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| Forty Nine Palms Oasis |
Date: November 27, 2025
Place: Joshua Tree National Park, Twentynine Palms, California
Coordinates: 34.119298, -116.112122
Length: 3.2 miles
Level: moderate
When Pappa Quail and I debated on where to go on our Thanksgiving vacation we eventually decided to go to Joshua Tree National Park. We've been there several times already but not recently, and never in the late fall/early winter season. I was missing the desert scenery and I wanted a chance to hike trails there that we didn't get to hike before. We took the entire day before Thanksgiving to drive to Twentynine Palms where we booked our lodging and on the following day we went to the new visitor center to get some information. Based on the staff's recommendations we continued to the Forty Nine Palms Canyon Trailhead. 
The three of us - Pappa Quail, me, and the young chika found ourselves in a bit of a crowd - apparently the staff at the visitor center were sending many people to that trailhead. We were early enough to find parking though.
Nice looking Cholla cacti were growing near the trailhead. I saw many more cholla along the trail as well.
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| Branched Pencil Cholla, Cylindropuntia ramosissima |
It was late in November so we didn't expect to see many if any wildflowers. Still, there were already a few rain events in the California deserts already so i did expect to see some greenery. A few steps into the trail however, I saw the first wildflowers - the Emory's daisy. There were many of them blooming along the trail.
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| Emory's Daisy, Peityle emoryi |
The first part of the hike is uphill, going on the range south of Twentynine Palms. The slope was mild and we walked at a fairly fast pace, pausing every now and then to look around.
The sky to the north was mostly clear and blue but on the south, above the mountains, it was partly overcast. Against the gray background of the southern skies Pappa Quail photographed a solitary common raven.
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| Common Raven |
One plant that I was happy to see again, and that we saw lots of on this hike was the California barrel cactus. This lovely red cactus is endemic to the Mojave desert. It adds its colorful beauty to the rugged desert scenery year-round.
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| California Barrel Cactus, Ferocactus cylindraceus |
Soon I realized that not expecting wildflowers in November and the reality were two different things. In the desert, I was reminded, always expect the unexpected.
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| Slender-lobed Four O'Clock, Mirabilis tenuiloba |
There weren't carpets of bloom, but there were many wildflowers all over the place. It seemed that the early desert rains have worked their magic.
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| Fringed Amaranth, Amaranthus fimbriatus |
We were gaining altitude quickly, despite me frequent photo pauses. Other than the surprise wildflowers I was also appreciating the vast desert view that expanded with each step.
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| View north |
There were quite a few creosote bushes along the north part of the trail. This did surprise me a bit because creosote generally prefers the desert plains. The creosote weren't blooming but had still their little fluff ball fruit.
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| Creosote, Larrea tridentata |
We soon got high enough to get the view on the other side of the crest to the next ridge over. The trail continued east for a little bit, then disappeared around the curve.
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| Forty Nine Palms Oasis Trail |
More cacti were growing up on the ridge. They all looked very healthy and happy - the recent rains did them good.
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| Cushion Foxtail Cactus, Excobaria alversonii |
My eyes were naturally attracted to the bright red California barrel cacti. These cacti can grow quite large but those that I saw near the trail were of modest size.
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| California Barrel Cactus, Ferocactus cylindraceus |
We reached the highest vista point where we had view to the north before the trail curved south into the mountains. Below us sprawled the city of Twentynine Palms, a town which serves both the park visitors and also the nearby US Marines base. The entire trip I kept ranting that the town's name was a misnomer - it had many, many more palms.
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| Twentynine Palms |
The trail curved south and we started going downhill into the mountain range. Somewhere below was the Forty Nine Palms Oasis.
Rounding the curve we got a view of a stand of California fan palms far below - there was the Forty Nine Palms Oasis.
There were more wildflowers on the way down. The purple bloom of the Notch-leaf phacelia dotted the pale gravel by the trail side.
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| Notch-leaf Scorpionwee, Phacelia crenulata |
There were quite a few phacelia blooming along the trail, but I only saw a single sand blazingstar in bloom. I was quite excited with this finding.
