Category: Joshua Tree

Ton brought up the idea of heading over to the coast.  Our original hope was to stay at the Navy park on Coronado Island in San Diego, but as with every other time we could not get a reservation.  We instead are at the Marine Base with an ocean front spot.  We are not disappointed with not getting into Coronado.

We started out trying to get up for sunset but did not succeed.  Ron ran out to try to get some just past sunset pictures but they did not turn out.  On our way out of the park we stopped at one of Tons favorite spots the Cholla garden.  The Cholla Cactus has one of the nastiest thorns of any cactus, but it has really nice flowers.  

We took a back road from Palm Springs to Temecula which kept us off the freeways from Palm Springs to Temecula.  The highway was called the Pine to Palms Highway and takes you thru the Santa Rosa Mountains.  The climb out of Palm Springs is quite steep as you quickly go from Sea Level to 3000 feet.  You go from desert to alpine and pass thru at least three different plant types.  While the road is windy and narrow for Ron it is less nerve racking than dealing with Southern California Freeways.  

We arrived at the beach and as we were setting up a nice couple came up and struck up a conversation about our drive down and the Tiger.  Ron was hooking up things and Ton was outside speaking with the wife.  A few minutes later Ron noticed water coming out of the truck.  Sometime along the way one of us had bumped the water in the kitchen sink on.  While we are driving we store some stuff in the sink so that was blocking the drain, and we had a flood.  So tonight we are drying out the floor, and some of our dish towels and things are hanging up to dry.

We ended the day by doing something we have never done in seven or eight years of camping.  We built a campfire and sat on the beach eating our dinner and enjoying the sound of the surf.

Today we visited one of our favorite national parks.  Ton really loves cactuses and Joshua Trees.  It was originally in our plans for the trip with our friends last fall, but we cut it out due to time constraints, so we decided to head over on our way to the coast. 

The drive took a little longer than we thought, and we ended up driving around for over an hour looking for a place to spend the night.  At that point Ron realized that we probably needed fuel, so we ended up driving back out into town to the Marine Base to get fuel.  The fuel there was 50 cents a gallon cheaper than in town.

We got back to our campsite just in time for sunset, and had a nice walk shooting pictures of the sunset, rocks and Joshua tree’s.  It was also fantastic weather, clear and 79 degrees, so for the first time on the trip we will not need the heater.

We are getting used to the drive from Joshua Tree to Death Valley as this is the fourth time we have done it in the last couple of months.

On the way out of Joshua Tree we stopped at Skull Rock.  The Skull Rock Trail is a short trail that highlights the non-cactus plants in the desert.  Skull Rock really does bear an amazing resemblance to a skull.

We drove from Joshua Tree to Death Valley on a back road that passes thru Mojave National Preserve and  Baker California.  We were planning to fuel up in Baker as it had the cheapest diesel in the area  last trip. Despite fuel prices dropping everywhere else on this trip, the fuel in Baker had actually risen to over $4 per gallon so we passed and drove on towards Death Valley, if we were going to pay an exorbitant amount for fuel we decided we would rather do it in a small desert community, then a large community right on the interstate.

Today we visited Dantes Peak in Death Valley which is an overlook above the main valley.  From 5000 feet you are looking the length of Death Valley and can also see for miles back towards Las Vegas.  We stayed up for sunset and Ton got some nice shots.

Last night was spent in a great campground in Joshua Tree called Ryan where we were surrounded by granite rocks that make the park famous.  We woke up early to the sound of rain and were worried as we had a busy day planned.  Luckily the rain quit very quickly and did not amount to much for the day.

Our first stop was to Keys view.  On our way up we passed thru a Joshua Tree Forest that Ton really enjoyed.  We had been told by the Ranger at Mojave that the Joshua Tree’s here were a different sub-species than the ones at Mojave.  Ton says she can see the difference, the trees here are taller and have less branches than the ones in Mojave.  When we got to the top we had climbed into the clouds so Keys view was limited to about 50 yards.

Heading down we continued to enjoy the Joshua Trees and the drive.  The next stop was the Geology Loop Road which is an 18 mile self guided loop that shows you the different rocks and the San Andreas fault.  The park service says it is a difficult 4wd drive road, but in fact it is not bad at all and Scout did not even need to leave 2wd the whole way.  We had the entire valley to ourselves for the entire trip which was fun.

Next stop was the Cholla Cactus garden which Ton loved.  The Cholla Cactus is a Colorado Desert plant and the Joshua Trees are Mojave plants to show the impact of the two deserts coming together.

The next stop was the Marine Corps Base at Twentynine Palms where we stocked up on food and did some shopping at the store.  The last stop was the Indian Cove campground for the night.  The campground is also a training base for beginning rock climbers so we got to watch some folks climbing, and even scrambled up a couple of simple rocks ourselves.  

Ton commented that the campgrounds at Joshua Tree were among the best we have seen in the park service.