Friday May 2, 22.8mi/36.7km

Kelso Wash (343.2/4370ft) to Black Tank Wash (365.0/3820ft) (CA) +1.0mi non-sucky alt

I started off the day hiking through the same Joshua Tree forest from yesterday.

After an hour of that bliss, I came out of the forest and saw the hamlet of Cima. It’s basically just some railroad tracks and a couple of train buildings.

For the next hour, I covered some miles on a paved road. I saw exactly 0 cars, a pretty quiet road!

And then it was back into the Joshua Tree forest, on the climb up Cima Dome. Except that had all been burned in a giant wildfire.

From the looks of things, the fire was not recent but I need to look up the year. The guidebook told me to “follow an old dirt road along a fence line”, but the fence was surely in ashes, and bushes had overtaken the old road. So for an hour I played the game of “find faint traces of an old road”, which I was mostly successful at but it required a lot of concentration. Next I came to an old corral with a water tank. At least, it had been a water tank about 20 years ago.

In this area the old dirt road had been recently improved, which was a little suspicious. And a few minutes later I came across a half-dozen No Trespassing signs, so I backtracked to the corral area. I also found some new construction on a solar well.

And a working windmill which was pumping, but the pipe didn’t lead anywhere.

I had phone signal so I downloaded some more maps and discovered that this area is a private inholding, that pre-dates the formation of the Mojave Reserve. So my guidebook isn’t outdated, it was always wrong! Neat. I hiked up the rest of Cima Dome, through a charred and mostly non-existent Joshua Tree forest.

Pretty cactus flowers.

With all the vegetation gone, the views on top of Cima Dome were spectacular. I could see the Granite Mountains and the Kelso Dunes, where I had been 4 days ago.

On the hike down the other side, I came across this strange benchmark for Teutonia, which is a little peak about three miles north of here.

As I followed the ancient remains of an old 2-track dirt road, I kept noticing these boulders with barbed wire tied around them. Maybe this used to be the fence?

As morning turned into early afternoon, I noticed it started to become really cloudy. Time to get lower!

I never would have noticed the junction of two different barely discernable 2-track roads, had it not been for this little cairn.

I made the turn on to the new “road” which led to Deer Spring.

I filtered a few liters, I had almost 30 miles to get to interstate 15 and my next water cache.

It’s crazy to me that in almost 400 miles of hiking on this trail, this is my first natural water source. Everything up to now has been spigots at campgrounds, or the water caches I placed beforehand. Dry trail! From this point, the guidebook says to hike 5 miles xc, weaving through bushes and cacti. That sounded miserable, so instead I mapped out an alternate route that used nearby dirt roads, and is 6 miles long. It led by some more defunct corrals.

It was a relaxing hike without having to dodge prickly plants or constantly navigate towards a bearing. at the end of the day I left the road and entered Black Tank Wash.

It was beautiful and these interesting new volcanic rocks were starting to appear, but the granite gravel was very soft and made forward progress very tiring. As usual, I camped in a wash.

Hopefully it doesn’t get windy tonight it’s pretty wide open here.

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!

