Another day, another oasis. We visited Cottonwood Springs on a Saturday. It took us 45 minutes to drive there from our campsite, and by then the place was packed. We had the luck to arrive at the same time as a school group of 20 kids, so we rushed through the oasis to beat the crowds on the Mastodon Loop trail.
Cottonwood Springs is at a lower elevation than most of the park and the desert here is Sonoran rather than Mojave, so the vegetation was looking pretty lush
and more flowers were blooming like these desert bells (Phacelia campanularia)
and these Mohave woodyasters:
We wound up getting pleasantly lost, wandering around the boulders and yuccas
until we found our way back to the trail. In our perambulations we happened upon a secret oasis near the site of the former community associated with the Mastodon mine,
which was full of birds like this female Gambel's quail
and this hooded oriole posing in a beautiful blooming (Peritoma arborea) shrub.
Then we looked up and lo and behold, 21 pelicans were flying overhead!
We tried to stop at a few other trailheads on our way back to the campsite, but spots in the parking lots were hard to come by. Joshua Tree was full up!
In the evening vehicles were cruising around the campsite looking for a place to camp so we let a group of 4 young people set up their tiny tent in our campsite. Just as well they were all squeezed in together as it got very cold overnight.
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