Natural History Wanderings

DesertUSA has two reports on Joshua Tree National Monument Wildflowers

Rains last week really soaked the ground and are helping the wildflowers. Best flowers that we encountered were on the West Side loop at Black Canyon. Also really nice scenery and wildflowers at Hidden Valley. Cottonwood had nice flowers up on the Mastodon Mine trail.

Everywhere I went in Joshua Tree today the Beaver Tail cactus were filled with lots and lots of buds ready to burst into flowers but I did catch a few gorgeous pink blooms. At Hidden Valley, instead of hiking the inner circle, I walked around the outer edge on the Climbing Access Trail (it’s flat) – an area climbers refer to as The Real Hidden Valley (Houser Buttress area). Besides some really cool rock formations, there were lot of different wildflowers including an abundance of popcorn flower patches – fairly thick in some areas. At the Boy Scout Trailhead and running along Park Blvd into the park were large patches of Goldfields, whole areas of them (some thicker than others). Barker Dam seemed to have the most blooming barrel cactus overall, plus a little of everything and lots of different gold & yellow flowers.

See photos at  Desert Wildflower Reports for Joshua Tree NP by DesertUSA