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| Mastodon Peak |
Date: November 29, 2025
Place: Joshua Tree National Park, Twentynine Palms, California
Coordinates: 33.737062, -115.810746
Length: 2.6 miles
Level: moderate
The Cottonwood Springs Oasis is at the south entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. I've been there a few times and hiked twice the trail to the
Lost Palms Oasis, about three and a half miles southeast of Cottonwood Springs. Since I had in mind to hike trails that were new to me on
my recent family trip to the park last November, I didn't feel like spending two hours of driving to get to the south end of the park just to look for birds that might be at the oasis. Pappa Quail however, was not satisfied with the bird count of the trip so far and really wanted to go there, so on the morning of our last full day in the park we woke up early and drove south to Cottonwood Springs.
We walked down from the parking area to the oasis. We were welcomed by the familiar thick stand of California fan palms, the only palm species native to California. The palm thicket is where Pappa Quail was hoping to see birds.
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| Cottonwood Springs Oasis |
While Pappa Quail was scanning the palms for birds I looked around and noticed another stand of trees - the Fremont cottonwood poplars. The cottonwood were in varying stages of leaf turn and loss, as fitting the season. Oases are the only places in Joshua Tree National park where one can see plants that need copious amounts of water. The presence of the palms and the cottonwood is a reliable indicator of water present, either above ground or very close below.
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| Fremont Cottonwood, Populus fremontii trees at the Cottonwood Springs Oasis |
There were other water-loving plants in the Cottonwood Springs Oasis, of course. The riparian plant with the strange name of Mule Fat was also blooming a bit.
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| Mule Fat, Baccharis salicifolia |
At the lower end of the oasis was a relic from the time that the place was populated by the Cahuilla Native Californians. It was a grinding mortar cut in granite.
We moved a bit away from the palms. Pappa Quail didn't see many birds there, and the birds that he did see were keeping to the palm canopies. We wanted to go on a hike but not the seven miles long in and out trail to the Lost Palms Oasis.
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| California Fan Palm, Washingtonia filifera |
We decided to go on the mastodon Loop Trail, which was only about 2.5 miles long, and neither of us had hiked it before.
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| Our hike as captured by my GPS |
It was hard to tell from the map where the Mastodon Loop trailhead for taking it clockwise was, and we didn't see any obvious signs. The default was to hike the loop counter-clockwise, then. The first part of the counter-clockwise Mastodon Loop Trail overlaps the Lost Palms Oasis.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail/Lost Palms Oasis Trail |
After the previous day's hike on the Lost Horse Loop Trail I didn't expect to see much bloom. Sure enough, there wasn't much but a few plants were blooming.
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| Parish's Goldeneye, Bahiopsis parishii |
The trail meandered between low ridges and hills. We were going on a mild uphill slope. The bushes were looking dry still but under these shrubs new sprouts were growing, turning small patches of sand the color of green.
Mojave yucca plants were numerous along the trail and between the leaves of one yucca Pappa Quail found a bird that he could photograph - a little ruby-crowned kinglet.
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| Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
Pappa Quail who was ahead of me suddenly turned around and motioned me to come over. He pointed out and said, Ocotillo.
I have seen ocotillo along the trail so I didn't get Pappa Quail's excitement at first, but then he pointed out that the ocotillo bush he was looking at was blooming. Not a big, bull scale bloom, but some of the branch tips carried a red inflorescence.
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| Ocotillo, Fouquieria splensens |
We came up the low ridge where the blooming ocotillo was to take a closer look at it. We didn't get close though - Pappa Quail detected a movement in the branches of that bush - it was a ladder-backed woodpecker. We remained at a camera-shot distance from the ocotillo so to not disturb the bird.
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| Ladder-backed Woodpecker |
There were more ocotillo bushes along the trail. Most of them were not blooming, but all of them were covered in foliage - the sign of good recent rains.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail/Lost Palms Oasis Trail |
There were plenty of cacti in the area too. None of the cacti were blooming (not that I expected any) but all of them looked nice and healthy - another blessed outcome of the rains.
