Oasis of Mara

Oasis of Mara is a small, spring-fed grove of California fan palms at Joshua Tree's headquarters in Twentynine Palms. The flat, paved nature trail is about half a mile, with benches and interpretive signs. It's one of the easiest places in the park to see fan palms, and a nice change from the open desert around it; think short cultural and nature stop, not a long hike.

In Serrano, Mara means “place of little springs and much grass.” A Serrano tradition says families planted a palm for each boy; 29 palms went in during the first year. That story is tied to the name Twentynine Palms, and gives this little grove a much longer history than its size suggests.

The Pinto Mountain Fault pushes groundwater up here, which is why palms and other water-loving plants can grow in this dry basin. In 1855, surveyor Henry Washington noted corn, beans and squash being cultivated at the oasis. A well dug around 1900 supported a small settlement; an adobe house built by Jack Rankin and Billy Neaves served as a home, stage stop and meeting place for more than 40 years. Twentynine Palms donated the oasis to the National Park Service in 1950 for its headquarters.

Honey mesquite, desert saltbush and burrobush grow alongside the palms, with less common arrow-weed and Mojave seablite in the alkaline soil. Deergrass and arrow-weed were useful plants for local Indigenous communities: deergrass for basketry, arrow-weed for arrows and woven containers. California fan palms flower and fruit from February through June; coyotes eat fallen fruit, and birds use the mesquite. For a photo, keep some low shrubs in the foreground with the palms and mountains behind, so the frame shows this pocket of green in the desert.