Trails

Where Two Deserts Meet

In this episode of Where Two Deserts Meet, we hit the trail with Trail Crew Member Dalton Moore and PSAR Coordinator Anna Marini. With their help, we explore what it takes to construct and maintain the trails for you to enjoy and discuss the ins and outs of staying safe while doing it.

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TRANSCRIPT:

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Ian: Where Two Deserts Meet is an official podcast of Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree National Park acknowledges the Serrano, Cahuilla, Mojave, and Chemehuevi people as the original stewards of the land on which the park now sits. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work with the indigenous people in this place. We pay our respects to the people past, present, and emerging who have been here since time in.

Donovan: Hi, I'm Donovan.

Ian: And I'm Ian.

Donovan: And we're both park rangers here at Joshua Tree National Park, where two deserts meet is a podcast where we investigate topics that often require a bit more detail, and sometimes the help of an expert in the field to gain perspective.

Ian: Donovan, you know, if we're going to do an episode about trails in Joshua Tree, we must address that one question, the one that everyone deep down wants to know.

Donovan: Where are the bathrooms in the park?

Ian: Okay. That's very important. But no, what is our favorite hike?

Donovan: Oh, right. Because the ranger's favorite hike is likely secretly the best hike in the park?

Ian: I can totally see how one could imagine that someone who worked here would've come to an eye-opening epiphany of the absolute best trail. But funny enough, it's the opposite. With my years spent here, I've realized every trail has something to offer and the one I'm headed to on any given day is just the one I'm in the mood for. It's as simple as that.

Donovan: And sometimes that mood can depend on what the weather is. A hike that might be my favorite at the time in the winter could be my worst nightmare in the summer.

Ian: Ooh, yeah. Truly, it's just logistically complicated to have a single favorite. No matter how I get asked it. I struggle to find answer.

Donovan: And not to mention that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I've had a visitor come into the center and tell me that the trail that they hiked was so beautiful that they cried. But at the same time, not even five minutes later, another visitor came in who hiked the same trail and informed me that it was a big waste of time for them. Sometimes we like different things and that's okay,

Ian: And sometimes what I want is just to see everything that is possibly available in a list form, because I must know every possible option before deciding.

Donovan: Well, that's a way to do it, and that's why we have those lists available in the visitor centers and our park website and the NPS official app. Once someone has their trail selected, that's where Ian and I come in at the visitor centers providing tips on how to have a good time on those trails. Usually mentioning that if you want a more secluded hiking experience, starting the trail early is the way to go.

Ian: Speaking of getting up early, I'm reminded of some of the behind the scenes work that goes into making these. It all happens early in the morning with our trails crew. We should talk to trail crew member Dalton Moore.

Donovan: That's funny that you thought of trail crew because when I think of getting up early, I think of the heat safety signs that our preventative search and rescue program puts out. Anna Marini, the coordinator of the preventative search and rescue program would be a great person to talk to also.

Ian: You know what? Let's just talk to them both. Yeah, let's do it.

Dalton: My name is Dalton Moore and I work on the trail crew in Joshua Tree.

Donovan: Dalton is just one of the many trail crew members here at Joshua Tree National Park. They play a critical role in building and maintaining the hundreds of miles of trails in the park. But what does an average workday look like for a trails crew member?

Dalton: An average workday for a trail crew member begins at 6:00 AM, showing up, ready to go with your food, your water, and any comfort items you may need in your backpack. We'll do a morning briefing. We just talk about the day really quickly, and then crews will load up into trucks and drive to their project sites where they could be doing a variety of different things. Usually ends up being dry stone masonry, where we're building trail structures. Crews will then spend the next eight hours or so out in the field where they'll, they'll shape rock, they'll construct structures, they'll drill rock, and they'll eat lunch out in the field. They'll eat snacks out in the field. They'll drink water. They'll do all their normal things, and then they will probably leave the field around three o'clock or so with a goal of getting back to the office by four thirty.

