Twin Tanks - 3.2.2026
From Park Blvd in Joshua Tree National Park drive 2.2 miles south on Pinto Basin Road and park in the parking lot for Arch Rock... and looking west from the parking lot notice how the terrain looks like it will be flat.
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99.9 percent of the people who use this parking lot will head south for the Arch Rock Trail... but we will head west in search of the Twin Tanks... and in less than a tenth of a mile of hiking notice that the terrain is already changing from what it looked like in the parking lot.
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Heading down into a wash.
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Continuing to hike west.
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Continuing to hike west... here looking SE to the Eagle Mountains on the far left horizon.
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Continuing to hike west in a wash... with lots of purple Canterbury Bells blooming.
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Continuing to hike west... and looking west at beautiful terrain.
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Star Dancer took this photo of me and Denali Girl... and yes, the wind was blowing at least 10 MPH.
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Continuing to hike west in beautiful terrain.
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Continuing to hike west in beautiful terrain.
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Continuing to hike west in beautiful terrain.
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Continuing to hike west in beautiful terrain.
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The most blooms we have seen on the joshua trees in the last 10 years.
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Continuing to hike west in beautiful terrain.
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After hiking west for a little more than a mile we have started hiking south... heading toward a large quartz rock formation in the center of this photo... kind of hard to see it in the photo, but it is located between the two twin tanks.
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Heading south for the twin tanks.
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The first of the twin tanks.
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From the first twin tank we are looking east back toward the parking lot... with part of the Pinto Mountains on the horizon.
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Leaving the first twin tank and heading south for the large quartz rock in the distance.
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After hiking a total of 1.3 miles we have arrived at the large quartz rocks... Denali Girl and Star Dancer are on the other side of the rocks.
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The second twin tank is very close to the quartz rocks.
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A closer look at the second twin tank.
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Hiking west again as we leave the second twin tank... here looking back at the quartz rocks.
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Heading SE for a short distance and getting ready to head east back to our car.
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Heading east back to our car on the far left... looking SE out toward Pinto Basin in the center of the photo.
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More beautiful terrain as we hike east back to our car.
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More beautiful terrain as we hike east back to our car.
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More beautiful terrain as we hike east back to our car.
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Almost back to our car.
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We can see the parking lot... the loop hike was a total of 2.6 miles, gaining 231 feet of elevation.
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