|
| | | Lost Palms Oasis Mastodon Peak Loop, CA | | | |
|
|
Lost Palms Oasis Mastodon Peak Loop, CA
| | |
| |
|
| Hiking | 9.36 Miles |
1,374 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.36 Miles | 4 Hrs 57 Mns | | 2.26 mph |
| 1,374 ft AEG | 48 Mns Break | | | |
|
|
| |
| Partners |
|
[ show ]
| partners | | On our last day in Joshua Tree, we drove to Cottonwood Campground for a hike to Lost Palms Oasis, with a stop at Mastodon Peak on the way back. The trail starts near Cottonwood Oasis, a tight cluster of palm trees next to the parking lot, and the area just across the trail from the oasis is closed due to the presence of heavy metals like arsenic and lead in the soil. Early on, there are two Cahuilla bedrock mortars in some rocks, and a sign nearby highlights how efficiently the Cahuilla tribe lived off the land.
The trail starts with a gradual uphill and leads southeast, with a lot of classic Joshua Tree boulder piles and views of the Salton Sea. Around three miles in, the upper oasis, Dike Spring, comes into view first, and there's a sign that says, "No Trail Beyond This Point, Proceed At Your Own Risk." There's a short, steep unofficial trail down to the wash where Lost Palms Oasis is located. We had the oasis to ourselves and took a break in the shade of the palm trees. It's a beautiful, relaxing spot, with the sounds of the birds and the wind through the palm trees.
[ youtube video ]
I'd noticed Victory Palms on the map and wanted to check that out. It's ~0.7 miles past Lost Palms, and when I first hiked here in 2019, I didn't get a chance to see it, so we hiked down the wash in that direction. It started out easy, but a half mile from Victory Palms, we ran into some large boulders in the wash and a 15-20 foot drop. There were plenty of footprints down below, and it looked like the best way down would be scrambling down the right side, but we ended up turning around there...it was going to take too much time on a day when we still needed to drive back to Phoenix. There's a certain irony in failing to reach a spot with victory in the name, but I guess it's another reason for a return visit someday...and it looks like fun to climb up to the upper oasis.
On the hike out, the trail was crowded--we passed at least 20 people hiking in toward Lost Palms, and we were lucky we had it to ourselves when we were there. We turned right to take Mastodon Peak Loop on the hike out, and we followed the short, unmaintained spur up to the peak, which was full of people, and even a dog someone was walking/carrying up there. With the crowds at the top, we didn't stay long before heading down to complete the loop.
Just after the spur is the remains of Mastodon Mine, an old gold mine with a some informational signs and the remnants of various structures. We passed another small palm oasis near Cotton Spring, and the parking lot was full, with cars lining both sides of the road when we got back...gotta love national parks on holiday weekends  . I'm sure we made someone's day when we took off an opened up a parking spot, and we headed back to Phoenix from there, with nice views of the Eagletails along I-10 on the way back. |
| | |
|
|
|
Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
of the giant California Fan Palm Trees and as we rounded the corner there were a couple extra large Eucalyptus (altho I called them Sycamores) too as well as the expected Cottonwood Trees. I would find out later that this was Cotton Spring. We stepped up and over what looked to be some stone work and headed up the little hill behind it. We didn't know what we stumbled on but it was the old Winona Mill Site, so we explored for just a moment. There were various structure remnants scattered on the hillside. I found some more of those pink flowers (Purple Mat) and a new one that was really pretty, Blazing Star. There were also other flowers including Desert Pincushion and the Desert Bluebells. We thought we might be able to get to the main trail from here but ended up back in the wash and headed to the junction.
. Just past here is the area that was used for centuries by the Cahuilla Indians for bedrock mortars that we checked out. And now on with the show.
. There were some uphills along the way as well that included steps. Who would think there are so many steps when hiking in the desert. We saw a few hikers here and there, but I think we were lucky for most of the day that it was light traffic. 
. I hung out with the chuckwalla for a little bit and he even did some pushups for youtube. I was in double camera mode so I got plenty of pictures and a movie too. Next up was the Mastodon Mine. They've done some shoring up and I appreciate the park service trying to preserve this for those of us that like seeing this stuff. And now it was time to head down the hill into the wash. There was plenty of nice scenery and the mixing of flowers and boulders makes for premium hiking conditions. Some of the boulders had rocks in them so that caught our attention. The Desert Bluebells were still the wildflower star as their vibrant blue color was so brilliant. There were splashes of other colors with Poppies and Purple Mat (that's a pink color) and some hordes of Chia.
. I would have posted sooner except I was having problems with the download to the computer as the first part took 4 tries when I finally realized I had forgot to use the GPU to enhance rendering and decoding under preferences; it makes a massive difference. Anyway, enjoy (altho I haven't reviewed 2-4):