Ian: The projects the trail crew works on can take months, even years of planning and hard physical labor. Depending on where they're working in the park, the crew will utilize the resources around them to create a more natural look to the trail and have less impact. While Joshua Tree might not have giant sequoias or other dense vegetation to help construct trails, we do have a few key resources that play a role in our trail.

Dalton: In Joshua Tree, projects usually consist of building trail structures out of stone. Normally this is stone that is quarried out in the field and they are building steps, water bars, or retaining walls on the trails. In other parks, you could be building these structures out of logs, but since we're in the desert, we don't how many trees but we have a lot of boulder piles. We usually try and query up those boulder piles to make structures about five years before projects. We collect the data on them and that the data consists of what we want to do in these areas or where we see erosion happening or resource damage happening. And we submit the, data of those project site locations to the resources department and they go out in the field and they assess and they usually let us know where is okay to quarry from and where we should hold off.

Ian: Our monzogranite boulders often being known for their durability but when a trail gets thousands of visitors a day, it can see quite a bit of wear and tear trails along Park Boulevard, especially high usage because that's where most of the awesome Joshua Trees and big old boulders can be found within the park. This includes some of the most asked about trails in the park; Barker Dam and Hidden Valley. They can see over hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. This means that the trail crew not only helps build new trails but maintains the existing one. Biggest thing tends to be erosion from rain and wind. But then we also see a lot of social trails that happen since we're in the desert and we don't have defined trail corridors. It can be kind of hard to navigate sometimes. So there's a lot of big webs that get created. We try to lessen those number of webs by keeping people on the trails and creating more obvious paths.

Donovan: Unfortunately, the trails crew aren't the only humans building trails within the park, often done unintentionally, the creation of social trails is a huge concern for park management. Some social trails can be caused by park visitors trying to access points of interest, rock climbing routes, and sometimes by someone simply getting turned around on a trail. Some of these social trail areas that have been around for quite some time have been developed into established paths such as the rock climbing, access routes to Hall of horrors, or the Oyster Bar. And before we go on, know, sadly you will not find an actual oyster bar there, but just some cool rocks that might resemble some oysters. However, social trails can cause more issues than one would think. Social trails often lead to the destruction of delicate ecosystems, trample desert, vegetation, and habitat. They can often become so defined that they resemble the actual trail, often leading people astray. Some of the maintenance that our trails crew does is helping fix the wear and tear from these social trails and natural erosion.

Dalton: Erosion on the trails tends to look like trenching of the trail, which then leads to water channeling down the trail and furthering the erosion. So you get these trails that are really big trenches, essentially, and they're not very pleasant to walk on because it's not a level surface, it's kind of slippery. And so a lot of times what we do is we build stone steps in those trenches that encourages sheet erosion and makes the a durable surface for hikers to walk. We keep trails easy to follow by doing a couple things. I would say the first thing that we do is we prune the vegetation that's growing into the trail. In trails, we call that brushing. We brush out the trails and that makes it so that there's a clear line of sight of where you should walk. The other way that we kind of do that on some of our washer trails or trails that are in large sandy areas is we use signage. And a lot of times what that signage looks like is a trailhead sign at the beginning of the trail so you know where you are and then we use directional arrows. Also that lets you know whether to go straight or make a left or make a right. And, we try to use signage only when necessary or when it's obvious that people are getting lost or at the start of social trails.

Ian: Some of the signs that you're on the right path might not be noticeable at first, but often tune into our common sense of what appears to be the easiest path. As mentioned earlier, most of the trails on Park Boulevard have giant boulders to help signify where to go. But in other areas of the park, such as Pinto Basin Road and the Cottonwood area, vegetation pruning, rock delineation in washes and directional arrows might be your only trail signs. It is extremely common to have several washes cross a trails path. One trail with such an issue is the Lost Palms Oasis trail, a seven and a half mile hike that is really only advisable during the winter months due to the extreme heat of the summer. Now, don't get fooled. Washes are notorious for resembling the trail. Washes are natural areas where large amounts of water moves in a particular direction sometimes across established trails, often clearing vegetation and debris, making the area look like a designated path. Make sure to always stay vigilant and look for those signs that you're actually on the right path.

