Day 19 - Joshua Tree NP to Bakersfield

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We found our first bona fide California Welcome Center (after only 5 days in California) in Yucca Valley. We were happy to pick up a road map and some information on Joshua Tree, Mojave and Death Valley Natl Parks/Monuments. We entered Joshua Tree National Park at Joshua Tree, CA and drove through to Twenty-nine Palms. The Joshua trees for which the park is named are interesting, and certainly plentiful. But what we found most interesting were the rock formations. There were huge piles of boulders, natural formations of varying sizes, sometimes a huge pile standing all by itself.
We circled back to Yucca Valley and headed north. The road to Barstow was in a wide, flat desert valley; we passed towns with names like Johnson Valley and Lucerne Valley. All the side roads were marked with street names, but the roads were all sand, a harsh-looking place to live. At Barstow we headed west to the town of Mojave, with its wind farms, then Tehachapi, with its crossover railroad tracks, then on to Bakersfield.
We got a warm welcome from Kerry's cousin, Pat, and her husband, Jim. A fun evening with lots of laughter.

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Photos

Joshua Tree NP
View toward Twenty-nine Palms