california - Joshua Tree - Covington Loop Trail

A beautiful loop, following rough boulder canyons, plains, a look at the rim and back into another canyon.

From the Hwy turn right on the Contenta road.
At the crossing it goes straight on into a fairly good dirt road (all cars).
Once you reach the park boundary the road is even better.
Almost at the end, the road forks, follow the picnic table sign, straight ahead.
The dirt road is 7.1 Mile long.
In itself the dirt road is a real nice road to drive on, a lot of Joshua trees, that were starting to bloom in March 2011.

At the parking (Lower Covington Flat), hike the California trail.
There is a burned out area, but you will hardly notice it on this loop.

When you enter a wider sandy wash, after about 2000 yards, turn right.
So leave the marked trail, but be careful that you start hiking more to the west into a narrow canyon wash.
The wider wash, heading South/East is the return route!

This wash may still have streaming water in it, as it did in March 2011.
Suddenly there is what looks like a major obstacle, a dry waterfall.
But it's surprisingly easy to hike up.

This is a really nice canyon.

Once out of the canyon, you find the upper Covington flat parking.
Hike the well marked crest trail, leading up to the rim, for a nice view.
The indicated distance appears to be wrong, it's closer to 2 Kilometers than 2 Miles.

From the rim, hike back for about 100 Yards and head North/East.
Look for the long saddle, that's the aiming point.

This is more cross country, following partial washes.
Once closer to the saddle you find a more clearer wash.
But once over the saddle there is a clear wash.
This wash is simple in the beginning but turns out a real boulder wash.
Look what the animal trails tell you, they found some nice trails along the boulders.
A lot of boulders but quite doable, without any climbing.
Half way down this wash, you notice the fire damage, so some dead trees may block the wash.

Once in the flats below, just keep on following the wash.
We went a bit out of the wash to the right for a short while, less boulders there.

Follow this wash all the way to the crossing and follow the California trail back to the car.

Pictures

Hiking time: 3 Hour, 50 Minutes, return.
You shouldn't encounter many hikers, we didn't see any on our trip.
A bit of a forgotten part of the park.
And best of all, you find the larger Joshua Trees over here.

Hiked: Mid March 2011