Donovan: As Dalton mentioned, there are a lot of different signs that they utilize to help let you know when you're on the right path. Of course, installing metal directional arrows can be pretty self-explanatory, but some of those natural signs using rocks and vegetation take a little bit more labor to make possible.

Dalton: It all depends on where you're building material is. If you have a rock next to the trail you would drill into the rock and you drill a series of holes in the rock and then you use wedges and plug to split the rock so you get a flat surface. That is a good stepping surface because a lot of the rocks in Joshua Tree are kind of round and a little more bulbous. We split them to get a nice flat edge, and then you have to dig a hole and you put the rock in it, and you pin the rock in with other rocks. That process from walking up to the rock to when the step is finished can take anywhere from a day to three days depending on the surface that you're kind of digging into to set that rock. One way that we preserve the natural resources of the trail is by not damaging vegetation whenever possible, but also trying to leave some of those rock piles that are close to the trail. Importing rock is one way that we are able to preserve those rock piles and we import rock using either helicopters, which is something that we're going to be getting into within the next year or so. Helicopters, you can put a really long line on the bottom of it and they can act as a crane to pick up a load of rock and then you can set it In the trail. Another way that we transport building materials to project sites is by putting rocks into gas-powered wheelbarrows. Imagine tank tracks beneath a wheelbarrow so that you can drive heavy loads of rock onto trails. That's how we import rock to build trail structures. We may also highline; a high line is basically like a really slow zip line. We query a rock from less visible areas from the trail, and we put that rock on a really slow zip line so that the rock floats over the ground. We don't have to roll it on the ground basically.

Ian: Importantly, deciding how and when to build trails isn't always a zipline process. The parks history and geography play a huge role in planning for new trails.

Dalton: Previous park infrastructure has been a little bit difficult in Joshua Tree since a lot of our trail system has been developed from mapped social trails. Prior to the eighties, at some point, there was no official trails in Joshua Tree. They were all social trails that were then mapped and then added to the park, adopted them into its official trail system. What that means is that a lot of the trails maybe don't follow sustainable grades. They might be a little bit steep in some spots, or they might make sharp turns. Steep trails have increased erosion since the water can run down them really fast so that's been a challenge adapting those social trails and trying to have them meet proper trail standards. I think one of the good things about the historic roads in the park, and by historic, I'm probably talking like 1800s onward. From there, a lot of those roads go to kind of obvious viewpoints that have drawn people in for hundreds of years. They might lead to kind of an obscure peak or kind of a mine, or they go to a certain rock formation. In the desert, you have a really good line of sight, so you can see really far. People have been kind of attracted to the same places for a long time. A lot of the historic roads in the park follow washy areas. Flat areas, and those are fairly sustainable for the most part. They may not be the most pleasant to walk on since they're really sandy, but soil compaction has made it so that vegetation doesn't grow into the trails quite as much. And then a lot of the mines that might be higher up on the hillsides in Joshua Tree, a lot of those roads actually follow pretty decent grades. Super steep. They get you to high points, and the erosion on them is generally okay since they were constructed with road standards, which tend to be a little bit less aggressive than trail standards.

Donovan: An example of a trail that utilizes a historic road is Lost Horse Mine trail, which is a six-and-a-half-mile loop or just four miles if you go to the mine and back on the historic road that leads to the mine. Whereas the Mastodon Loop trail, a three-mile trail that was constructed from older social trails associated with the Cottonwood Mining District. A fun fact about that trail is that no, there wasn't actually mastodon bones found at the site, but that miners at the time thought that the mountain range looked like a mastodon laying down. Areas often appear to be just beautiful landscapes, but are often full of natural and cultural resources. Considering these resources play a critical role when planning and maintaining trails within the park.

