> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.novaugust.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Californian Deserts - URL: https://blog.novaugust.net/californian-deserts/ - Published: 2017-02-05T00:06:55.000Z - Updated: 2017-02-05T00:17:52.000Z - Author: Matt Enlow - Tags: Climbing, post, Desert Season '16, Joshua Tree, California, Sand Dunes, Desert, #Import 2026-06-21 14:43 ## Joshua Tree Phil and Amy. I hadn't known them long at all before they'd seen my naked bits. That didn't seem to put them off of me though, as a little over a year after we first met they appeared open to my visiting camp in Joshua Tree. Late at night in the Hidden Valley Campground I laid eyes on [a van](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x1FpIUIiU0&feature=youtu.be&ref=blog.novaugust.net) with Canadian plates. I stole a spot a little further down the circle and hoped to catch my friends in the morning. Dawn roused me and I walked down to Phil and Amy's site. As they slept in I introduced myself to a few others who had gotten up with the sun. I went off with these neighbors to remind myself that as for bouldering, well, I have room for a great deal of growth. ![Stem Gem](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380258.jpg) *Stem Gem in Joshua Tree's beautiful early morning light* Amy stuck her head out of the van a good bit later to see a strange man had set up his kitchen on her site's picnic table. Like a startled tortoise she went right back in and pulled the door after her. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380389.jpg) We three caught up for a bit and talked rock. After watching people fall off Stem Gem as a group for a while, I tried my hand at some V0- highballs (some call it freesolo onsighting, but that sounds dangerous to me) while Amy and Phil went out for a day of climbing that would involve ropes. [That evening we went adventuring.](https://blog.novaugust.net/the-chasm-of-doom/) ### The Life My short time in Joshua Tree passed quickly with those two. We spent a day at hot springs an hour out of town, and had a terrific - and filling - pizza dinner just outside the park. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380386.jpg) *Looking out the window of Amy & Phil's van on the highway to the hot springs* The evening before our pizza Amy, Phil and I did The Eye together. Phil climbed past a second on a rope, but Amy and I just shivered in the shade and waited her out. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380405-1.jpg) ### The Circuit I knocked on Phil's door early on the morning of my departure. He joined me my camera on the the circuit I had developed over the last three days. It took us across parking lot and in front of Joshua Trees... ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380395.jpg) and up The Eye of Cyclops Rock... ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380418-Edit.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380436-Edit.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380443-Edit.jpg) where we gazed out the eponymous eye and Phil re-donned his crocs for the descent... ![the eye itself](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380441-Edit.jpg) ... and the traversal to Beginner Two at Blob Rock. From there, a crest traverse and downclimb near The Bong, a 5.5 handcrack and the third route on the circuit. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380453.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380458.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380479-Edit.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380481-Edit.jpg) Up across the blob again, downsoloing Beginner One. And that's the circuit. With hugs and kisses a box of cold pizza and I were on the road to Arizona to make the Friday night birthday/farewell party of a girl I had met for all of five minutes in Flagstaff. ## The Dunes For the sake of an errand in Yuma, AZ, I took a circuitous route back to Flagstaff. The afternoon I left Joshua Tree I stopped to eat my pizza lunch beside some great desert dunes. ![mountains and dunes](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380490-Edit-1.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380484-Edit-2.jpg) I walked the dunes, ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380504-Edit.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380503.jpg) and got to pretend I was marooned on a beach. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380502.jpg) As I left I was prevented from turning right by a low-flying helicopter chasing a Monster racecar down the highway. California, man. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380514.jpg)