Joshua Tree National Park

Good night's sleep and up early to drive to Joshua Tree National Monument.  We left at 8:15 and it took us one hour and 45 minutes.  We drove I-215 to Riverside then got on CA 60 which ran into I-10 and took that to CA 62 which goes to the northwest entrance of the park.

Joshua Tree had rain which caused the sand to cover some roads.  We saw sand plows clearing the sides of the roads.  When we got into the park, we were told that the southern entrance was closed because of sand/water over the road.  As we drove around the park, we saw other roads closed as well.

We read that the Joshua Tree got its name from early Mormon settlers who thought the trees looked like Joshua raising his hands in prayer and praise.

We were surprised at the huge boulders, rocks and formations in the park.  We both expected to see only desert-like terrain and instead we saw lots of interesting rock formations along with the cactus and Joshua Trees.

We drove a road to Keys Overlook.  From the top, you could see 100 miles.

This is looking at Palm Springs from the top of Keys Overlook.

It is a Joshua Tree forest.

Desert plants are so adaptable.  It looks like this bush is growing out of the rock.  The seed found a bit of soil on the rock and was able to establish a root system.

We pulled into a picnic area for lunch.   All the picnic tables were taken so we stopped in a pull off and ate in the car.  We still had the beautiful view as we ate.

We took a trail called "Skull Trail."  The trail went around and though large rock formations.  In our younger days, we would have been climbing on the rocks.  It was a lot of fun walking among the rock formations.  From a distance the rocks look like slick sandstone formations but up close we could see that the bounders were actually made up of many small pebbles held together with sand.  They were rough to the touch.

This is a desert oak tree.  It appeared dead but maybe it had only lost its leaves because of the season.

Here is Carol on the trail.

This picture shows the roots of a desert oak searching for water by sending out its roots above ground and around the boulders.

This was once a mighty Joshua Tree but has died and been blown over.   At the visitors center we learned that Joshua Trees, unlike regular trees, does not have growth rings.   Instead it has a center core.

We spent about three hours in the park and enjoyed seeing the trees and rock mountains.  We began the drive back at 2:00 and it took us three hours to get back to camp because of the traffic.  We both agree that we would not want to live in California partly because of the traffic.    If we did live here, one of the places we would visit often is Joshua Tree National Park.  There were so many hikes that we didn't take and would have liked to.

Tomorrow we will go into San Diego.  If traffic isn't too heavy, it should only take us an hour.  We certainly hope so!