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| Sand Blazingstar, Mentzelia involucrata |
One of the most common bushes I've seen there was the brittlebush. Most of them were not blooming. Down the trail however, closer to the wash below, I was happy to see a few that were in bloom.
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| Brittlebush, Encelia farinosa |
The trail came down to a wash. The wash was completely dry, showing no evidence of the recent rains. The biggest bushes on the hike (save for at the oasis) were lining the sides of the wash.
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Wash Naturally I took some time to explore the vegetation in the wash. One bush was full of mature, yellow seed pods that looked like jewels. |
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| Spiny Senna, Senna armata |
The trail continued in the other side of the wash, going up a little bit again before descending to the oasis. I noticed the presence of beavertail cacti, none of which were blooming at the time, of course.
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| Beavertail Cactus, Opuntia basilaris basilaris |
More of the brittlebush plants were blooming along this part of the trail. It is pretty common, and to me it characterizes the southern California desert.
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| Brittlebush, Encelia farinosa |
A small orange butterfly fluttered by me. I let Pappa Quail and the chika keep going while I stayed behind to look at the pretty insect.
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| Sleepy Orange Butterfly |
The oasis was close now, and the palms were alluring. There were quite a few people on the trail that day, and capturing a human-free image was a bit challenging.
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| Forty Nine Palms Oasis |
Come to think of it, this fall hike in the desert turned out to be almost a spring time wildflowers walk. Not that I was complaining or anything.
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| California Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum |
The northwest part of Joshua Tree National Park is a Mojave desert. The Mojave yucca is also one of the plants that characterize the Mojave desert, and many of these sharp-tipped plants were present along the trail.
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| Mojave Yucca, Yucca schidigera |
The oasis was near now, but my progress slowed down to a crawl. I let Pappa Quail and the young chika continue on while I paused by the wildflowers, which were much more numerous than I would ever have expected for the season.
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| Parish's Goldeneye, Bahiopsis parishii |
Large bushes of desert lavender loomed over the trail. The bushes were lush and looked very healthy. Their natural color was silvery, the green hidden underneath a thick layer of thin hairs. These hairs are there to protect the plant from the high radiation, heat and water loss. When I got closer I saw that the bushes were blooming too. Not full bloom, no. Only a few tiny flowers here ad there on the stalks.
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| Desert Lavender, Condea emoryi |
I wasn't the only one appreciating the desert lavender. A large insect was roaming the stem up and down.
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| California Bordered Plant Bug |
Just before descending into the oasis area we had a nice view down a deep wash that undulated its way to the north and disappeared around the curve.
At last we reached the Forty Nine Palms Oasis. I was compelled to count them but gave up soon enough - there were many more then forty nine palms there, certainly if the baby palms were included in the palms census.
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| California Fan Palm, Washingtonia filifera |
There were wildflowers in the oasis too. Naturally they were of different kinds - more water loving plants than those that thrived in the surrounding desert.
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| Bladderpod, Cleomella arborea |
Some of the palms had charred trunks that were cleaned of the old fronds that usually hang on well after drying out. Most of the palms however didn't show signs of having been burned. There were lots of young palms growing between the older ones. The oasis was in a very good state.
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| California Fan Palm, Washingtonia filifera |
The
oasis was full of people. We meandered between them, making our way to
the end of the trail. At first the trail was descending but within the
oasis it was actually ascending between large boulders to a view point
over the main stand of palms.
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| California Fan Palm, Washingtonia filifera |
At the top of the trail we sat on the stone stairs, had a snack and looked around us. Far above I could see a miserable-looking Joshua tree - the only one we've seen on this hike.
My gaze fell on a hand that extended from a large granite boulder below where we were sitting. I knew there was a group of hikers sitting behind it but I could only heard them - they were all hidden from sight by that boulder. The out of nowhere looking hand reminded me of one of the stranger characters from the Adams Family movie.
