Woodland in the Desert

If you want to get outdoors and away from the TV and those holiday snacks, consider a visit to the Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park, a little-known nature preserve northwest of Lancaster.

Although the park is not staffed, its unusual beauty encourages people to respect it. Visitors park on the roadside and walk through a small gate in the fence that runs around the 580-acre site, which was designated a state park in 1994.

“Throughout the year, this desert woodland provides a sense of enduring beauty that no longer exists in nearby agricultural landscapes,” Ranger Bob McKnight said.

On a recent afternoon, Regina Allen of Palmdale enjoyed the landscape with her four children and their grandfather, Richard Garver, who was visiting from Georgia. The children, ages 3 to 8, seemed mesmerized by the Joshua trees’ strange shapes.

The California Department of Fish and Game has classified Joshua-tree woodland as a threatened plant community because much of it has been cleared for agriculture and housing.

Once, the entire Antelope Valley was dotted with such woodlands, but many of the trees were pulled out with chains and mules early last century.

A visit to the Ripley site is startling because it is situated in an otherwise empty landscape of alfalfa fields.

It was a love of the old-time look of the Antelope Valley that prompted farmer Arthur B. Ripley (1901-1988) to refrain from clearing one particularly well-forested area and to bequeath it to the state for a public park.

The self-guided nature trail that runs through the park is full of surprises. An informative brochure about the flora and fauna was written by local author and nature expert Milt Stark and is available for free at the park’s picnic area. Some of the Joshua trees are more than 800 years old.

Dotting the ground among the numerous burrows where jack rabbits, kangaroo rats and other critters abound in the park are patches of what looks like black moss.

These are examples of crytogamic crust, one of the oldest forms of life known on Earth.

BE THERE

Ripley Desert Woodland State Park, Lancaster Road at 210th Street, northwest of Lancaster. Open sunrise to sunset seven days a week. Free. For information and directions, call (661) 942-0662.