Lost Palms Oasis Trail... DONE

A camping trip to Joshua Tree NP led us to the Lost Palms Oasis Trail!  This is a trail I had my eye on for a couple of year, but thought that's a CRAZY! A Seven mile hike! Fast forward to me, at 31, searching for hikes to practice on. Another reason that we never did this hike before, was that we are seldom in the south end of the park, but to pass through to get to the 10 freeway.

But, we did it! It was Me, Shannon, Steve and Susan.  Brian, Brad and Mike & Stella (Shannon's new puppy) did a smaller 2 mile hike.

See the "No Dogs on trail" icon... this will make sense in future photos.

Me, Brian, Steve, Mike, Stella, Susan, Shannon and Brad!

Mike and Stella

Look at Stella!

Me, trailblazing!

YAY! At the oasis!

Shannon uses her mini gorilla pod to get a group shot going!

The Lost Palm Oasis is behind us!

Me, Susan and Steve!






Check out all the liquid Susan had on a 7 mile hike in the sun!

Up we go!



I feel like this palm looks like a giant ice cream cone!



                                Beaver tail cacti





Susan was smart when hiding from the sun!



Steve helps Susan down a steep hill, cause she wasn't wearing proper hiking boots.



some red barrel cacti

 

This part of the trail was all sandy! It really worked the bum!

Check out this incline!



Random lush green bushes on our journey!

                            
                                                                    Some sort of albino lizard!

This was the most spectacular creature we saw!!! 

No, Shannon's not showing off her jazz fingers... she's trying to get her fingers to stop looking like sausages... just like mine!

We finished! Now off for an hour trip back to the campsite to rest and eat grub!

Topanga Canyon Hike

Well, I forgot what was the name of this hike... but it was brutal.  For very. Short. High. Steep. Climbs go.

I was sweating almost instantly.  We even passed a whole family that were casually making their way up the hill together. I thought it was so endearing.  There was a daddy that had the baby carrier on his back

When "mom" came into view, I got to see that MOM was PREGNANT... Like... Ready!  Naturally, I felt out of shape when pregnant women were on this trail... After making a comment, the lady revealed that today was actually her DUE date.... Damn, I admire that lady!

When we finally reached the top, we took these nice pictures.

PS... I had an entire camel bladder of water, and Lisa had 16 oz...

And had this view

Then, Lisa discovered this little guy.  My guess is he sat down for a nap, and called it a life.

Another perspective going down...

Going down was do steep. There were lots of loose rocks and stones and dry dirt. I kept almost falling, and Lisa, being such a sweetheart, kept reaching out and grabbing me. The funniest part is that this is all that instinct that is built into us... I would have brought Lisa down with me! I did eventually reach the ground, and had this battle wound to show off...

Skinned knees... I felt like a kid again.

All in all, it was a good hike. Got my heart rate pumping, and enjoyed the company!