When: April 2012
Where: Barker Dam at Joshua Tree National Park
With: my partner and my parents
What: evening stroll
Accompaniment: Dirty Horse by Gram Rabbit (a local Joshua Tree band!)
Word is, the bighorn sheep come to Barker Dam at sunrise and sunset to water, so we waited for evening to make the short loop walk. No water in the dam — no sheep. Golden light warmed the rough orange rocks, still holding the last heat of the desert sun. Enormous clusters of falling-apart flowers burst from the spikes of a few broken-looking joshua trees, the last of the season. They hadn’t been blooming on my last visit to the park, an ill-advised backpacking trip a few years earlier in February, when it was so cold my nalgene bottle froze solid overnight.
When I travel, I’m often in quest of new experiences. Soaking in more, more, more. It can be hard to spend our limited travel time revisiting somewhere we’ve already experienced when there’s so much new to see — it feels safe, unadventurous* — but there are places that deserve more time than we can give them on a single trip. Joshua Tree is one. There’s value, too, in depth, in revisiting former places, books, songs, rather than seeking new. Our previous experiences add another layer of complexity to the new experience, each visit stacking atop the last to form a more complete understanding of that place. A collage that comes into sharper focus with each addition.
I’ve returned to Barker Dam each time I visit Joshua Tree, though I haven’t yet seen the elusive sheep. In a stroke of extremely lucky timing, we passed through last February, and discovered an old Native American campsite tucked between boulders on the path from the overflow parking lot, of all places. Without the crowds on the main Barker Dam trail, the simple shelter felt surprisingly potent.
Another layer added.
How do you feel about going back?
Share your thoughts in the comments!
* I’m realizing as I write this that not everyone considers adventurousness a goal of travel? I’ll confess to some complicated emotions around feeling boring that I would probably benefit from examining 😉
I have similar feelings. However, especially in the desert, I really like delving deeper. A little more time can let me connect more deeply and quietly – almost like a meditaion, even though I’m out experiencing “it”.
I like that way of thinking about it!
Like you, there are some places I love returning to again and again – and they often seem to be in the desert. I led a backpacking trip in Death Valley 6 years in a row. About the 5th year was a heavy rainfall year and one of the normally dry washes had a full-on stream running through it. There were pools deep enough to submerge in with the hot Spring sunshine glinting on the ripples. It was so unexpected the magic of the experience was magnified.
What a lovely surprise! That does sound magical 😊