Heading further out than usual (simply because I’m running out of closer desert peaks), I tagged both the Orocopia and Eagle Mountain Highpoints, driving a short ways into the southern part of Joshua Tree National Park for the latter. Orocopia had great views of Mecca and the Salton Sea, and the clouds of a dissipating storm made for great photos. Eagle was a big more rugged than I had anticipated, though I hadn’t done much (or any) research beforehand. Still, I had two rather short hiking days, which left time to test out the camping setup I’d recently built for my truck.
I found a large tortoise shell on Orocopia, first time I’d seen that, which reminded me that of all the desert creatures I’d been lucky enough to see, the endangered desert tortoise was missing from my list. This thought was short lived though, as I came across a small tortoise, alive this time, on my way up Eagle.