Wednesday April 30, 20.9mi/33.6kmKelso Depot boundary (303.0/2060ft) to Wild Horse Canyon (323.9/4250ft) (CA)I packed up from my little spot nestled in the creosote bushes and walked the easy mile over to the Kelso Depot.It used to be a train station, the passenger service stopped in the 1950s but it still remains in active freight line today. The station was converted to a visitor center in the early 2005. unfortunately the main building was closed for renovations but I still had access to the bathroom building.Which meant I had access to running water, outlets, benches/tables, and trash cans. Most everything a hiker would want anyway. It’s also a popular crossroads for tourists, and I met a man and woman who were driving back to Michigan. When I explained the trail I was hiking, the guy said it sounded like the PCT when he hiked it ….in 1986. And then he gave me a cold beer and an apple!Trail magic on the Desert Trail, I’d never have predicted that! As I waited for my devices to charge, I watched several freight trains go by.And I got a better look at the Depot/ Visitor center, even though I wasn’t allowed to go inside.Since I had access to running water, I also decided to wash out my socks and shorts. I was careful not to use the hand dryer since that outlet was also powering my charger.The brochure for the Mojave National Preserve has a pretty good map that illustrates the different deserts I will be hiking through.Finally at 10am, I hiked out of the visitor center and made my way down the road. I didn’t get far, as I had a fun conversation with a couple from BC, Canada. Martha and Peter are on a long drive back up to Canada, and are enjoying the sites along the way. I’m going to Canada too, it will just take me until September!The Desert Trail follows a paved road for 4 miles, and I entertained myself with the funny road signs.Fortunately after only a few minutes I found a dirt road that ran parallel to this one, so I hiked that instead. It was closer to the train tracks which would frequently feature loud trains, but I didn’t mind that.Finally I left all the elements of civilization and hiked up a wash. The vegetation reminded me that I am truly in the Mojave Desert now.I even got a photo of a jackrabbit!I see like a dozen of these everyday, but they are usually too fast for me to get my camera out. As I climbed higher, the wash became narrower and had a series of fun little rocky dryfalls to hike on.I had fun poking around an old mining site, and even saw some graffiti from 1922.The guidebook lists this as a potential water source called “Summit Spring”. It’s basically just a set of wet cow prints, and no water. It was more like a slurry of mud and cowshit.I climbed out of the wash and to the top of a little ridge, and got a view of my main objective for the day, Wild Horse Mesa.I descended down a little wash for a mile and then climbed up the rocky hillside to reach the top of the mesa.It wasn’t that steep and the navigation was fairly easy, though I did get spooked by the three rattlesnakes I saw within 20 minutes. I think they like all the warm dark rocks on that hillside. Once I had gained the rim of the mesa, I had pretty good views. Looking ahead to the summit of the mesa:It was easy hiking along the top of the mesa, which had little vegetation or rocks. From the summit I had good views in all directions. Looking southwest:And West, toward the valley I came up from:And North:Sunset was quickly approaching, so I didn’t stop and made my way down from the summit, still hiking along the rim of the mesa. I could see my objective for the end of the day down in the valley far below, Wild Horse Canyon Road.It was an easy hike down the mesa, until the very end when it got rocky. That part was tricky as I had to navigate the terrain, lookout for snakes in the rocks, and watch my footing in the loose ground. Because it took me longer than I expected, I had to stop and get out my headlamp for the last half mile. Darn. But the extra light was quite helpful in negotiating the unexpected series of cliff bands that I had to weave me way down through. Finally at 8pm, I was down on the valley floor and quickly setup my tent in a wash.Happy Justin Timberlake day!

Tuesday April 29, 18.6mi/29.9km

Bull Canyon (284.4/3810ft) to Kelso Depot boundary (303.0/2060ft) (CA)

Since I was up pretty late last night, I slept in and didn’t get moving until 8am. I had three more miles in the wash, and while it was much less brushy than the wash yesterday, it was still rocky.

Bull Canyon is known to be wild and remote, and apparently there’s even some water pools!

Though I learned later that it had just rained 6 days ago, so the water is probably just temporary.

After a couple of miles, I came to these neat little pools above a dryfall.

While scenic, they necessitated a detour around, which meant going up the canyon walls and back down. I hiked up the opposite wall to scout out my intended route up the rocks.

It looked reasonable, so I crossed the wash and scrambled up the rocks.

Twenty minutes later, I was descending back down until the canyon. I heard these loud flock of birds, just hanging out on top of a large boulder.

Once I was back in the bottom of the wash, I got a good look at the obstacle I had detoured around.

The guidebook suggests you might be able to climb down that dryfall. Umm….no. I continued on down the easy wash on flat slabs of rock.

There were several more little pools of water, which is always surprising to see out here.

And the cool white stripes in the canyon cliffs!

My last little obstacle of the morning was these little slickrock pools. They were shallow so I could have easily walked right through them, but I figured out a way to keep my feet dry by using some stemming moves from rock climbing.

Soon after that, I left the canyon and walked along a sandy dirt road for a couple miles.

In the distance, I could see my objective for the afternoon, the world famous Kelso Dunes.

I got to the Kelso Dunes campground at lunchtime, and I unburied my water and food that I had cached a few weeks ago. It looked like some curious human had started to dig a little bit where I had buried it, and then an opportunistic critter chewed a little bit on the odor-proof bag. But everything was fine so the system still worked!

I met Rob & Kathy who were camping there, and we had a fun conversation about this trail I’m hiking and the desert and general. It had been awhile since I had a conversation with other people, there’s no one else out here hiking! After lunch I left the campground and headed into the dunes.

The wind made these cool ridge patterns in the sand.

And also these cool edge patterns.

It was pretty windy at the top of the dunes, and I could see in real time the process of dune formation.

That photo is looking at the leeward side of the dune, where the sand is deposited by the wind. After enough sand is piled up, the hillside becomes too steep and the sand slides down. It felt like I was getting sandblasted up there, so I quickly continued down the other side of the dunes.