Dalton: We plan for natural and cultural resources in the park by gathering data from a trails perspective what we think should be done to the existing trails. We then turn that data over to cultural and natural resources compliance process where we give subject matter experts the data, and then they get back to us on what is feasible or how we can conduct our work in a way that doesn't negatively affect the parks resource. Quarrying rock is definitely something that requires a lot of consideration since that's really the one thing that we do on trails that's irreversible. And whenever we build structures, we use all native rock and we use all natural building material. Usually within the park, occasionally we import rock in from outside the park, but for the most part our work may last a hundred years. If it wanted to be removed, it would be removed and it would. No major effect on the parks resources, but quarrying rock within the park is something that we can't really take back. That's something that gets a lot of consideration. The compliance process for our projects usually takes about a year of the cultural resource department reviewing and really taking into consideration any negative effects that might happen.

Ian: It's amazing all the work the trail crew puts into ensuring the protection of these natural and cultural resources. But the protection of these resources doesn't just stop there. It continues with you, our visitors every day on the trail. Together we can ensure that these areas are preserved unimpaired for future generations to enjoy and learn about while staying safe.

Dalton: Visitors can assist the trail crew by staying on trails. So if you are hiking and you are given the opportunity to hike multiple different routes that all kind of lead to the same area, we just ask that you stay on what appears to be the most developed route and the most obvious path, that makes it easy because with social trails, a lot of times the trails are created by the soil being compacted and once the soil is compacted, you never really get those plants back. If you could just stay on what appears to be the most obvious route, because that is probably what is the real trail.

Ian: So there you have it. Staying on trails is the way to go. Of course, these trail markers only work if they're used correctly.

Donovan: You know, although I work for the National Park Service, I often vacation at other park service sites. A common behavior that I see across the National Park Service is construction of cairns by park visitors. For those of you who are unfamiliar what a cairn is, it's essentially stacked rocks that are commonly used as trail markers. Cairns have a few uses, but can also be destructive when misused.

Dalton: Cairns have a very specific purpose and they do serve a purpose on large, slick rock areas. If there is an obvious path where there is no difficulties wayfinding, you do not need to build a cairn there to let other people know that you were there. Big reason a lot of people like to hike in Joshua Tree is because they like to not see signs of civilization. And a cairn is a direct sign of civilization usually. If you could only build cairns in areas where you think that you truly could get lost, they don't really have a purpose.

Donovan: Cairns also disturbed critical habitat. Joshua Tree National Park is home to thousands of different species of mammals, reptiles, bugs, which all rely on some of the teeniest rock habitat. Moving rocks and stacking them can disturb their homes. Additionally, it can be misleading to potential hikers, thinking it's a directional on the trail. Since Joshua Tree National Park is in a desert, we utilize the resources that we have for trail markers so some of those signifiers might look a little different than other national parks, but keep an eye out for those signs and they can ensure a lesser chance of getting lost.

Dalton: So certain desert specific trail markers that are unique to Joshua Tree, the subtlest of them is pruning the vegetation that's growing into the trail or brushing the trail. We try to guide visitors on the trail without them even knowing it by creating just an obvious path. Probably the next more intensive is we use rocks to line the edges of the trail in certain areas. This is a little bit more of a subtle and a more natural way to outline the area. We ask that visitors to leave those rocks there because if there's rocks inside of the trail, they are there as sort of a way-finding tool. And then probably the next, most intensive way that we mark trails is by using signage. And signage is an effort to keep visitors on trail. Trail brushing is always our first thing. And then if we, if brushing isn't working out and we still are seeing social trails being created, we then go into doing rock delineation. And if rock delineation isn't working, our visitors are moving those rocks, then we would install signage as kind of a slightly more permanent way of wayfinding. But if that still doesn't work, signs can also be removed if need be, and we've done that in the past in areas where we think there needs to be a sign, then we find out there actually doesn't need to be. It is not preferred to have signs because visitors like to hike the trails and not see signs of other humans. Sometimes, we like to respect that by leaving our trails with a natural appearance and signs being made of metal or even if they're made of wood, it still doesn't exactly give the natural appearance.

