We spent our second week on the road in the Joshua Tree area visiting an old friend. The last time we were here was almost exactly 21 years ago on a college Spring break trip. At that time she had just purchased the property she still lives on and it was basically a raw piece of desert with a one room cabin on it. Over the intervening decades she has turned it into a beautiful homestead oasis with vegetable gardens and even a campsite with power and shower facilities for visitors like us. The plum trees were in full bloom and abuzz with honey bees.

After taking a couple hours to settle in, we headed out for a hike in the surrounding desert wilds of the Pioneertown Mountains Preserve. We saw the first running water we’d seen in a couple weeks and a few small waterfalls. This is a shortlived and special thing in this dry terrain and we stopped often to relish it with our desert dwelling friends. The hike took us to the top of a peak with beautiful 360 degree views. On the way down, we got another spectacular desert sunset.

Our first couple of days were quite nice, but then the weather took a turn and got windy and then cool, cloudy, and rainy. I glanced at the weather in Portland on one of those cloudy, rainy days and to my surprise it was sunny and warm! We’d come to the desert to escape the clouds and rain, but it seemed we’d brought it with us and sent the sun North.

However, the weather was just an excuse to spend plenty of time in our friend’s cozy house, next to the fire, sipping tea or my new favorite beverage she introduced us to of warm goat milk and maple syrup. The milk procured fresh from a farmer friend of hers down the road. We spent hours sharing stories, and catching up on the last 20 years. It’s striking how we’re completely different people than we were then, but that the connection that brought us together all those years ago was as strong as ever.

In a little break in the weather on a Friday afternoon, we got a chance to help with some garden chores and to take another little hike. The sky was moody and dark, but we saw a rainbow and the temperature was fine for hiking.

Our final day here, we got a little break in the weather and we headed to the Joshua Tree Farmer’s Market. Our friend is a regular here and is on a first name basis with most of the vendors. It was great to have this local connection and to get to meet so many interesting folks. We filled our food stores with fresh yogurt, hummus, sweet peppers, tomatoes, salad greens, and fruit. The weather turned wet again in the afternoon, which scuttled our plans for another hike, but we made the best of it with a walk in the desert around our friends place in the late afternoon where we still got to see another epic sunset.

We headed out first thing in the morning headed toward Southern Arizona and the Kofa Wildlife Refuge. At our friend’s suggestion, we decided to drive through Joshua Tree National Park on the way instead of taking the more direct, but much less scenic route. To our surprise, there wasn’t much traffic to speak of and not even a line at the gate. We drove through the Joshua Tree forests and stunning rock formations taking a few breaks to do a little scrambling on the rocks and to walk through the Cholla Cactus Garden.

Joshua Tree is a beautiful place despite the sometimes unpredictable weather this time of year. I’m thankful to have been able to spend some time here and to reconnect and rekindle and old friendship.