Thursday December 21, 24.1km/15.0mi

Joshua Tree NP – Quail Wash (787.5/3460ft) to Yucca Valley Village (802.5/3280ft) (CA)

One last time, we left camp at 5:45am and hiked a little bit in the dark.

Pretty soon, we were hiking in daylight and realized that we had been gradually hiking uphill the whole time. We had a couple more miles of moderate uphill hiking to get to our final pass of the route.

Still going uphill…

Near the top of the pass, I got to witness a blazing orange sunrise over the eastern mountains.

After the pass, we only descended a little bit before crossing a wide grassy plateau.

Pretty soon we would be leaving Joshua Tree National Park, so I made sure to get a few photos of the namesake trees.

Around mid-morning, we hit a trail junction where the Bigfoot trail (that we had been hiking) ended, and we joined the California Riding and Hiking Trail. It mostly followed this wide sandy wash downhill to the edge of the park.

It even had mile markers! I think it traversed the length of Joshua Tree NP, so it’s a pretty long trail.

Joshua Trees everywhere!

We enjoyed a brief stop at the Black Rock Canyon campground, taking advantage of the flush toilets and water fountains. It looked like a pretty nice campground, complete with some funny signs.

We left the campground, and a few miles later we exited the National Park. The few miles of the route uses neighborhood streets to get to its Western terminus in downtown Yucca Valley.

Most of the streets had pretty predictable names, most of them with a Joshua theme.

At 11:30am, we finished the route at the Western Terminus in Yucca Valley!

We took a minute to celebrate the accomplishment, and then pressed the button for the crosswalk. Our first order of business was food, and after reviewing the options that were within a walkable distance, we decided on the Black Bear diner.

It’s a California chain of diners, and I recall them being pretty good from my towns on the PCT. My turkey dinner did not disappoint.

After the diner, we walked across the street to the local grocery store and got a few snacks for the hotel room. The Super 8 Motel allowed us to check in early, which was great!

The first shower felt so good, as it had been 17 days since we had last showered in Parker AZ. There wasn’t a local laundromat, and we didn’t want to put our dirty clothes back on after we showered, so we went next door to the dollar store and bought some cheap clothing to wear. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing, and involved a lot of resting and eating.

The “Desert Winter Thru-hike” was a great route! I really appreciate Brett Tucker’s creation of the route and his attention to detail with it. I’ll have a more detailed post with my overall thoughts on the route, but for now it’s time to rest after 830 miles of desert hiking. (1,450 miles including the Arizona Trail!). Tomorrow we will pick up a one-way rental car at the local Enterprise, retrieve my van where I parked it in Kanab UT, and then drive to Las Vegas and fly home.

Happy Solstice!