I'm writing this the day after from a hotel room in Twentynine Palms but more on that later. Note that this post covers parts of three days from the 20th until the 22nd.

On my last night at the date (two nights ago) farm I decided to go looking for desert wildlife. My host had mentioned that he had a resident Tarantula which was almost always found in the same spot every night. He told me that he had to stop telling volunteers about it because more than one had left early after being shown. Sure enough the spider was there when we looked. It only comes out at night to reduce the risk of being eaten by a bird. It was pretty cool to see such a large insect in the wild. I never felt uncomfortable around it which was interesting. There was also another large spider nearby that was hiding out in a hole but I never managed to identify it. I did a sweep of the properly looking for lizards and snakes but didn't find any.

Later that night I saw my first scorpion who was chilling out in the middle of the bathroom. Apparently this particular specimen was rather large for this species. This was a bit creepier than the Tarantula, perhaps because it was inside which naturally lead to thoughts about where other scorpions might be waiting.

Yesterday I got up early as usual and did the mornings work before packing up and setting off. My destination was Joshua Tree National Park. On the way I stopped in the town of Mecca to get supplies. It was an interesting experience as the supermarket that I went into had prices and labels entirely in Spanish. Not really knowing what I was getting I got some fruit and an nice Mexican pastry.

Next on the route was Box Canyon. This part of the drive was incredibly scenic as the road wound its way through the dry canyon. The canyon walls showed sharply angled strata with certain rock layers being heavily eroded. This gave the canyon many sharp points as well as many crumbling sections.

The rock has been pushed sideways

Joshua Tree National Park is the first National Park that I've visited and was thus the first opportunity to purchase the National Park Pass. This pass costs $80 and allows unlimited entry to any National Park in the country for one carload of people. With each park costing around $20 to enter it is well worth the price and should pay for itself within the month.

The park is named after the Joshua Tree which is a type of Yucca. This plant was named by Mormons who thought that the trees looked like biblical Joshua, holding his arms to the heavens in prayer. To me they look like yuccas...

A Joshua Tree with an above average number of arms

The result of the ongoing forest fire I mentioned a few days ago

I purchase the pass at the Cottonwood Visitor Centre at the southern entrance to the Park. The rangers at the centre suggested a nearby hike to the Lost Palms Oasis. There was also an abandoned mine on a side trail. This sounded great so I prepared myself with water, food, and sunblock, and started out. It was around 11am when I began so it was very hot. The hike was 3.2 miles to the Oasis with a short side trip to the mine. The total length was around 6.8 miles or 11kms.

The path rose steadily up into the mountains. Before long I was at the side path to Mastadon Mine which I took. This path went up to a peak called Mastadon Mountain. As I was walking I approached a bush beside a large boulder and heard the distinctive buzz of a rattlesnake. I quickly stopped and then moved backwards, and then for the next five minutes tried to figure out where exactly the snake was. I couldn't spot it however so instead chose a different path and kept going.

The snake is somewhere in this photo

Mastadon Mine was like a gold rush ride from a theme park. This part of the park is covered in thousands of huge, round boulders with that distinctive wild west orange colour. The mine was perched against the side of the mountain at the base of some of these large rocks. The pit itself was covered by a large cage to prevent access. Some of the original mining structures were still standing although part of the structure was in the process of being propped up with new wood. It's hard to imagine that anyone could have survived and mined in this environment.

A view of the mine structure

Looking down the pit

The rest of the hike to the oasis was long and hot. The track seemed to go on forever; I would reach the top of a rise and see the track winding on ahead up to the next rise, where the same thing would happen.

I eventually made it to the oasis and was a bit disappointed to find that there was no water on the surface. I had been sustained for the last part of the hike by ideas of a large pond that I could swim in (I knew that I was hoping for a bit much). There was a large number of fan palms however which hinted that there was water around. I knew that I still had to walk the entire way back to the trailhead so I had a rest in the shade of the trees.

Fan palms at the oasis

The walk back was exhausting but seemed to pass more quickly than the first half. It's hard to describe what it's like walking in the desert heat. All of your skin feels as if it's direct sunlight the whole time. Walking uphill is especially hard. I knew I needed to stay hydrated but it was hard to drink the hot and strongly chlorinated water.

