December 21 is just four days away – marking the official beginning of winter here in the northern hemisphere. As locals know and visitors can be shocked to discover, the hi-desert and its elevated beauty comes with colder temperatures and more varied weather than other parts of Southern California.
Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent Janes Rodgers stopped by the Z107.7 offices on Friday, joining Emergency Services Program Manager Myles Landry to speak with Gary Daigneault on the Up Close Show. They talked about how winter in the park brings seasonal differences that some visitors may not expect:
Jane Rodgers: “I would say you know the winter provides such a great opportunity for seeing some different things in the park… certainly the temperatures are cooler and are our visitors from the East Coast or colder areas are generally pretty prepared. They kind of know what’s what’s going on… but our So. Cal visitors can have that unexpected cold snap when they’re out here. But this is a great time of year for bird watching… you know we have some winter birds that come into the area like Robins and bluebirds…”
Other birds to look for that are just passing through is waterfowl like the wood duck or common loon – you can see a full list of migratory birds here:
Read: Birds at Joshua Tree National Park (NPS)
Our dark skies make stargazing an easy recommendation for astral wonders any time of the year, but winter can be extra dazzling for stargazers.
“One thing that’s obvious is that its a wonderful time of year for astronomy and stargazing. We have excellent clear night skies in the winter time and of course much longer nights for stargazing (in winter).”
According to the National Park’s website, you can spot one of the most famous winter constellations Orion the Hunter by looking at the southern sky to see the three stars that make up his belt and three fainter stars below the belt for the sword. The real show is the Orion Nebula hidden in the sword – which is visible with binoculars or telescopes thanks to our minimal light pollution in the Morongo Basin – especially inside the National Park.
Rodgers and Landry talked about the National Park’s new Preventative Search and Rescue program, and how getting information out to the public during any season is vital to keeping visitors safe in the National Park, which spans over 1200 square miles.
Rodgers: “The preventative search and rescue has a great history starting at the Grand Canyon… so we stole their idea and they’re spreading it across the country. The idea is to make contact with visitors before they go in the park to prevent them getting lost or hurt.
Myles Landry: “We’re still in the beginning stages of that program here. I do have a stat for this year… our team – which is about 30 volunteer members and a few paid employees – they’ve contacted 82,000 people just this year.
“They’re out there at the trailheads talking to people reminding them if they have enough water for this hike… do you have your salty snacks? Do you have your sunscreen and if people are unfamiliar with the trail, they’re reminding them… this is how long it is this is what the difficulty is. If this is more than what you wanted, then here’s another place to go.”
Read: Joshua Tree National Park Search & Rescue
You can listen to the full interview as a podcast or below:
