WTC graduation, summiting the park high point and surviving a crazy windstorm that tested which tents would stand up.
October 22, 2022
Background
Joshua Tree is where two deserts meet — the higher Mojave with its namesake trees and the lower Colorado with cholla and ocotillo — and its open, boulder-strewn terrain makes it a favorite classroom for off-trail navigation. The other hazard people forget isn’t the heat: it’s the wind, which can turn an overnight into an honest test of who actually staked out their tent.
If you go
The graduation trip for the Wilderness Travel Course put it all together in Joshua Tree — off-trail navigation to a desert summit, then camp. The desert’s hazard list isn’t just heat: wind is the other one, and a hard overnight blow is a brutal, honest test of who actually staked out their tent. Cool months, navigation by map and compass, and stake everything down.