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| Beavertail Cactus, Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris |
California barrel cactus is more common and grows to larger sizes in the Mojave desert type, which is in the northwestern part of Joshua Tree National Park. Still, there were quite a few barrel cacti, mainly small ones, along the trail.
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| California Barrel Cactus, Ferocactus cylindraceus |
The California barrel cactus adds nice red color to the beige-gray desert soil. Red color comes also from another source - the mesquite mistletoe.
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| Mesquite Mistletoe, Phoradendron californicum |
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| Mastodon Loop Trail/Lost Palms Oasis Trail |
I found an empty nest hanging on a bush since last breeding season. I thought it might have been a cactus wren's nest, but I'm not sure.
Meanwhile Pappa Quail found a battered butterfly that was getting nourishment from one of the few blooming plants that we saw on the hike.
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| Painted Lady Butterfly |
The trail followed the path of a shallow wash and occasionally came pretty close to the wash bed itself. Naturally there was more vegetation in the was, and some was of good size too, such as the pinyon pine in the photo below.
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| California Singleleaf Pinyon, Pinus californiarum |
Since we started our hike fairly early, the morning shadows were still pretty long. The air was chilly when we started the hike but warmed up fast as we moved along the trail.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail/Lost Palms Oasis Trail |
I was missing the Joshua trees. Their yucca relatives were numerous, but did not feel the vertical space as much.
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| Mojave Yucca, Yucca schidigera |
We moved up the trail to another crest. To our left rose the beautiful ridge of Mastodon Peak. It looked like a poorly ordered jumble of granite boulders, crawling with yuccas.
From the crest we could see the trail to the Lost Palms Oasis continues on southeast. We were not going there, not this time. We were turning left to go up to Mastodon Peak.
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| Lost Palms Oasis Trail, view southeast |
I found another cactus near the trail - one that I haven't seen yet on this hike. This cactus too was not in bloom yet. Cacti follow their seasonal calendar in a tighter manner than other plants.
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| Cushion Foxtail Cactus, Escobaria alversonii |
Not far from the cushion foxtail cactus was a very healthy-looking silver cholla. Yesterday at the urgent care clinic where the Joshua tree thorn was pulled out of the chika's skull we were told that many people come to the clinic to have all kinds of thorns pulled out. I assume the cholla might be responsible to many of these cases.
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| Silver Cholla, Cylindropuntia echinocarpa |
A conical hill nearby had me confused a bit - I thought that that hill might be the Mastodon Peak. I quickly realized however, that it wasn't.
On the lower slop of that hill were more ocotillo bushes though, and some of them were blooming. Not a fully committed bloom, but bloom nonetheless.
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| Ocotillo, Fouquieria splensens |
After a short hydration break we turned toward Mastodon Peak and started ascending the tail. Here too I let Pappa Quail and the chika get ahead while I took my time bringing up the rear.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
It wasn't so much the plants this time, but the fascinating shapes of the rocks all around me. They had the most imagination-inspiring shapes.
Soon I got the view of the real Mastodon peak up ahead. On the map was a small spur trail that split from the main loop trail, leading to the peak itself. I knew that I would want to go up there but I wasn't sure if Pappa Quail and the chika would.
I caught up with Pappa Quail while he was taking some time trying to photograph some sparrows that played hide and seek in the boulders across the wash below.
Pappa Quail didn't want to go up to the peak, but he didn't mind waiting while I went up there. The chika decided to go along with me so we had a few sips of water then I left the backpack with Pappa Quail and started up Mastodon Peak.
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| Mastodon Peak |
The trail was clear and easy at first, but it soon got steep, and slippery with thin gravel. Moreover, the one obvious path soon split into several possibilities, some of them became either too treacherous or stopped at a dead end all together.
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| Mastodon Peak |
Even on that part of the hike I was still stopping for interesting plants along the way. This time I was the one ahead, looking for the most favorable path and guiding my chika who followed close behind be.
