White Tank Campground: Joshua Tree National Park

 

Back to one of our favorite campgrounds in the entire US.  It is small and can only accommodate small vehicles.  More tents than small RVs like ours, and no large units.  There are pit toilets, no water, but there are trash containers and recycling.  One of the reasons we like it is that it has only those features that we like and use, and not others that attract a different type of camper and that we have to pay more for.

And the beauty.  Of course the main reason is the beauty.

The name White Tank is because that is the type of rocks that are in the area.   

The only downside to this campground is the downside to the entire park—it is so close to large urban areas that on the weekends some people come here to party.  And it can be noisy.  This year we decided on a site that is at the far end of the campground, in hopes that noise from any partiers wouldn’t reach us.  We’ll see.  I’m glad people use the park, but from what we have seen, the people who come to party don’t really do much in the park except drink and play loud music. 

On our first day here we still had a few hours to kill, so just headed off Northeast into the boulders that Joshua Tree is known for, and explored.  All of the southwest National Parks allow you to hike off trail, and we enjoy that.  At Joshua Tree National Park there are some well marked trails, some hardly marked trails, and thousands of acres where you can just set off to see what you can find.  We like all three types of hiking.

After playing around on the rocks for a while we noticed a canyon that headed toward the southwest.  

 

 So we scrambled down through it, about a mile, not knowing where we would end up, or knowing whether we might get to a place where we couldn’t get down a steep area and would have to turn around and scramble back up.  We made it through.  And even though it was fairly close to the campground, we could see no other footprints in the area we were in, meaning no one had been there for at least several years.  

We plan to hike every day for the next two weeks.

Love it!