Joshua Tree National Park

Listen for a moment. The wind moves through the spiky crowns of the trees with a dry, papery hiss. Underfoot, the ground is coarse sand made of broken granite, and it crunches with every step. The light here is sharp and clean. It picks out every edge of every boulder. Welcome to Joshua Tree National Park, one of the strangest and most beautiful landscapes in the American West.

Before any history, look at the trees around you. Their branches twist upward and outward at odd angles. Their trunks are shaggy with old, dead leaves. Here is the first surprise. A Joshua tree is not really a tree at all. It is a giant yucca, a relative of the agave plants you may know from gardens. It has no growth rings like an oak or a pine, so scientists cannot count rings to learn its age.

Where does the name come from? According to a popular tale, Mormon settlers crossed this desert in the nineteenth century. They saw the raised branches and thought of the prophet Joshua, lifting his arms toward the sky in prayer. This story is told everywhere, but historians treat it as folklore rather than settled fact. Long before any settler arrived, these plants were already part of daily life for the people who lived here.

Those people came first. The Serrano, the Chemehuevi and the Cahuilla peoples knew this land for many generations. They gathered seeds, pinyon nuts and mesquite beans. They knew where the springs were hidden. Near the town of Twentynine Palms, the Oasis of Mara was an important place for them, a source of water and shade. Rock art and grinding stones remain in parts of the park. If you find them, please look but never touch.

Now here is something many visitors miss. This park sits where two different deserts meet. In the higher western half, you are in the Mojave Desert, which is cooler and wetter. This is where the Joshua trees grow. Drive east and downhill, and you enter the Colorado Desert, part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It is lower, hotter and drier. The Joshua trees thin out and then disappear. You can watch the change happen through your car window.

Then there are the rocks. These great piles of rounded boulders look as if a giant had stacked them by hand. In fact they formed deep underground, many millions of years ago, as molten rock cooled slowly into granite. Water seeped into cracks in the stone and wore down the corners. Over a very long time, the softer soil above washed away. The rounded boulders came to the surface and stayed. This is why the stones look smooth and soft, almost like bread dough.

The rocks have drawn people in a new way, too. Joshua Tree is one of the best known rock climbing areas in the United States. On a cool morning, you may see climbers with ropes and chalk bags moving slowly up the granite. The stone is rough and grippy, kind to hands and shoes. Even if you never climb, it is worth stopping to watch. Their small, careful movements show you just how big these boulders really are.

The park exists today partly because of one determined woman. In the early twentieth century, Minerva Hoyt, a garden lover from Pasadena, became alarmed. People were digging up cactus and setting fire to Joshua trees. She campaigned hard to protect this desert. Her work helped create Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936. Much later, in 1994, Congress made it a full national park. Today it covers nearly 800,000 acres, larger than some small countries.

In the middle of the park, the land holds some odd human stories. Ranchers and miners once tried to make a living here. One of the best known was Bill Keys, who built a ranch in a hidden canyon. He collected old machines, tools and cars, and many still sit where he left them. Rangers lead guided tours of the ranch. Locals also tell a story that cattle rustlers once hid stolen herds in Hidden Valley, though this tale is hard to prove.

If you want a sense of scale, drive up to Keys View. From this high point, you look south over the Coachella Valley. On a clear day, you can see the line of the San Andreas Fault running along the valley floor. That is the great crack where two plates of the Earth's crust slowly grind past each other. Far below, the cities of the valley look tiny. Haze sometimes blurs the view, so clear winter days are often best.

Further east, in the lower desert, you will find the Cholla Cactus Garden. Thousands of cholla cactuses grow here, close together. In the late afternoon, their spines catch the light and glow a soft gold. They look fuzzy, almost friendly, like teddy bears. Do not be fooled. The joints break off at the lightest touch and cling to skin and clothing. Stay on the path, wear closed shoes, and keep children and pets close.

This desert is full of life, even if it looks empty at midday. Desert tortoises, jackrabbits, roadrunners and lizards live here. Most animals stay hidden in the heat and come out at dawn and dusk. And here is the last surprise. The Joshua tree depends on one small insect, the yucca moth. The moth carries pollen from flower to flower and lays its eggs inside. Without the moth, there would be no new trees.

When the sun goes down, the park changes completely. The air cools fast. The rocks turn from gold to pink to grey. Then the stars come out, more than most city people ever see. Joshua Tree is recognised as a dark sky park, and on a moonless night you can often see the Milky Way. Before you leave, stand still for a minute. Feel the dry air on your face. Listen to the wind in the trees. Then carry that quiet with you as you walk back to the road.