Jewel of the Desert - 49 Palms Oasis

So you might recall that earlier in the month before the craziness of Easter and birthdays took over my blog that we had been going on a lot of hikes up in Joshua Tree National Park. Well better late than never I would be remiss not to share the highlights from some of these trips.

First up - 49 Palms Oasis, which we hiked on Sunday April 5th. This is the only trail where Joe was able to accompany us, along with Scottie and Ali and I was more than happy to have the extra adults on hand because this turned out to be a fairly strenuous trail - 1.5 miles up to an elevation of 300 feet and down into the canyon where the oasis lies. The kids, Jadyn especially, had to be carried a good portion of the trail. The really cool thing was that at the peak, you can overlook all of Twentynine Palms and with the use of the zoom on our camera, we were able to locate our house.

Here we are at the top:

And the view of our house through the zoom on our camera:

Once you descend, you are welcomed with the 49 Palms Oasis, which is a beautiful sight offering the shade of palm trees, large cool boulders to rest on and the faint sound of water trickling down the stream. For those of you who have never visited the desert, this may not seem like such a big deal but running water and shade is a definite rarity around this parts.

After the descend, the infamous 49 Palms Oasis:

Enjoying the shade of the oasis:

Wildflowers in bloom:

A peek-a-boo view of the city from the oasis:

Then comes the hard part - you have to go back up and down the same trail you just took to get there and boy, was that tough.

Getting ready to climb back up and over:

We were all exhausted by the time we made it back to car. Well, except for the kids who had hitched rides on the shoulders, backs and hips of the four of us all the way back. But I have to say it was one of the best trails we have done in the park so in the end, it was all very much worth the effort.