Ian: Your safety is our priority. We want to make sure you have the best time in the park while hiking the trails, but some of the preparation to having a great time on the trails starts at home with you.

Ian: My advice to visitors would be to show up prepared. So do your homework before you get to the park by doing your homework. Look at the National Park Service website to get official trail information. There's been a huge explosion in the last probably five to ten years of blogs providing information that may not be exactly accurate or other sources of people who have never even been to the park writing about the park. Do your homework before you get here. Find a trail that is a length that is something that is doable or might even be a slight challenge, but where you're not going to overwhelm yourself and to come prepared for that challenge that you're going to be seeing when you're in the park.

Donovan: As Dalton mentioned, there has been a huge uptick of the number of third-party resources providing trail information out there. A day doesn't go by when I'm in the visitor center and someone comes in showing me a list of recommendations from a popular blog to social media videos with someone hiking on a trail and they ask where they can find these places. However, those recommendations aren't always accurate to what they are advertising, or even the places listed in those blogs as the best sunset location might not actually be the best location for that.

Ian: I've actually seen ones where they aren't even showing pictures from the trail they're supposed to be on.

Donovan: Exactly. My best piece of advice that I tell visitors is that if you don't see us advertising a specific trail on our own website, hiking guide, or app, there might be a reason for that. Whether you're going to hike the 36-mile multi-day California Riding and Hiking trail to the casual quarter of a mile trail at Cap Rock. Plan like your life depends on it.

Dalton: I think an important aspect of trail work is that one of our goals is to have our work go unnoticed. I think if we do everything correctly, you don't even notice that you are walking on steps. You don't notice that the trail that you're hiking on has been brushed. You are able to just take in the view and go for a hike for a while if we do our job correctly. Usually everything is pretty smooth and you should be able to just go for a walk.

Ian: Taking a walk through Joshua Tree National Park can be a life-changing experience. Life becomes neat and simple. Time and distances change drastically when you're on foot and the wild world around you that is often taken for granted, becomes familiar and friendly.

Donovan: Of course, getting home safe at the end of the day is an important part of that experience. Anna Marini and her team are dedicated to providing the education to ensure that that happens. Similar to this interview, a lot of her work is done on the trails.

Anna: My name is Anna Marini and I'm the PSAR coordinator here at Joshua Tree National Park. PSAR stands for Preventative Search and Rescue. I'm the coordinator of the program, which is new here, and I manage about 30 volunteers that are out and about in the park.

Donovan: The 30 volunteers that Anna manages cover thousands of miles of trail every year. Even in blustery winds or triple digit temperatures, the PSAR team are out in the park. Anna Marini and her team are truly an extraordinary group of individuals dedicated to ensuring your safety on the trails. When you visit Joshua Tree National Park, you can not only expect to see the team, but also the educational information that they put out as well.

Anna: Volunteer coordination is a large chunk of it, and then also, trying to improve our signage and our communication with park visitors. I have great volunteers and they really don't need much managing at all. It's really just working on the schedule and making sure people are out and about in the park.

Ian: If you see these signs, take a second to read them. These will provide you with the best advice on how to stay safe while recreating in the park, and you can find them all.