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| Anderson Thornbush, Lycium andersonii |
Every now and then I paused and appreciated the view that spread below be. The vast desert has a very calming effect on my mind. I love the desert, especially the rock-textured desert such as the kind seen in Joshua Tree National Park.
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| View |
The last part of the path up mastodon Peak was mainly rock scrambling, using the hands too, and also getting over gaps and boulders, squeezing around thorny bushes, and treading all too close to the precipice.
The reward though, was fantastic. We arrived at the peak and had a gorgeous 360 view of the entire area.
The next ridge on the southeast rose above a jugged plateau that wasn't flat at all. That southeastern ridge was a small one, and I wasn't even sure it was within the park's boundaries.
On the northwest I could see the access road and the Cottonwood Springs campground area. That was the way into the park.
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| View Northwest |
On the southwestern horizon a thin, blue range rose over what looked like a blanket of fog. That range was the Santa Rosa Mountain Range, that is terminated on the north with Mount San Jacinto.
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| View Southwest |
The blanket of fog was hovering over
Salton Sea, one of the strangest bodies of water I know of, and not only in California. I increased my zoom to maximum - the water was visible below the fog.
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| Salton Sea View |
We saw Pappa Quail sitting far below us and called him to take a photo of us on the peak. We saw other hikers come up the trail, leave their backpacks, and starting up the mastodon Peak spur trail. The chika and me looked at each other - it was time to had down.
The way down was just as slow as going up. It wasn't more difficult, but we did have to take turns with the ascending hikers going through the tight places. On these pauses I noticed the dark inclusions embedded in the red granite.
We actually found a little different path to get down the lower part of the Mastodon Peak. I then had to go up the original path we took to retrieve my hiking poles that I left there when the ascend became too rocky.
We rejoined Pappa Quail and continued northwest on the loop trail. We were now walking fairly fast on a mild slope downhill.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
I don't know how Mastodon Peak got its name. I can't imagine any mastodon fossils were anywhere near that place. We were however, walking along the ridge that Mastodon Peak was the top of.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
On the ridge coming down from the Mastodon Peak we came upon the Mastodon Miner site. It was a very small site, one of about 300 such sites within the park's boundaries. An information sign that was behind the fence that barred the mine shaft said that this site wasn't all that rich.
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| Mastodon Mine |
Pappa Quail noted that the trail was descending toward the Cottonwood Springs Campground. I knew that there was a trail split leading to the campground but considering that the Mastodon Peak Trail was a loop trail, I was sure that there was a curve somewhere that would lead back to Cottonwood Springs Oasis, where we were parked. That trail I was sure existed, was not marked on our navigators, but it was labeled on the paper map that I had with me.
We descended into a shallow, wide wash. The banks of the wash were lined with bushes and shrubs and I spotted some that were in partial bloom.
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| Paperbag Bush, Scutellaria mexicana |
For a while the trail was right on the wash bed. The wash was wide and flat. We walked on soft wash gravel. The wash bed surface looked completely dry but a shallow scratching of the surface revealed moisture below.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
The moisture retained in the wash below the surface supported the speedy growth and bloom of wildflowers. Not a large variety of them but enough to make me very happy.
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| Desert Bluebells |
The plant that was taking advantage of the hidden water in the wash's gravel was the desert bluebells - a beautiful Phacelia that blooms in dark, vibrant blue, a very unusual color in the desert's brown-yellow-gray palette. The color of blue flowers in the desert is the color of spring. I was fortunate to see it in November.
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| Desert Bluebells, Phacelia campanularia var. vasiformis |
Other than the flowers and the greening bushes, I was also attracted to the beautiful, round granite features that defined the wash's banks.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
Some of the rocks had specific shapes that grabbed my attention. In a different setting I might have approached them for a closer exploration, but this time I continued on the hike with my family.
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| Mini Split Rock |
There were places where the rocks constricted the wash, creating a narrower pass. I would have loved to see this place when the wash flowed. The time of a desert flash flood however, is a very dangerous time to visit such places. In this case maybe less so, because the banks looked very accessible from the top.
