, our course of travel was dictated by the prominent fracture patterns in the granite (see satellite image). These fractures formed washes or gullies or saddles that could be often be traversed with considerable ease compared to the wall-like monoliths that abut them. In the Wonderland, topographic maps are next to useless because of the relatively uniform size and distribution of the monolithic rockpiles. However, a compass and satellite images proved to be invaluable navigational aids and we usually had enough clues to pinpoint our location at any given time.
Our approximate route through the Wonderland
Setting forth
The variety of terrain we crossed was satisfyingly diverse- sandy washes, intense scrub and cactus, lofty rock towers, narrow saddles, rock-strewn guts, talus caves, granite slickrock, even rock arches. In a few places, some games of cactus hopscotch were gingerly played to step through cactus patches.To my surprise water was surprisingly ubiquitous, in part because of the recent rains and little soil development. We could have easily gone the whole trip without carrying water had we wanted to. After a while of this intense hiking, I felt sufficiently isolated.
Even here there is water
Eventually we made it to the sandy wash en route to Willow Hole, which provided a welcome intermission before the final 4 hour crossing of two boulder saddles and the final descent down Rattlesnake Canyon to our cars. At this point it became obvious we would be finishing the trip in the dark, so we tried to keep a steady pace. This final section provided some of the most challenging and enjoyable terrain including a steep descent in, above and through a boulder talus cave. It was a long, but thoroughly, enjoyable trip. The beauty of it of course is the variety, wilderness feel and numerous possibilities. I would readily go on a deeper and more challenging trip through the Wonderland- several days might even be necessary.
The day ended around a campfire, devouring a delicious blueberry-capped cheesecake in honor of Sara's birthday. Thanks to Richard, Jeff, Ryan and Sara for a great and memorable adventure.
In the thick of it
Descent into Rattlesnake Canyon at dusk
1 comment:
very cool :)
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