The clock was ticking on our days in the desert.

Before heading for the West Coast, we were looking for a few more places to experience the distinctive landscape that comes off as arid and desolate, but is actually teaming with life.

We scratched our desert itch at three excellent and distinctly different parks: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, and Joshua Tree National Park and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California. Each offered spectacular camping, hiking and sublime beauty best enjoyed in the temperate late fall.

Our timing was perfect. Here’s how it went down.

Organ Pipe Cactus

“Just what is an organ pipe cactus?” Leslie asked. “No idea,” John said.

We were looking at a map of Arizona and noticed this large national monument dedicated to this peculiar cactus in the southwest corner of the state. We decided to drive there and find out.

This remote national monument sits right on U.S.-Mexico border, and after several hours of driving, we pulled in to find a beautiful campground with several lovely hikes stretching into the rugged hills of the Sonoran Desert. And we did learn about organ pipe cactus -- they’re a cousin of the saguaro and do indeed look like giant spiky green organ pipes.

We spent a dramatic night under the stars in this dark sky destination, including taking an after-dark stroll around the expansive campground. The next morning, we headed onto our next desert experience.

Joshua Tree

By our count, we’ve been to Joshua Tree six times. But we’d never stayed in the more remote Cottonwood Springs area in the southern portion of the park. It was a nice discovery.

Cottonwood Campground was hopping on a Friday night, filled with a boisterous weekend crowd from the populated Southern California metro areas, though we also spotted a few out of state license plates. It may have been busy, but not obnoxiously so, and we found solitude on every hike we took over the next two days.

We grabbed a second day at a primitive first-come White Tank Campground set among some spectacular boulders in the upper portion of the park. As always, the magic of Joshua Tree is in its incredible stark geological formations like these, including the popular Arch Rock and Heart Rock.

Anza-Borrego

The temps were climbing near 80 degrees as we settled in for four comfortable days in the sun at Anza-Borrego’s Palm Canyon Campground. This gorgeous desert state park offers full hookups, which you gotta love after several days of dry camping.

We spent our time riding bikes around the chill Borrego Springs area -- think Palm Springs without all the golf courses, shopping centers and resorts. We also loved hiking Palm Canyon, which took us to a verdant oasis with a cascading stream.

Anza-Borrego, California’s largest state park, is vast, and we barely scratched its surface. After many days of our desert wanderings covering hundreds of miles, it was nice to simply hang out, have a couple of campfires and chat with fellow campers. It was a fitting end to our quiet nights and days in the desert.

Connect online

We’ve made it to the West Coast just in time for the holidays. Follow along with our adventures on Facebook and Instagram. And please check out the spokesman.com for all of our stories, along with travel stories from our buddy Dan Webster. Go to: spokesman.com/goingmobile.

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