A Drive Up Little Morongo Canyon (And Overnight At Joshua Tree)

On a lark, last Wednesday, I checked on recreation.gov if there was any camp spots open at Joshua Tree National Park this weekend. Just a note to anyone not familiar with this situation Joshua Tree National Park is about a 2 hour drive from us due East of LA and in the winter time the campsites fill up and are typically solidly booked on weekends. Well, on my lark check to see if there were any spots there was one spot open at Black Rock Campground for Saturday night and it looked like a good spot. I hadn’t been to this campground but felt that an opportunity like this shouldn’t be missed so I grabbed the spot and reserved it. In looking at the various maps I like to study I had noticed a road that only appeared on some maps and not others in the Eastern part of the Sand to Snow National Monument. It went from Desert Hot Springs to Yucca Valley up Little Morongo Canyon. It is right next to Joshua Tree so I felt that this weekend would be a good time to check this trail out. I was also able to convince the Sylvinator to join for this adventure as well after she finished up her Science Olympiad events on Saturday morning.

Original plan was to go early on Saturday afternoon but some things came up that delayed that plan so we ended up leaving a bit later. This meant that we were going to do the exploring on Sunday morning instead of Saturday afternoon. So left and drove directly to Black Rock Campground arriving just before 6pm and in total darkness at the campground. I had looked at the map of the campground and where our spot was but when I got there I got a bit turned around and it took a while to find the spot. The Sylvinator ended up putting on a headlamp and walking around to find it while I found the toilets. Turned out to be a very good spot and I was able to get the truck level right away.

The level I installed in the cup holder has been very convenient for getting the truck level. I used to use my phone and park then run to the back and place my phone on the bed to check the level but that was a pain. So, I bought a small spirit level that was just the right size to sit at the bottom of one of the cupholders in the front console. I got the truck perfectly level and then glued the level into the cupholder perfectly flat. So now I can just check that level and know that the back bed of the truck is level. The great thing is that because it is just glued into the cupholder I can remove it easily if I ever need to but in the meantime it is super easy to check the level of the truck.

Once I got level it was time for dinner so while the Sylvinator got her camp set up I got dinner going. We also scouted out the restrooms, garbage and water which were luckily quite close by. We had the usual dehydrated meals for dinner and I had some hot chocolate with whiskey in it for dessert. Just before the holidays I got myself some string lights for the back of the truck so we had those on while we ate and listened to music. It was getting cold pretty quick to the Sylvinator was procrastinating heading to bed as she was not looking forward to her cold sleeping bag. Finally she headed to her off to read and get settled for the night. Since she did her backpacking camp this past summer she prefers just sleeping on a ground sheet in the open. She only uses a tent if there is going to be inclement weather. This night was going to be a bit cold but clear and beautiful otherwise. I got into the back of the truck and put a light on to read for while and enjoy the evening. It was lovely to be out camping, seeing the stars, breathing in the cool desert air and hearing the sounds of people talking around their campfires.

It was a cool night with the temperature just dropping to freezing so we were both a bit slow getting out of our sleeping bags in the morning. We got up and got packed up while deciding what to have for breakfast. I went for a walk around the campsite to get the lay of it and figure out where I had gone wrong when we came in the night before. After going through our options for breakfast we decided to head into town to get something at a restaurant. The Sylvinator chose a place called Natural Sisters in Joshua Tree. When we got there it was clear it was a bit of a local hangout. We ordered some breakfast and since where we had parked was in lovely sunshine and their patio was cold and crowded we sat on the tailgate of the truck and are our breakfast.

After breakfast, the next stop was to the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. It is a small nature preserve with some trails around it that I wanted to check out. We drove there and went for a short walk. It was nice to get some exercise and fresh air. It was an okay place and well worth the stop if you are in the area but otherwise nothing special.

Next stop was to go down to Desert Hot Springs and see if I could drive up Little Morongo Canyon and if the roads on the map I was using actually existed. we head up the road and the first little bit of it was VERY sketchy with a lot of trash and graffiti everywhere. A bit further there were people stopped to do shooting off the side of the road. These sorts of places always creep me out a bit, but I decided to keep going as the road continued. About a mile up we came to a close gate. There was also a security guard in a truck checking it out. I figured this was the end of our little exploration but decided to get out and say hi to the security guard and ask what the situation was. A quick chat with him and he offered to open the gate and let us through. The gate was at the entrance to private land but there was a public right of way through it. The security guard said the owner didn’t like all the trash and shooting so closes the gate. The security guard also confirmed that the road went all the way through to Yucca Valley. I thanked him as he let us through the gate.

The road follows a power line through the canyon and about a mile further on we were off the private property and onto BLM land. We followed the power lines further and further up into the canyon. There were lots of great looking dispersed camping spots along the way but also a lot of washed out areas as well as we followed the bottom of the canyon. Near the end of the trail, I joked with the Sylvinator about following the power lines up and over a mountain near the end of the canyon thinking the road would snake around some other bend only to discover that we did in fact switchback up and over the mountain. It was a bit steep and I had to switch to 4wd to maintain traction climbing up and over the mountain. The view as we climbed back down the canyon and out towards snow covered Mount San Gorgonio was spectacular. Around another bend and another view of cars disposed down the into the canyon was a bit more disturbing.

Mount San Gorgonio from Little Morongo Canyon Trail

Shortly after getting over the top of the mountain we started heading down into the town of Yucca Valley just a couple miles from where we had camped the night before. We made our way back to the highway and headed for home. Another Big Cheese adventure completed.

GPS Track from our weekend adventure (click to the picture to see the whole track)