Blogs from Joshua Tree, California, United States, North America
Day 65: Joshua Tree National Park and drive to Tucson
Published: July 3rd 2011North America » United States » California » Joshua Tree
July 2nd 2011
Today we woke up early and left LA for Tucson. It was going to be a long day of driving (about 9 hours), so we decided to break it up by visiting Joshua Tree National Park. We drove for about 3 hours until we got to the park. Unfortunately when we arrived there was no-one at the entrance gate, so we couldn't get a map of the park. We drove around ourselves and managed to find a few cool spots. The National Park was filled with Joshua Tree's, which are trees with lots of Yucca Plants on them, and there were piles and piles of boulders which formed some really cool shapes. The temperature was 47 degrees celcius!! It was so hot it felt like we were in an oven, unlike anything we'd ever experienced. We ... read more
Earthquakes & Elephant Seals
Published: March 10th 2010North America » United States » California » Joshua Tree
March 9th 2010
Ever since Steve and I first traveled US Rt. #1 from LA to San Francisco (1974) I have wanted to do it again. It is the most dramatic stretch of highway I have ever seen. The cliffs meet the ocean in such a spectacular way; and when the sun is shining on it all; oh my! So after leaving the Santa Barbara food co-op, which is doing quite well because a lot of UC-SB students must be health-minded; we headed north. That night’s camping was a little wet. One of my only complaints about the Gypsy Outhouse is that it doesn’t provide much shelter unless you are sitting in the front seats riding/driving or lying down in bed. It has been so cold we have not been using the rear tent at all. I’m not ... read more
Joshua Tree, Palm Springs, Salton Sea
Published: March 8th 2010North America » United States » California » Joshua Tree
March 7th 2010
Our next phase of the trip was to meet up with our son, Nick, in Joshua Tree National Park in southern California. This was a park that neither of us had explored but Nick knows quite well and we were really looking forward to being introduced. We met Nick in the Cottonwood campground, on the south side of the park. Before he arrived, we were looking all over for Joshua Trees, not knowing that we were in the Sonoran Desert and Joshua Trees don’t grow there. This large park is comprised of the Sonoran in the south and the Mojave Desert in the north and the vegetation and geology are quite different. As shown in the Photo 1, the landscape was rolling and dotted with creosote bushes with mountains in the background. We visited an oasis ... read more