Then the trail ascended from the wash bed on the north bank, continuing in the direction of Cottonwood Springs Campground.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
On the crest, seeing the campground ahead, I suggested to Pappa Quail that he'd continue there with the chika while I would go to the Cottonwood Spring Oasis on the road if the hiking trail was indeed not there. Pappa Quail wasn't sure about it but the chika jumped on my offer - she wanted to go directly to the campground.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
We still needed to descend to the low desert flat below. I was impressed by the rock formations along that part of the trail. They reminded be a bit of the hoodoos at the
Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
We joined the path of another wash, also wide, flat and with a soft, dry gravel that hid moisture below the surface. This time the vitality hidden below the surface was given away by greening and blooming shrubs along its banks.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
On the top of the northern creek bank I saw the one and only Joshua Tree in along this hike. It was smallish, and didn't look very happy. It was alone, too. That part of the park isn't much of a Joshua Tree habitat, but this one had made it home and was hanging on bravely.
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| Western Joshua Tree, Yucca brevifolia |
The banks of that wash too were lined with lovely granite features. If my home was in the area I would imagine my yard filled with these.
A line of stones marked the trail turn to leave the wash bed. Behind the line were a few desert bluebells in bloom and not far from them a single poppy plant that was blooming. One, lonely poppy.
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| Desert Poppy, Eschscholzia sp. |
We left the was and went up along the trail to the crest that still separated us from where the campground was. From the crest we saw below us yet another was. Moreover - right at the creek bed there was a trail junction there. There was the trail that was leading directly north to the campground, but the other trail turned southwest in the direction of the oasis. On the upstream side of the creek was a small stand of palms - and a couple of tall eucalyptus trees - a species introduced from Australia. It was a tiny, cute oasis.
At the junction we split ways. Pappa Quail and the chika continued to the campground while I followed the curve which followed the wash, in the direction of the Cottonwood Springs Oasis.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
On their way to the Cottonwood Springs Campground, Pappa Quail and the chika found a tarantula. The chika told me that at first they thought that the large arachnid was dead because it didn't move, but when they got close it did start walking.
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| California Ebony Tarantula |
They spotted some lizards too, and one of them paused long enough to get photographed.
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| Western Side-blotched Lizard |
Pappa Quail didn't have any more luck with the birds on this hike. In the campground itself he photographed a white-crowned sparrow, which is one of the most common birds in California.
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| White-crowned Sparrow |
I continued along the wash, and I soon found out that I was on the interpretive part of the Mastodon peak Loop Trail. There were several signs along this part of the trail, explaining about the plants I was seeing, and about their traditional uses for the Cahuilla Tribe.
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| Bladderpod, Cleomella arborea |
One of the bushes that lined the wash bed was the desert willow, which has no relations to actual willow. That bush was one of the most essential plants of the Cahuilla Peaple. It was heavily used for building their homes and their weapons.
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| Desert Willow, Chilopsis linearis |
Technically I was still following the wash bed, but the wash was so wide
there that It was hard to tell where the water would actually go when
it flowed. The trail was marked with a line of stones to prevent hikers
from wandering off.
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| Mastodon Loop Trail |
I came up to the Cottonwood Springs Oasis from behind the parking area. No wonder we couldn't have found that trailhead from the oasis itself below. When I arrived at my car the lot was completely full. A line of cars was parked along the access road and more cars were driving in. I made someone very happy when I left my parking space and dove off to the campground to meet with Pappa Quail and the chika for a lunch picnic. We finished that day with having the chika practice some dirt road driving on the Geology Tour Road, coming pretty close to Malapai Hill, and a short reprise of the short
Hidden Valley walk, but without the flowers. That was our last day in Joshua Tree National Park on our 2025 Thanksgiving vacation. On the following day we were to drive back home, but we did start the day with a birding hike at the Big Morongo Preserve at Yucca Valley.
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