My objective for the end of the day was near Kelso Depot, just before the darker ridge in the distance.

I hiked in a perfectly straight line across a sandy valley all afternoon. Camping at Kelso Depot isn’t allowed, so I hiked as far as I could, while staying in public land. The miles this morning were pretty slow, so I ended up hiking until 7pm before stopping to camp.

I was too lazy to setup my tent, so I watched the sunset from my bivy bag.

Monday April 28, 18.3mi/29.5km

Cut Wash (266.1/2800ft) to Bull Canyon (284.4/3810ft) (CA)

The day started off easily enough, I hiked up the rest of Cut wash to a pass, and then down Gap Wash, through a cool gap in the rocks.

Up at these higher elevations, Spring is in its prime. So many flowering bushes and cacti.

I arrived at the spot where I had cached my water and quickly found it.

I had a nice break in the shade of the plentiful bushes in the wash, though I could hear the nearby freeway. And sure enough, I hiked right underneath it a little while later.

Once I was on the other side of the I-40 freeway, I had entered the Mojave National Preserve.

After some very gradual climbing on some 4wd roads and washes, I was starting to get a pretty good view of all of the valleys to the south. After asking around, I’m pretty sure that snowy peak is Mt San Gorgonio.

The wildflowers in this wash were everywhere, and in almost every color.

For a few miles, I was on familiar terrain. The Desert Trail overlaps with the DWTH I did a couple of years ago, and this wildlife guzzler looked awfully familiar.

For an hour, I was hiking terrain I had covered before, so I didn’t have to pay attention to navigation, and could just go off of memory. Instead I paid attention to all the different plants up here at this elevation in the Mojave.

I arrived at Budweiser Spring, which was dry. I wasn’t really surprised, it was dry the last time I was here too.

After a nice lunch break in the shade of some large boulders, I started up Budweiser Canyon. It was very brushy and slow going.

And some steeper spots of granite slabs.

I was slowly gaining elevation and I kept looking behind me to gauge my progress.

Huge barrel cactus!

After an hour and a half of thrashing through brush and boulders in the wash, I finally got to leave it! By climbing up to the ridgeline…

That view is of a climb that ascends 1200 feet in half a mile. It was very steep and slow, so I forgot to take any photos. I did take this photo halfway up, as I was surprised that there was an actual tree growing.

I haven’t seen real trees on this hike since Day #1. Almost to the top….

And finally, at 5:30pm, I made it to the summit of the ridge. I loved the view to the south, seeing everything I had hiked over the past week.

And the view to the north, of the upcoming Kelso dunes.

But mostly it was so late in the day it was time to hurry up and get myself off of this mountain, and down into the next wash, where I could camp. I started off by going down an easy ridge.

And further down the ridge….

The descent wasn’t steep at all but the ridgetop was choked with Cholla cacti and other sharp plants that wanted my blood. And the “nice burro trail” that the guidebook says runs along the ridge was complete fiction. So that 3.5 miles took me over 2 hours, which meant when I was on the final descent into Bull Canyon, it was nearing 8pm and getting quite dark. Once I was in the canyon bottom, it was disappointingly a brushy and rocky wash. So I stumbled along until I found a spot that looked flat enough, and threw up my tent, and passed out. Definitely the hardest day on this trail so far!

Sunday April 27, 22.8mi/36.7km

Calumet Mine (242.1/790ft) to Cut Wash (266.1/2800ft) (CA) -1.2mi trailhead

I started off the day with many miles of flat easy walking, crossing the entire valley between two mountain ranges.

Pretty soon after sunrise some clouds formed and kept the valley nice and cool.

After a couple hours of flat and perfectly straight hiking, I came across my first object of interest, the BNSF railroad tracks.

It was actually a pretty active rail line, I could hear and see trains coming through about every 30 minutes. An hour after that, I came to old route 66.

There was zero traffic on the road, since multiple bridges are closed for repair. But it will be the route’s 100th anniversary in 2026, so Caltrans was hard at work getting the bridges fixed for the big celebration. Next I came to the wash where I had cached my water a few weeks ago, and quickly dug it up.

It’s only 18 miles to my next water cache, so I actually had extra water and had to dump a little bit. Now I was gradually hiking uphill on this cool breezy day, and the clouds really made scenery more interesting.

The guidebook says to follow an old 4wd road for a couple miles, which basically doesn’t exist anymore so I just hiked in a straight line toward the mountains.

I took a nice long break at an old mining area, which had some pretty neat looking equipment.

And also a couple frighteningly deep mineshafts that were fenced off for safety.