Anna: You'll probably see some volunteers out of the trail heads or hiking on some of our popular trails. They're going to be educating visitors on some of the hazards and maybe some of the dangers of Joshua Tree, and they're going to give advice on how to have a good time while you're here on vacation. They also are a wealth of knowledge. You can ask them pretty much any question about the park and they'll do their best to answer. You'll see those volunteers out on the trails. Something else we've worked on is increasing our signage. When you come to a national park, you don't want to be just surrounded by a bunch of signs. What I've worked on is trying to find the right words to put on signs so it's not overwhelming and it gets straight to the point to help you understand what's great to do here in Joshua Tree and how to keep yourself safe on the trails. We've worked on a couple different signs. Right now, I've switched to ‘Winter hiking safety’ Good reminders are: it gets dark a lot quicker here so carrying a headlamp, extra layers, all those types of things. In the summer we tried to explain to people about heat safety, hiking in the heat, what can you do in Joshua Tree when it's so hot. It was a great way to explain to visitors that, yes, you can still recreate here, but let's explain some tips and tricks on how to have fun while you're.

Donovan: Although not every national park you visit has a dedicated PSAR program, the growth of these programs is expanding in popularity. Anna started the program here at Joshua Tree National Park in March of 2021, and we have already seen major improvements to the safety of our visitors. With Joshua Tree National Park visitation still rising from the 3 million that we had in 2021. Programs such as PSAR have kept rescue numbers down.

Anna: Those general winter safety and the heat safety signs that I talked about, those are going to be at your visitor centers and your entrance stations. The information is also listed on the park website. And another version of that kind of sign that we tried this year is I placed two signs at the 49 Palms Oasis Trail, as well as the Lost Palms Oasis Trail. Those give some options on what to do if you weren't planning on doing such a long hike, and it helps explain some of the dangers that we have, and those trails have been the top two trails people just overexert themselves. We really tried to explain how to hike safely and what to do if you weren't prepared.

Ian: And PSAR takes that commitment to education to a new level. PSAR not only helps educate about weather and safety, but also other principles of Leave No trace, and how to be a good steward while in the park.

Anna: PSAR, Preventative Search and Rescue has always been a part of every national park. We naturally talk about preventative measure. To make sure visitors have fun and stay safe while on vacation. It's a natural conversation for our interpreters, for people that are working at the fee booths, things like that. But parks have realized that with an increase in visitation, comes with more people in the park. That could turn into more people getting lost, sick or injured on trail. That happened here in Joshua Tree. We had a huge visitation boom. If you haven't been here, our park is set up in such a way where our visitor centers are primarily on the outside of the park. They are right on the outskirts and once you drive in the park, there's not too many employees inside the park. That’s just the way we're set up. Realizing that, I think we needed to find another way to help educate our visitor. How about we have more people in the park and volunteers are great. They are excited to be out there and enjoying the park just like you guys. And so we're using them to be inside the park and to educate people before they go out on a trail, before they set up their tent, things like that. It was a good way to kind of change the direction, educate people before they leave their cars, that type of thing. But it wasn't necessarily an increase in search and rescues, it was just a per person to person educational contact that we're trying to increase.

Donovan: These volunteers are not only assisting with education, but data collection. This data is used by management for critical decision making.

Anna: A big part of our program is data collection, like you mentioned. We need to figure out what trails are busy, what are the busiest times, how many people we talk to. Our volunteers, after they're done with their patrol, which is what we call the time that they're in the park, they fill out a form and they mention how many dogs they saw, what trail they hiked, how many people they talked to, and something we call preventative actions. Preventative actions maybe they gave somebody a bottle of water that didn't have any water. Maybe they gave them really important directions when they were feeling unsure. They could have even hiked somebody back out to their vehicle if they weren't feeling well or feeling a little confused. We collect those numbers and that's kind of showing what our program is doing. We're not exactly sure if we've lessened search and rescues yet, there's a lot of factors that go in there. The post covid world is a little strange right now, but what we do know is that when we first started PSAR in March of 2021 through October of 2021, the volunteers talked to 14,000 people out on the trails, which is an awesome number. That's 14,000 people that we talked to about seeing tarantulas or different birds hiking on different trails, explaining all the questions that they have because everyone, all park visitors have a ton of questions. Our recent data from last year, October, 2021 to just recently in September of 2022, PSAR talked to 56,000 people. A huge increase. And this last year we did see less search and rescues, especially on those trails I mentioned before, like 49 Palms and Lost Palms. But it'll take a little bit more time to show if it's actually the program or if it’s a combination of things like hopefully people are doing more research before they travel into the parks, things like that.

