We booked a tour reservation yesterday that we had to arrive for at 7:45, so we got up at 6. Our morning was a rough one. The hot plate didn’t get hot fast enough to boil water for oatmeal or coffee, so we had to leave the house without either. That’s never a good idea. We tried stopping at a coffee shop on the way, but there was a long line that wouldn’t have given us enough time to make the tour.
We knew we wanted the tour, so we took the risk of not having breakfast. We got to the tour early - we met a ranger and other guests at a gated road to start the tour. The tour was all about Bill Keys, a guy that ran a ranch and gold mine in the middle of Joshua Tree National Park, aka the desert. We learned about how he, as well as indigenous peoples long him, survived in the desert. It’s pretty incredible to see how resourceful they were, having a garden filled with corn, beets, carrots, etc., and a bunch of fruit trees. They did this because the nearest “grocery store” was a 4 day trip away. They survived on their property, making money and making food for themselves and the other folks living and working in the property. Here are a few photos, but I’ll add a bunch at the end with descriptions.
After the tour, we found a quick hike to a dam nearby that showed how despite the dry conditions, there is actually plenty of water if you know where/how to find it. By 11am it was already super hot, and we had seen some really cool stuff, so we headed back to the Airbnb for the day. On the way home we remembered that the hot plate this morning blew a fuse. We didn’t think much about it as we were in a rush to get to the tour, but we’re now realizing our lunch and dinner were in the fridge, in the 98 degree weather...
Lots of feelings happened, and when we got back our host let us inownhow to fix the problem, and all of our food was still good to go. Lunch was just leftovers from last night (we got way too much food), and dinner was the carne asada with salad and zucchini.
After plenty of postcarding and reading, we made dinner on our camping stove and watched a quick episode of Handmaids Tale. Such a messed up show, such a messed up episode (season 2 episode 10). It’s an amazing show, but it’s super stressful and not at all a mood improver. We took another evening soak beneath the stars because why not, and hung out with our host and her friends.
Our host had some friends over and they invited us to join them for the evening. It was super cool to chat with them, share stories, and hangout with other people living in LA and Nashville. It’s cool how easy it can be to connect with other good people if it’s in the right situation. We ended up staying awake until 2am, which was not the plan, but sometimes you don’t want to leave a fun night, and since it’s summer vacation, we didn’t!
The chart showing how much growth Joshua Tree NP has had in visitors - they need more funding for employees
Indigenous people used rocks to crush leaves etc. for medicinal and food uses
One of the ways they extracted gold from the rocks
Their mailbox that moved locations as postal services improved
They hung wet cloth over this to create a refrigerated area in their house. The wind would hit the wet cloth and cools down the items inside
They had a school onsite for their children, but also the children in the surrounding rural areas
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