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| 'Thing' |
Looking north I could appreciate how high we were over the Yucca valley where the town of Twentynine Palms was. North of the valley loomed a few more mountain ranges, the tallest of which I believe was already within the Mojave Desert National Preserve, another very worth while place to visit.
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| North View |
We passed a nice half an hour at the Forty Nine Palms Oasis, looking at the palms, at the people, and searching for birds. There were certainly birds there, but they were well hidden in the palms' fronds, from where we could hear them chirping.
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| California Fan Palm, Washingtonia filifera |
Eventually it was time to head back, and on our return I had the opportunity to take better photos of some of the wildflowers that I saw on our way in.
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| Thickleaf Groundberry, Physalis crassifolia |
And then there were the wildflowers that somehow I missed on our way in, such as the desert bluebells of which there were numerous plants but none were blooming. The one bluebells plant that was blooming I spotted on our return, hidden behind a larger bush.
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| Desert Bluebells, Phacelia campanularia var. vasiformis |
The spiny senna too - the bushes that I saws on our way in were already in their fruiting stage, but on our way out I noticed one bush that had a few flowers still on its very lowest stems.
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| Spiny Senna, Senna armata |
Naturally, our way back was quicker. Having seen most of the wildflower on our way in already, I was now appreciating more of the rock formations along the way.
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| Forty Nine Palms Oasis Trail |
Grainy-looking granite made much of the rock mass of the mountains in Joshua Tree National Park. Some of the granite were veined with lines of quartz mineral.
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| Granite |
Then there were other, darker and smoother rock masses. This rock, I later learned, was gneiss
- a metamorphic rock that was older than the granite.
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| Gneiss |
Throughout our hike Pappa Quail was searching for birds. We saw very few birds, which wasn't all that unexpected for the season. He did spot one of the year-round desert residents - the rock wren.
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| Rock Wren |
Now that the sun was near its mid-day place in the sky the cholla cacti looked like they were wearing a saints' halo, with the light shining through their nasty spines.
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| Chuckwalla Cholla, Cylindropuntia chuckwallensis |
We reached the north ridge and when we turned the curve I went to the view point at the edge of the cliff. There was great view of the flat Yucca Valley and the towns below.
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| View North |
On the west the trail stretched downhill. I could see more people making their way up. Pappa Quail and the young chika were already well on their way downhill so I lowered my camera and hurried after them.
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| Forty Nine Palms Oasis Trail |
The desert trumpet plant isn't easy for me to photograph. Its tiny flowers are hard to focus on and they are too thinly spaced so the background is more visible than the plant itself. This plant however, is of such a presence in the Mojave desert that I couldn't just pass it by.
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| Desert Trumpet, Eriogonum inflatum |
A large mount pf exposed rock outcrop protruded at the edge of the cliff. A couple of lizards were sunning themseves on the rock but vanished into a crack as soon as I raised my camera.
When I caught up with Pappa Quail he was sitting on a rock with one shoe off. A blister was forming on his toe and he was applying a bandaid on it. I took the moment to look at a little shrub that was blooming nearby, bearing tiny, unassuming flowers.
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| Burrobush, Ambrosia dumosa |
Fruit can be quite beautiful too. When we resumed our way downhill I noticed another shrub that loked completely dry, but was carrying numerous pearl-like berries.
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| Anderson Thornbush, Lycium andersonii |
Almost back at the parking lot I paused for the last time to take a photo of a small alluvial plain that was full of creosote bushes. What I liked about that creosote field was that it looked like a planted agricultural field with the plants spaced almost evenly from one another. This was of course, natural spacing, determined by the radius of the creosote's root system. They keep their drinking territory from the neighboring creosote.
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| Creosote, Larrea tridentata |
Back at the trailhead we found the parking lot over flowing. We took the time to have a short picnic lunch and then made someone happy by leaving our parking spot. Forty Nine Palms Oasis Trail was a lovely hike. Since we still had plenty of daylight left we drove to the park's main entrance and headed to ur next trail that was recommended to us - the Split Rock Trail.