I eventually made it back to the car and had to sit down for a while before moving on. I think each km in the desert is probably worth two on a normal hike just because of how exhausting the heat it. My next stop was the town of Twentynine Palms to stock up on gas and the food that I couldn't get at the Mexican shop in Mecca. This drive took me through a section of the park where the Colorado Desert slowly transitioned into the Mojave desert. The vegetation changed quite dramatically as I entered the Mojave which is slightly colder (cold being a relative term here) and at a higher elevation.

After getting my supplies I drove back into the park and headed towards the Jumbo Rocks campsite. As the name implies the campsite is situated within a field of massive boulders. I drove around to look for a tent site that would be shaded in the morning and, after finding one, went to pay for the night at the self pay station.

As I was pulling out from the pay station the car's engine suddenly cut out. I tried to restart it but the ignition was not doing anything at all. I should explain here that almost the entire park is outside of cellphone coverage. I was a bit concerned that the engine had stopped while the car was moving so I though it should contact AAA and get them to come take a look. The problem was that to do this I needed to get back to Twentynine Palms which was about 20km away. Luckily a really nice Canadian woman stopped and offered to give me a lift into town to make the call which I gratefully accepted.

I'm not a member of AAA but there is a reciprocal agreement with the NZ AA which gave me free roadside assistance over here. After being on hold for about 20 minutes I finally got though and gave the operator information on where my car was and made it clear that I would not be able to receive any calls or texts once I returned to the car. I was told that someone would be there within an hour.

We then we back into the park and I waited with the car while my Canadian friend went to set up here camp. She had an RV so didn't have any tent to pitch. I had made the call at 6.20pm and was back at the car around 6.40pm. I waited and waited as the sun sank and at 8.30pm decided that no one was coming. I had already paid for a campsite before the car had broken down so I decided I might as well pitch my tent and figure it all out in the morning.

Just as I had finished getting set up a tow truck came driving through the campsite. I flagged the driver down and he explained to me what had happened. He had been told to look for my car at Giant Rock which just happens to be a place about 50 miles from where I was. After looking for an hour or so the operator had finally mentioned that I was in Joshua Tree National Park which instantly made him realise that he was actually looking for Jumbo Rocks.

I rode with him up to the car and he attached a device to the battery to measure the amperage and noticed that even with jumper leads attached the battery was slowly draining. He suggested that this was most likely an issue with the alternator. Instead of charging as the engine ran the battery was slowly draining which had caused the engine to cut out on me earlier. We managed to get the engine started though and he gave me instructions on how to get it running again in the morning to make it back into to town to a mechanic. This involved attaching jumper leads but not starting the engine for more than 20 minutes in order to give the battery enough charge to make the journey.

I'm so grateful that the driver didn't give up on trying to find me and persevered for over three hours to get the job done. It's also an awesome service that I didn't have to pay a cent for the call out. My friend had offered to come with me into town the next morning to make sure that I made it there without any further issues which I'm also extremely grateful for. It's a testament to how many great people there are in the world that I was assisted so generously by strangers the whole way through this.

Waiting on the battery to charge

We made it into town the next morning without issue and I took the car to the first mechanic I could find. They said that there would be a bit of a wait so I walked over to the nearby McDonald's to make use of their free WiFi. Unfortunately the WiFi would not work for some reason but I did manage to get connected to a different service which gave me 30 minutes free. As luck would have it just as the 30 minutes ended the mechanic called me to tell me that the alternator would need to be replaced and that the cost would be $633. This is a pretty huge cost for me at over $900 NZD but I had no option but to pay it.

The work would take a few hours and I decided that I needed to be somewhere cool with internet access so I checked into a nearby motel. I spent most of the day sitting inside watch crappy TV and updating my plans for the next few days. I've decided not to travel to Mojave National Preserve now as I don't want to risk another breakdown in a remote area when I'm by myself. Instead I'll spend my second night in Joshua Tree tomorrow (I had planned to be there tonight) instead.

Eventually the work was done and the car seems to be running nicely again. Hopefully this will be the only major work that needs to be done as with the exchange rate as bad as it is these costs are really hard to handle. I'm glad it happened in a popular camp site though rather than on a remote desert road.

Tomorrow I'll be heading back into the park for another night before heading to an Airbnb I've arranged in Bakersfield on Wednesday.