Queen Mountain / Monument Mountain

Part of a two-day Joshua Tree trip. For the full rundown, see Joshua Tree: A User’s Manual.

…There is more, of course. Much more. Of history, Key’s Ranch. Of hiking, the Boy Scout Trail. Of peak-bagging, the Hexie Mountains, whose character is entirely unique. A broad bowl of soft-edged hilltops, their spiny grasses shivering. The whole of it littered by ghost trails, which may or may not be purely imagined. The white-belled creosote of Monument Mountain. A crest of windswept stars. Range after range after range, and suddenly the desert is not so simple. It is, all said, the ideal location to pleasantly lose your mind. And I urge you to get out there, to explore every peak and shadowed crevice, each trail and prospective campsite…

Read the full report in my Joshua Tree guide.