Hiking up the wash into the heart of the Marble Mountains was relaxing, and I no longer had to pay attention to navigation when I was just following a wash.

The guidebook has a list of plants for each section, I think these are Chinese Lanterns.

The Marble Mountains are volcanic in nature and that was becoming readily apparent from the cliffs of tuff.

The tuff also made really interesting color patterns in the washes, since the base rock is white but the gravel is reddish.

And right next to each other, I stumbled upon some very fragrant red flowers and a lucky horseshoe.

Volcanic tuff cliffs.

The cloud shadows playing with the lighting in the valley.

Towards the end of the day, I came out of the mountains and started hiking up Cut Wash, which was very wide and also full of various animal prints, including these.

Most of the hiking today was pretty easy, so when I checked my watch it was only 6pm and I had already covered 22 miles. I decided to camp here for the night, of course sheltered behind some bushes to protect from the wind.

Saturday April 26, 19.6mi/31.5km

Sheephole Tan Hill (222.5/2780ft) to Calumet Mine (242.1/790ft) (CA)

I started hiking just before 7am and finished off the little bit of uphill hiking that remained.

There was a little pass at the top, which I wouldn’t have even noticed except the guidebook mentioning it. The descent was down a rocky wash at first, which pretty quickly gave way to a nice smooth sandy wash.

After a couple hours, the wash ended and I just hiked in a straight line xc, on a surface called desert pavement.

As I progressed further north, the terrain got pretty flat and windy, and there was even some blowsand.

That soft sand was slow to walk through, so I was pleased to see the desert pavement return.

Up close:

I stopped for lunch in the shade of a large Creosote bush, which was the only shade around for miles. After lunch I had more of the soft blowsand. This area had a cool texture, pretty similar to the roof of a dog’s mouth.

In the distance I could see some clouds building.

Today I passed by 6 trashed balloons, most days I see two or three. I try to pack them out if I can easily get to them, but really the solution is to stop buying these balloons, they just become trash.

I also passed by this strange marker in the middle of the wilderness.

This section isn’t really mountainous, but it does have some very long views.

Looking North, ahead to the Marble Mountains, where I will be hiking tomorrow.

The afternoon had turned really windy, so I decided to stop and camp early, behind the last remaining hill. If I had continued hiking North, the terrain looked perfectly flat and with no vegetation, so no wind protection for my tent.

Friday April 25, 8.5mi/13.7km

Hwy 62 (214.0/1680ft) to Sheephole Tan Hill (222.5/2780ft) (CA)

I woke up at my usual 6:15am, even though I was in a hotel room. My camping sleep schedule persists even in town. I took a second bonus shower, packed my resupply food, and repaired my tent zipper with the new zipper sliders that I got from Tarptent yesterday.

I ate my first breakfast of the day in the hotel room, which consisted of microwaved Totino’s pizza rolls and a pint of Moose Tracks. Because it’s April 25th, Miss Congeniality was on TV.

I finally left the motel room just before checkout time at 11am, and went back into town to eat 2nd breakfast at a little cafe. After some internet chores, I made my way over to McDonald’s for a milkshake and to wait for my Uber to take me back to the trail. It’s a tiny town, but on Fridays and weekends there’s actually 4 Uber drivers active, and I was easily able to snag one of them. After a 35-minute drive I was back on trail.

It was almost 1pm but the weather was quite cool today so it was enjoyable walking across the sunny washes.

It was mostly easy mindless walking with lots of quiet scenery around me. I did stumble upon a fascinating surprise. a tortoise shell!

It seemed like he had been dead a long time as it was just the shell. I couldn’t figure out how the tortoise died, maybe it drowned when a flash flood came down the wash? I’m not sure how long they usually live either. There was another little shell piece nearby.

I continued up various sandy washes, gradually trending uphill all afternoon.

As I gained elevation it got windier and so I started to look for a sheltered campsite. I found a nice little spot tucked in behind some catclaw and creosote bushes in a nice soft gravelly wash.

Thursday April 24, 7.0mi/11.3km

Inner Valley of Coxcomb Mtns (207.0/2950ft) to Hwy 62 (214.0/1680ft) (CA)

I started off with a leisurely stroll downhill in the wide gravelly wash.

It was such a great campsite last night. I was surrounded by mountains up here in this alpine desert valley, and the sky was so black I could see heaps of stars. My elevated mood didn’t lessen when I turned into a wash that went slightly uphill, or even when the wash turned rocky.

After an hour I went over a mild pass, and then started descending once again, this time out of the mountains and towards the road. As usual it was rocky at first, and then smoothed out.

