Pine City / Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
1/1/2018	4.5 miles				8.1

Map: National Geographic Joshua Tree Map
Guide book: Hiking Joshua Tree National Park, a Falcon Guide
Directions: Hike #25 in guide book, Pine City / Canyon

This was our second hike of the day from the same parking area. It's great when you don't have to move your car. We had navigational challenges on this hike. It's not that we got lost. The book mentioned a side trail at 1.1 miles. The side trail isn't marked. It can be really hard to figure out what is a trail in the desert. There are so many sandy washes - every sandy wash looks like a trail. We had no problem following the main trail, but we just guessed at what might be a side trail. Usually if there are no footprints in the sand, you know you aren't on a trail. However, sometimes there are footprints on things which aren't trails. So, at a large juniper bush, we turned right and followed a wash. We saw footprints. I kind of think someone had hiked this way to do some backcountry camping, and that's it. We did see some pine trees. We returned back to the main trail.

We hiked until we reached a sign saying the trail was no longer maintained. At this point we hit an intersection. We turned left and got some excellent views. We returned back to the intersection and went to the right for more views. We also went straight a short ways - I think the book said the hike got a lot more challenging (boulders) if you continued ahead. Then we turned around and returned to our car. This hike had a lot of barrel cacti. I love them!

There was a hill next to the parking lot called Negro Hill, which we also considered hiking up for the views. It wasn't listed in our guide book, and our map didn't show any trail up it. We hadn't done any research ahead of time to see if there was a herd path or trail up it. I have learned that there are some trails that aren't listed on the National Geographic map. It's kind of funny how the hill looked bigger than it really was. The hills and mountains are dotted with green brush out here. When you look at them from a distance, they create an illusion - your mind thinks those bushes are trees that are really small because they are far away. But, they aren't trees. Its just something that we both noticed - that these small bushes made mountains appear bigger than they actually are. We decided to skip Negro Hill and do some research later on to learn if people hike it. I did find one blog post on it, which said it is indeed trailless, but hikeable.