Thursday May 1, 19.7mi/31.7km

Wild Horse Canyon (323.9/4250ft) to Kelso Wash (343.2/4370ft) (CA) +0.4mi old homestead

I slept in a little later than usual due to all of yesterday’s shenanigans, but once I got moving at 7:30 it was easy walking on a dirt road.

I came to the area for Hole-in-the-Wall, which is always interesting.

I was here a couple of years ago on the “Winter thru-hike”, it’s a neat area where the rock has lots of little pockets and holes, there is a trail that goes up a short slot canyon with some rings installed.

It’s a fun little trail but very short, and on the other side is the campground, where I refilled my water and enjoyed a nice sit at a proper table.

For the rest of the morning, I hiked on an actual constructed trail.

Complete with signs at the trail junctions!

The trail is 8 miles long and slowly climbs from Hole-in-the-wall campground to mid-Hills campground. As I ascended, yuccas started appearing again.

Neat cliffs of some sort of chalky rock.

The trail mostly followed washes or was in soft gravel, so I moved slowly all morning up to a pass where I had lunch.

Just after I packed up from lunch, I saw a new type of lizard I hadn’t seen before.

Unlike all the other lizards, he wasn’t in a hurry to move either. And even more surprisingly, I saw some new wildflowers up here at this elevation of 5000 feet.

I never would have expected to see Indian paintbrush in the desert. When I got to mid-Hills campground I was even more surprised to see they had Wi-Fi.

It looks brand new, and I think it’s just so people can reserve a campsite. But they haven’t even fixed the water system, and it’s been a few years since it has been inoperable. Weird priorities.

It was a nice stroll through the campground and there were even a few other cars there.

It’s always tricky to find the right spot to leave a campground, since you don’t want to walk through someone’s occupied spot. I chose site 22, and ended up exiting onto this nice ridge which even had a herd path.

Pretty soon I dropped down into a wash which I followed for a few miles.

Initially I was disappointed because the guidebook said there were Joshua Trees everywhere, but this whole area burned in the 2005 fire. And then finally at the end of the wash I saw a Joshua Tree!

My first Joshua Tree sighting of the hike! And then I saw dozens and then hundreds more.

The view of Cima Dome in the distance, which is tomorrow’s objective.

For the last couple hours of the day, I followed an old 2-track, which was absolutely inundated in Joshua Trees.

The “Old Thomas Place” was quite dilapidated.

The guidebook made it sound like an actual house that might be haunted, but there was no need to call Scooby & the gang, the house had long since collapsed and the ghosts departed. A little further on, I came across Burro Spring, which was unsurprisingly dry.

Oddly enough, my right knee randomly started hurting so I decided to stop and camp for the night. Sleep always helps!