Donovan: 56,000 people! These conversations are critical for educating about safety. With all of this experience, it's safe to say that these volunteers are very well versed on how to recreate in the park safely. I asked Anna what a visitor could expect from conversations with a volunteer or herself on the trail.

Anna: When I think about trail safety, I always think about being prepared. I teach a personal preparedness class to our employees just to think about what could happen in their day-to-day. And you guys can do that too when you're here on vacation. I'm not asking people to fill their backpacks with a bunch of food and water, but it's really just about being prepared for the day or for the next couple days that you're going to be here. So, of course you want to pack your food and your water for even if it's winter or summer. A lot of people have a hard time snacking on things when it's really hot out. I encourage people to find that special snack that you want to eat when you're not feeling great in the heat. Salty snacks are really great for that. Finding your favorite electrolyte flavor. And then in the winter it's really hard to drink water. It's so cold. It's really difficult. But making sure you're not becoming dehydrated when you're out in the park is always a great tip. There's talk about the 10 essentials. That's anything from making sure you actually pack a little shelter. A shelter could mean a variety of different things, but I like to think about that as extra layers. What's going to keep you warm or cool when you're out hiking? If it's too hot out, actually having proper layers on and different of different types of materials is really helpful. Anytime when I'm out hiking, I'm completely covered with nice cooling material and people probably think I'm really hot out on trail, but it's actually covering my skin and protecting myself from the UV. Something I like to do is spritz myself with a little spray bottle of water or maybe from my water bottle that I have. I call that desert air conditioning. It really helps cool you down and then of course, making sure you have extra layers, hats, and gloves for those wintertime hikes. Like I mentioned before, having a headlamp or an extra light source, don't rely on your phone battery. If it's not fully charged, it's not going to keep the flashlight on. More often than not, I'm talking to people whose phone died and then they have no light. So having a good light source if you hike into the afternoon here in the winter is great. Making sure that you have what you need in case you get stuck out on the trail for an unexpected long period of time. It's possible that somebody in your group could twist an ankle and you need to get wait and get help. Making sure you have a little bit extra food, a little bit extra water for those types of things. That's when extra layers and stuff come in. But really you probably have all these things at home. Just pack your bag before you leave just to make sure you have everything when you're here, and then double check it to be able to run to the store if you don't have everything you need.

Donovan: So it sounds like there's no way to be over prepared, essentially…

Anna: Yeah, definitely. If you look at the back of my car, I have every season back there. I'm ready. Because I want to be comfortable and I want to be fun. Have fun when I'm out hiking, and it's the best way to make sure everyone in your group is having fun and having a good time here is to be prepared and have everything you need.

Ian: Well, there you have it. Follow Anna's tips, and you are not only more likely to have an enjoyable but have fun while doing it. Unfortunately, sometimes things can go wrong while out on a trail. Let's say you're hiking through a sandy area and realize what you thought was the trail has come to an end, or you look up and realize you're surrounded by big boulder piles not able to tell which direction is which. There's no trail signs or even people in sight. Of course, being prepared is the best way to help prevent this, but if it does happen, what next?

