Joshua Tree National Park

In which Moominmama sees a true desert oasis after visiting ancient ruins that reveal the remarkable skills of the Hohokam...

Moominmama has arrived in the Joshua Tree National Park though I'm in the southern end, a transition zone between the Sonoran and Mohave deserts. There are a mix of familiar plants -- lots of yucca, cholla cactus and creosote bushes.

But I got my first look at a Joshua tree on a drive further north into the park. And they are fascinating, reminding me of Dr. Seuss with their starbursts of green at the end of each branch. In spring, they get white blossoms, and those are reportedly starting to bloom though I will have to go to another section of the park to see them! Check back next week, and I hope to have photos.

The park is busy, and my campground is, shall we say, snug. But I am lucky to have a view out toward the desert since I'm on an outside loop. Unlike the oasis pictured above, with California fan palms and a towering cottonwood tree, the hiking trails in much of this park seems bleak though there are signs of life if you look closely!

On arrival, there wasn't a line driving into Joshua Tree National Park (update: there were lines on the weekend), and the visitor centers are staffed. There was even an evening program on bats last night. 

According to the ranger I spoke with, they are fully staffed, having regained their probationary employees laid off until the courts intervened. The park doesn't hire "summer" staff like most; they have short-term staff for the winter as their busy season ends mid-April.

That was reassuring but contrasted with the conversations I had with volunteers staffing a visitor center in the Coronado National Forest in the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona -- my previous stop.

The volunteer crew there operated from a forest service building and were waiting for park service employees to come and open up the public bathrooms. They worried about needed maintenance to the buildings and whether the small campgrounds nearby would be able to stay open. Could the park service still arrange for trash pickup at the campgrounds?

On my way out of Coronado, I stopped to fill my water tank at a private campground, and the woman there assured me the needed maintenance and services could be done by volunteers. In retrospect, I suspect this perspective was less practical than political.

As I made the drive west from Coronado to eastern California, I passed a national monument called Casa Grande, Spanish for great house, a set of remarkable ruins 45 miles north of Tucson. These were created by a people I learned to call the Hohokam. Apparently that's one of those names that resulted from a misunderstanding. 

When early explorers asked who had lived in the ruins, the tribal people said "huhugam:" the spirits from before. Westerners turned that into Hohokam and assumed it was a tribe.

So the proper name now is: the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People, and they are the ancestors of the O'odham and Zuni among others. The Ancestral Sonoran Desert people were amazing irrigators and created an expansive area for crops around the Gila River (and elsewhere on Arizona waterways), supporting a large community that not only had time to build this great house but also created some remarkable pottery, basketry and cotton weavings. 

Furthermore, these people were astronomers and built the great house with openings that line up with the seasons of the sun, allowing light to penetrate at equinox and solstice.

Around the year 1400, this community suffered a slow collapse. Population growth and drought are long believed to be the cause, but research now suggests that sudden floods were part of the mix, destroying irrigation channels and changing the Gila River.

The Gila River, a tributary of the Colorado, was a vital resourcce not only for the Sonoran Desert people but also for the Spanish and the settlers who would come later.  

It now rarely has water, except following monsoon rains, but that's a function of modern changes, the addition of dams and drawdowns of water upriver. 

Over time, the great house's artifacts were pilfered; its walls subjected to vandalism and the vagaries of weather and wind. 

What remains is now protected by a park service roof. And I appreciate the reminder of how a significant civilization grew here and then scattered into smaller groups faced with climate change.

There was one other fun activity I want to talk about before Joshua Tree and the Casa Grande National Monument. On my last night near Portal, Arizona, the general store and cafe scheduled a blues band. Local musicians, they played for tips in a small bandshell on the property. My camping neighbor Lindsey and her dog Lily came with me for a night of music and dancing!

For an isolated community, there was a remarkable turnout of locals and tourists combined. And we all rocked out together. These unexpected surprises on the road are always welcome and memorable!