Lucky Boy Loop

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
12/29/2017	3.8 miles

Map: National Geographic Joshua Tree Map
Guide book: Hiking Joshua Tree National Park, a Falcon Guide
Directions: Modified version of Hike #23 in guide book, Lucky Boy Vista

After hiking Ryan Mountain, we headed over to do the Desert Queen Mine hike. But, the parking lot was full. We constantly had to alter plans based on where we could find parking. The only safe time seemed to be our first hike of the day, so in general, we tried to make that our longer or top priority hike, so we could find smaller hikes to add in after we were done.

So, around .5 mile from the Desert Queen Mine hike, we found a parking spot (1 of only 4 for the trailhead) for the Lucky Boy Vista hike, which our guide book described as a 2.5 mile out and back. But when we got to the trailhead, we saw the description of a hike, Lucky Boy Loop, which was longer. Our guide book didn't show the loop. I wanted to do the longer hike. We are aiming to hike around 10 miles/day on average. That just seemed like a decent amount for the amount of daylight we have. I unfortunately didn't carry as much water as I should have. Even though it had been 39 degrees at 8am, it got hot (well, low 70's). With the constant sun exposure, I just felt like I had to drink more. This hike was mostly on sandy wash. We could have extended this hike even more and added the Desert Queen Mine hike onto it, but I just didn't bring enough water to do that. The end of the loop includes a .5 mile dirt sand walk between the Desert Queen Mine parking area and the Lucky Boy Loop parking area.

Next up.....Skull Rock Nature Trail