Birds and Nature North America

Immature Coulter Pine cone, Idyllwild Park, CA. The largest of these when fully grown can weigh 8 pounds...

Southern California: Joshua Tree +

27 January – 3 February 2026

Common Raven - bird of the trip

My wife, Carol, wanted to visit a place where she had lived as a young teenager—that was 29 Palms, California. She was there, living at the Marine Corps Base, riding her horse out into the high desert back in 1969. So we organized a trip that would take us to 29 Palms, Joshua Tree National Park, Palm Springs, and the San Jacinto Mountains (Idyllwild). This would give us a diversity of outdoor walking experiences and some interesting plants and wildlife.

29 Palms Marine Corps Base entrance. We did not get inside...

Our first stop was 29 Palms, in the high desert of southern California. The town is, in essence, a strip that has developed along east-west route 62, with the Marine Corps base a bit to the north of the highway.

Contact Mine Trail in Joshua Tree National Park. Great walking!

We stayed in a nice motel in 29, and wandered mainly in Joshua Tree National Park, which is just south of the highway. We did not get very close to the Marine Corps base where Carol had lived because of security warnings that greeted us on our approach.

Work of Noah Purifoy, featured in his museum in Joshua Tree town.

29 Palms is a hardscrabble town with not much for the tourist. It is infested with barbershops and tattoo parlors because of the large population of young crewcut men at the Base. We loved dining at the restaurant named grnd sqrl (“Ground Squirrel”) a quirky eatery on main street with great home cooking.

Another work of Noah Purifoy, Joshua Tree town.

The best art we saw was found at the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Museum in the back of Joshua Tree town—more than 100 pieces of assemblage art constructed by the African American artist from found materials, some on a colossal scale.

Carol and a flowering Ocotillo in the Ocotillo Patch of Joshua Tree National Park

backlit Joshua Tree - wonder of the Park

The highlight of our first three days was hiking in the Park. The hikes we did over three days (all worth doing) were: Contact Mine Trail, Split Rock, Lost Horse Mine, Hidden Valley, the Maze, Ryan Ranch, and Barker Dam. Other features we appreciated included the rare hybrid Live Oak in the Live Oak picnic area, Skull Rock, the Cholla Cactus Garden, and Ocotillo Patch.

Space robot in Joshua Tree National Park, working on his gold game.... (Joshua Tree grove in distance)

Little Green Man on main street, Joshua Tree town

Bog Rocks are what define Joshua Tree

The Park features several natural phenomena: giant granitic boulders in big stacks, stands of Joshua Trees, desiccated mountain ranges, cactus assemblages, and desert flower blooms. It also included historic human developments: mines and ranches, now just rubble remnants of their former selves. The Contact Mine trail offered the best effusion of wildflowers. The Park had been drenched in rains not long before our arrival, and the environment was unusually green for a desert.

desert in bloom! This is apparentlly Wild Canterbury Bells Phacelia minor

Highlights were certainly the rock features, the “forests” of Joshua Trees, and the cacti and flowers. The walking was excellent. We put in tens of thousands of “steps.” The Park is absolutely a great place to walk.

Silver Cholla cactus

Birding and mammal-watching was disappointing. Birds: mainly Common Ravens and White-crowned Sparrows, plus a few desert birds (e.g., Phainopepla, Black-throated Sparrow). We saw virtually no mammals in the Park, though Bruce did glimpse a Bobcat at the roadside one night in Joshua Tree town. The Park is thus best for walking and wildflower-watching.

Carol. dwarfed by large boulder in Joshua Tree Park

We visited with friends one night in Joshua Tree town, which is artsy and better-off than 29, offering much more for the tourist. That night we dined in adjacent Yucca Valley at the Copper Room, founded in 1957 and visited over the years by Frank Sinatra (he presumably flew in by plane—the restaurant is right at the airport). Nice ambience!

small Calfornia Barrel Cactus

Our second stop was Palm Springs. We stayed in a cute motel at the base of Tahquitz Canyon with the massive face of Tahquitz Mountain rising precipitously from the desert floor. From our motel we could walk to the Tahquitz Canyon trail, in a reserve managed by the Agua Caliente Band of the Cahuilla Indian Tribe. The hike up into the Canyon is superb. Features: California Fan Palms, cliff-loving birds, and a beautiful tumbling mountain brook. Best birds: White-throated Swifts in flocks, Verdins, and soaring Red-tailed Hawks.

flowering Joshua Tree

We also hiked two trails in the Palm Springs Indian Canyons: Andreas Canyon Loop and the Palm Canyon Trail. These both feature thick stands of giant California Fan Palms and clear-flowing canyon streams. Great hiking! Fairly birdy as well (Costa’s Hummingbird, Rock Wren, Lesser Goldfinch). This reserve is also owned by the Agua Caliente Band. Both of their reserves are well-managed, well-trailed, and worthy of repeated visits.

Carol with large California Barrel Cactus

Our dining in Palm Springs included two winners: breakfast at “Bit of Country” and dinner at “Tony’s Grill and Bar.”

towering California Fan Palms (Washingtonia filifera) in the Artesia Canyon of Palm Springs

The giant fan palms of the Indian Canyons of Palm Springs

Our third stop was Idyllwild, high in the San Jacinto Mountains, about an hour’s drive up a winding and cliffside road that gave Carol the willies. Idyllwild is in the mountains just south of Palm Springs, in a valley nestled below high peaks that top 10,000 feet. This funny little tourist town is filled with towering Ponderosa Pines and other conifers. There are an array of lovely tourist lodges and parks that offer great walking and birding.

Carol and giant Ponderosa Pine in Humber Park, Idyllwild, CA

looking up at the Tahquitz Rock, famous for its rock climbing routes

Upon our arrival, we picnicked at Humber Park, famous for its access to Tahquitz Rock, where serious rock-climbing was born in the United States in the late 1930s (prior to Yosemite). Humber Park hosts giant Ponderosa Pines, hemlocks, firs, and Incense Cedars (looking like Redwoods), and birds such as White-headed Woodpecker, Pygmy Nuthatch, and White-breasted Nuthatch (western Interior population with the distinctive voice).

Mountain Chickadee

female White-headed Woodpecker

Steller's Jay

Here the Ernie Maxwell Scenic Trail follows a contour that crosses the Sweetwater Creek. Nice walking! Lots of Acorn Woodpeckers and Mountain Chickadees. A roadside Coyote was nice to see at close range from our passing car.

Pygmy Nuthatch

The other good walk was the Perimeter Trail of Idyllwild Park. Here we found many fertile Coulter Pines, with their giant and peculiar cones (producing the heaviest pine cone on Earth). Here we also found Red-shafted Flickers and Western Bluebirds.

look at this pine cone! Coulter Pine!

From Idyllwild we drove the “back way” to LA, stopping for a picnic at Lake Elsinore (Western Grebes in numbers) and getting a glimpse of the Mission San Juan Capistrano (too early for the spring-arriving Cliff Swallows).

view into the Mission at San Juan Capistrano

Our last night was spent at Hermosa Beach, just south of LAX airport. The vast beach is reputed to be the birthplace of beach volleyball. The highlight of our trip’s dining was “AttaGirl” just off the Strand. On the morning of our departure many volleyball games were being played in on the beach (some players sporting US Volleyball Team outfits). The broad beach hosted flocks of gulls (best: Heerman’s and Western) and terns (Royals, not Elegants). The offshore avifauna include Brown Pelicans, Pacific Loons, and Eared Grebes.