I arrived at highway 62, quickly unburied my cache, and then stepped over to the roadside to start hitching into town.

I even made a sign that said “hiker to town”, and tried to look presentable. There were just so few cars driving this absolutely desolate stretch of highway. Eventually at 11:30am I got a ride from a guy moving from Dallas to Palm Springs in his pickup.

So it only took me an hour and a half to get a ride, which was better than I expected but still a long time. Connor had so much stuff in his truck that I had to sit in the back, which was fine. His cute dog kept trying to lick me through the window though, I think he could sense how salty I was, ha! He dropped me off in downtown 29 Palms at the main intersection, which has a McDonald’s/ Starbucks/ Chevron. I got a quick meal at McDonald’s, picked up a package at the post office (thanks Tarptent!), and then walked over to my motel. It was a cute and very walkable little town.

The motel was very colorful…as was the motel’s owner. Very interesting guy, practicing Hindu and he insisted on explaining to me about the seven chakras. I got the key to my room, and started to sort and organize all my stuff for resupply and doing laundry.

After a shower and catching part of the movie Airplane on the TV, I walked the half mile back into dawn and did some laundry. I noticed the local newspaper has the same name as the trail that I’m hiking!

I got dinner at a Pho place, which was surprisingly good and then grabbed my finished laundry and went across the street to have a beer.

By now it was almost 8pm and starting to feel like bedtime, so I walked back to the motel, ate a pint of Ben& Jerry’s and then passed out.

Wednesday April 23, 20.6mi/33.2km

Joshua Tree NP East Bdy (186.4/1200ft) to Inner Valley of Coxcomb Mtns (207.0/2950ft) (CA)

I got an early start because I knew I had a long hot walk across the Chuckwalla Valley. I left camp a little after 6am, and 15 minutes later I was at my water cache.

As I was filling in the hole, a bunch of work trucks drove by. I think they were employees of the water department but they were eyeing me suspiciously. For the next hour I hiked along an old abandoned 4wd road.

Off to my left, I could see a huge pumping operation.

The guidebook says this is where LA pumps water up and over the mountains, what a waste of energy. The old 4wd road veered right and I left behind the hum of that operation.

Ahead of me I could see a huge solar array, easily hundreds of acres in size. It seems this whole valley is being desecrated for various industrial purposes. After hiking by the solar array and some power lines, I finally left the signs of civilization and continued North through the open desert.

It was very flat with just creosote bushes, except for this one weird ridge of red dirt.

I’m assuming those are piles of old mine tailings. The valley was also home to a healthy population of kangaroo rats, as evidenced by the honeycomb of tunnels under the ground, which would occasionally collapse when you stepped on one.

The view ahead to the Coxcomb mountains, where I would be hiking later in the day.

I crossed the national park boundary, and decided to have lunch under a shady Palo Verde tree. After lunch I hiked by this old abandoned pumping station, I think it was used for the defunct mine in the area.

I had about 2 hours of gradual uphill hiking to get into the Coxcomb mountains and it was easy walking. But I wasn’t paying much attention and accidentally impaled myself on a cactus spine. Oops.

The side of my right shoe had picked up a spine on the ground, and then on my next stride the spine had brushed my left shin and stuck. Ouch. After doing some minor first aid for a puncture wound, I eventually finished the gradual climb and then enjoyed a shady break before entering the mountains.

I followed the wash up into the coxcomb mountains, a typical strategy for getting into the interior of mountains. In this case though, this wash was blocked by massive car-sized boulders.

So I skirted them by climbing up the left bank and went around.

It was slow going, but pretty fun as it wasn’t that steep. And there were lots of cool little barrel cacti to look at.

Every once in awhile I would turn around to view my upward progress, and I had a pretty nice panorama of the valley I had just hiked across.

More climbing.

More views.

As expected, some of the rocks are loose and shift when you step on them. One of them caught me off guard and I slipped, catching some rough granite on my trip to the ground. Oops again. I had too much blood anyway.

The whole climb was 800 vertical feet in 0.8 miles, and I kept switching from the left bank to the right bank, since the progress was easier on the banks. The middle of the wash is where all the fast moving water flowed and leaves behind only the largest boulders, which are more difficult to navigate through. Once I got to the top I was surprised to see this amazing little hidden valley.

It was flat and ringed by mountains!

And had all these cool little rock formations!

Even some hoo-doo looking things.

It wasn’t quite 6pm, but this was such a beautiful spot I decided to camp here.

This is definitely my favorite campsite of the Desert Trail so far, and it will be hard to beat for the remainder of the trail!