What are /r/JoshuaTree's favorite Products & Services?

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make sure to catch stargazing, sunsets, sunrises; JT is a haven for natural beauty. you can find a lot of good hikes throughout the park here, though personally i love the barker dam one. also bring one hell of a ton of water with you, even if you think its too much. the whole area is truly a sight to behold, hope you enjoy your travels :)

Im in North JT. There's a hanging level of haze high in the sky. The smell of smoke is the mildest it has been in days. Ashes haven't fallen in many days. San Gorgonio, near Big Bear area, is visible normally, but is totally blocked by smoke from the fire.

The evening light is a bit yellower/oranger than normal, when the sun starts to filter through the smoke from the fire to the west.

Lots of stars last night. Amazing sunset. Milky way isn't clear, like it normally would be.

Air quality on WUnderground seems to think it's fine in JT. https://www.wunderground.com/health/us/ca/joshua-tree

As for me personally, not remotely uncomfortable today.

I climbed quail mountain (highest peak in JT) in November and it was great! We took two nights: arrived late (~midnight) on friday, hiked in ~2 miles from boy scout trailhead, set up camp, hiked to base of quail, stashed our packs to hike light to the peak, then climbed back down and camped at the base. You hike through a huge grove of Joshua Trees on the way, and you can see almost the whole park from quail mountain.

The only downside is that there isn't much of a trail, so a GPS is a must (I used the Motion-X app on my iPhone.) I took two nights, but it's definitely doable in one. Here's a sample track for reference: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2092779

Another option is eagle mountains via lost palms oasis, which I've done in one night as well (no GPS though.) That route is cool because you get to see the oasis (crazy to see flowing water in the desert) and tons of other flora (no joshua trees in that portion in the park though) You need a good map for this route, or else a GPS. Feel free to message me to discuss further

Here is a list of all the campgrounds in Big Bear

Here are some hikes around Big Bear Lake There is a map on the right side of the page. Zoom closer to Big Bear Lake to narrow it down to hikes that are close to the lake.

Agreed, "On Foot" is an excellent guide as well as Kevin Powell's 40 Classic Day Hikes. No need or order from Amazon unless you want to get a jump on things. Support small business and stop by Coyote Corner or Nomad Ventures, both of which carry a selection of books.

https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Hikes-Joshua-Tree-National/dp/0692033203

Flash floods anywhere near JT can be incredibly dangerous and obviously they happen that quick. I was caught in one and it still haunts me years later.

I keep a good radar app on my phone now, you simply can't judge what's coming with your eyes, sometimes it's simply to late, especially when your exit routes are limited.

Edit: spell, plus this is the app I use: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acmeaom.android.myradar

It's served me well, but there very likely could be better one's out there.

You could do Arch Rock at night because it is very short and mostly on a dirt road, as well as very close to a campground so you are not out in the boonies by yourself. Bring headlamps and flashlights and you'll be golden. People like to go to Arch Rock for night photography.

Arch Rock Nature Trail

Not exactly sure. He said he was hiking "around Quail Mountain". I don't really know the area, or how many trails there are aside from this one: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/quail-mountain-trail

Update:

We went with Flashbyte as they were the only local ISP that could serve us. We got a custom package for 30 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up for $200/mo. It’s been quite reliable. Just one brief outage during the day over the past week, possibly because of a thunderstorm. 20-50 Ms ping and low jitter which makes it good for Zoom calls. Unlimited data is great. They use Spectrum Business for their backhaul and it’s been good.

We also were able to get T-Mobile 5G home internet. It is super fast at night reaching 100-200 Mbps down and 50-100 Mbps up for $50/mo. It is also unlimited data. However, it is very sporadic and gets congested during the day and weekends. During the day it can get as bad as 0.5 Mbps down and today (Sunday) afternoon it completely stopped working. When there’s more people out and about and especially when there’s a lot of visitors during the weekend, the towers get congested.

The nice thing is Flashbyte peak times are evenings, while T-Mobile congestion is during the day, and T-Mobile upload is very fast and usually not congested, while Flashbyte upload is just 4 Mbps, so I’m experimenting with using Speedify to combine the connections to create one fast and reliable connection.

The flowers are done in most of the park. They have moved off the floor and up into the mountains. You will need to climb a peak to see flowers.

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The ratings are off for all climbing problems in the park. Everything is harder than what you find in a gym. Joshua Tree Bouldering from Wolverine is currently the best book for bouldering problems. If you just want to scramble, find a pile of rocks along the side of the road and start climbing. Hidden Valley, Hemingway, and Hall of Horrors are all good places to scramble around. All the campgrounds in the north part of the park have rocks.

As the couple studied artifacts in the Pinto Basin in 1933, Elizabeth Campbell suspected that the evidence of civilization there suggested there must have been an ancient water source. She began to develop her theory about the importance of geology and environment to archaeology. It was an unusual approach that has now become mainstream.

Amazon link

I forgot to mention the most depressing book of all time 1491. It does not talk about 29 Palms specifically. But it does talk about what life was like in America before European contact.

The tribes in 29 Palms and Palm Springs were mostly left to themselves until after the Civil War, when the railroad moved in, then the desert gold rush happened, and after WWI GI's who had been blasted with mustard gas moved in to help heal their lungs.

My fave flower guide for the area is the Falcon Guide Mojave Desert Wildflowers http://www.amazon.com/Mojave-Desert-Wildflowers-2nd-Wildflower-ebook/dp/B00BSRGO90/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423417326&sr=8-1&keywords=Mojave+Desert+Wildflowers

They sell it at the visitor's center.