18. Joshua Tree National Park

May 8-9

18. Joshua Tree National Park, California Photo Album

Hey everyone,

We started our day fixing our mirror which had fallen off at Lake Havasu...then we were off towards California at the Joshua tree national Park. We pulled up to the campground called Black rock Canyon campground and then decided to hike up to one of the peaks near our site. We had difficulty finding the trail head for the peak and then  came across an ex- Marine who was shooting squirrels with his pellet  gun on his property cuz they were "vermin around here" so we asked him for some help and he pointed us in the right direction. It was about a 30  minute hike up the mountain ...as usual look outs on top of mountains are absolutely beautiful .

The next day we got up early because we needed and oil change.... so we went to Walmart then off tot the national Park. Upon arrival to the park we were quite surprised to see how many boulders were there in fact just as many boulders as Joshua trees. Our first stop was the cholla cactus garden ...it was quite interesting to read about about the different types of cacti and how they survive in these extreme conditions. The layout is similar to the petrified national forest whereby you drive along this huge park and you pull off at the specified locations where they want to show you some pretty neat stuff.



Our second stop was the skull rock .....as you can  see from the photos the boulders shape resemble a skull ...we found others like the old man....the big toe....etc. We also decided to go check out Barker Dam ..only we got lost there again!!!  we started off on the trail and somehow we went off trail for about an hour and retraced out steps and found barker dam. Barker damn isn't as attractive after 1.5 hour hile to go see it....arghhhhhh.......  We headed over to  hidden Valley for a picnic lunch...this was was kinda  cool because you picnic  amidst the boulders....they provided shade and very pleasant view. Finally to finish off for day we went up to Keys View which was a good 10 to 15 minute drive up the mountain over 5000 feet in elevation and the view was absolutely fantastic .....wowwwwww....we were able to see the Coachella Valley .....Salton Sea..... Palm Springs and the San Andreas Fault ......big caveat .....there's also quite a lot of haze which was quite apparent....... caused by the pollution in California....what a shame!!!!!

The part about travelling that we love is meeting people.....today we  met a very young couple from Texas named Kelly , Christopher and their baby Ezra. Christopher was so familiar to us because he look just like my sister's nephew Christopher Neves. We chatted with them for 10 minutes or so and took some photos and went on our way. We also met Sandra and Rohan from Australia...they helped us get back on track when we came off the trail while bouldering..... were super nice.... they are visiting the area here for eight weeks or so. We were going to stay for the sunset but we were tired and hungry because we got lost twice so we headed back to camp had supper...did some star gazingand called it a night..... ... we enjoyed our stay here at Joshua tree....tomorrow we're off to San Diego...



PS the Joshua Tree is not a succulent as many believe....it got its name from Mormons who said it resembled Joshua praying with arms spread to the sky.....

love always
Mary and Peter.