We began the day with an in-and-out hike along the Boy Scout Trail, starting at the trailhead that is along the road to Indian Cove. The trail crosses the flat desert terrain then enters a canyon. After about a mile of meandering up the canyon the trail climbs up into the Wonderland of Rocks. At about the five mile point, once we left the rocky terrain and found ourselves again on a flat desert plain, we turned around and headed back to the truck, this time experiencing the trail in reverse.
The afternoon was spent in the towns of Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley, choosing to spend the hotter afternoon hours inside air conditioning instead of on the trail. We visited Nomad Ventures, a nice gear shop, then hit the movie theater for X-Men 3. That was followed by dinner at a mexican restaurant where we were accompanied by mariachis while enjoying our enchiladas and carnitas.
We finished the day off with a ~3 mile sunset hike to Samuelson’s Rock. This average looking pile of rocks is about a mile off the Quail Springs road in Joshua Tree National Park, but when you get there you see that it is not so average. There are at least eight sayings carved into the rocks, based on what we found before dark. The guy may have had a screw loose (years alone in the desert can do that to you…) and needed a spell checker, but they were interesting to read.
The album below includes readable shots of most of the rock carvings as well as plenty of scenery from the Boy Scout Trail.
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