Anna: Getting turned around on a trail happens a lot here and it's probably because a lot of our trails are built in such a way where you could easily be hiking in a wash, which is where water flows during monsoonal rains that also look like a trail. It's good to be able to be aware of your surroundings when you're hiking. What I would ask is it's a good idea to download a map on your phone before you leave cell phone service so you're able to reference that when you're out on the trail. You can also purchase a paper map and practice where you're going. Paying attention is always great. If you do get turned around on the trail, I encourage you to stop and take a look around. Don't walk too far away, but it's possible that the trail is just to your right or to your left, or maybe you passed it. A lot of times people can find their way. The next step is to stay. Making sure that you're staying calm. Your whole party is staying calm. Nobody walks off to try to find the trail alone. And then it's always a great chance to check your cell phone, see if you have some service because that way you can maybe find your location on your phone, that type of thing. But we don't have a lot of cell phone service in the park so it's good to be prepared before you go. If you do find yourself turned around, making sure you stay calm, try to find your way, but if you can't, then it's a good time to call for help. You may be able to find a high point where you could get some cell phone service. As long as that feels safe to you. We also have emergency phones throughout the park, but there's also a good chance that you're going to run into another hiker as you're when in the park. Pay attention to listen to see if you can hear any other people's voices. They can direct you back to the trail, that type of thing. Otherwise, it's always good to move as a group to make sure everyone stays together and you don't leave anyone behind. Then you can look for some footprints to find your way out.

Donovan: Heat related illnesses make up a majority of the rescues here in the summertime. Trail lengths that might be easily obtainable in someone's hometown with a different UV intensity might be a different story here in Joshua Tree National Park under the hot desert sun. What if you're not lost, but that three mile hike you decided to take in the middle of summer starts to catch up to you?

Anna: You can start to self-cool yourself if you're on trail and you're starting to overheat a little bit. People think we don't have a lot of shade here, but our Joshua trees and the boulders and a lot of our other bigger bushes do provide a good amount of shade. Most of the time your body just needs to cool down. Maybe that's using a bandana that you have or a scarf and pouring some water on it and wrapping that around yourself is always a great idea. Continue to drink that water, eat some snacks. Use those electrolytes that I mentioned, but try to cool yourself as much as you can If you have a jacket or a tarp in your backpack it's a good way to make a little shade structure so you can cool down, but normally your body just needs a break. Once you're starting to feel sick and hot weather, it's your body saying, ‘Hey, we did too much. You don't want to continue that activity!’ It's just always great to start to cool down and find a spot to hang out for a bit.

Donovan: Our bodies are great communicators. They always try to let us know when they need something, so make sure to listen to them. Heat related illnesses can present slightly different for each person, but once you start to notice that change, it's important to take it seriously. Great job. Hiking and talking at the same time.

Ian: Trying to plan and prepare for a fun, safe, and successful day of hiking in Joshua Tree National Park can feel like a lot, but we want to remind you that us rangers are still human and understand that even the best laid plans can run into hitches. I personally give the advice to get into the park nice and early to start your hike and avoid the crowds, but still catch myself on my own vacations, slow to get moving and make it to the trail heads early. Does this mean my trip is ruined? Absolutely not, because I've learned that just as important as it is to plan ahead, it is important to be flexible.

Donovan: There's a chance that the trail you are planning for has no parking available. We can guarantee that there are other amazing options that will blow you away.

Ian: Or being flexible and recognizing that your body might be ready to tap out for the day and that's okay.

Donovan: Or you checked the weather ahead of time, but the winds have picked up and are unfriendly to hike in. You can still see just as much driving through the park as you can hiking.

Ian: No matter what corner of Joshua Tree National Park you end up in or how you get there, remember, it's your experience and what you make of it.

Donovan: Where Two Deserts meet is an official production of Joshua Tree National Park, co-hosted and written by Donovan Smith and Ian Chadwick, produced and edited by Donovan Smith. We would like to extend special things to Dalton Moore and Anna Marini for taking their time to talk with us. Sharon Lee Hart for letting us use her artwork titled Split as the Cover Art for Where Two Deserts Meet and Bar Stool for their Slow Lane Lover, Lanky, Lockley Fells, and Feathers Soft. For more information about the park and our hiking trails, please visit our park website at www.nps.gov/jotr. Happy trails.