Joshua Tree and Mojave Flowers

Phil Farrell

Here is a small selection of the wildflowers we saw on March 8, 2005, in the Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve of the California desert.

Click on any thumbnail image to see a larger one, or view them in order: Start Here

The two major destinations of our March 2005 California desert wildflower tour were Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Death Valley National Park. The direct route between them went right through Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve. These are higher desert areas where we did not expect to see many flowers on our early March trip.

Approaching the southern entrance of Joshua Tree National Park from Indio on Interstate 10, the freeway median was one long flower garden. Immediately after exiting the freeway, the road into the Park for several miles climbed an alluvial fan towards the mountains. In between the bushes, the fan was blanketed in swaths of lupines, desert dandelions, chia, brittlebush, and other flowers. We stopped to hike the Bajada nature trail, where the path led through and among the flowers.

As we approached the Cottonwood Springs area, the steady increase in elevation dimished the flowers considerably, and we saw only scattered flowers in the rest of the park. It was just too early for these higher elevations.

We stopped at the Cholla Gardens, an area of dense, large cholla plants. The cholla were just budding, but even without flowers, they are impressive as the sun shines through their fine spines. Just don't touch them! You'll need pliers to remove the barbed spines.

After exiting Joshua Tree National Park near Twentynine Palms, we sped towards Amboy, where we picked up the Kelbaker Road through Mojave National Preserve. We were too early to see any flowers in Mojave Preserve, which is high desert. We did stop and walk up onto the Kelso Dunes. They are deceptively large; you walk and walk and yet don't seem to be getting there! We camped in an undeveloped area off a dirt road where we were surrounded by space and silence.

 
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Lupine mixed with desert dandelion along the Bajada trail, Joshua Tree NP, looking up to Cottonwood Mtns.
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Desert dandelion, Bajada trail, Joshua Tree NP
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Purple mat grows only an inch high along the Bajada trail, Joshua Tree NP
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Spikes of chia along the Bajada trail, Joshua Tree NP
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Desert dandelion, lupine, and brittlebush paint the bajada toward Cottonwood Mtns, Joshua Tree NP
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Cholla budding at the Cholla Gardens, Joshua Tree NP
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Kelso Dunes, Mojave NP
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Kelso Dunes, Mojave NP. Dune in back is several hundred feet high
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Sunset on the Marl Mountains, Mojave NP

 

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Last revision April 8, 2005