3 December '07
Monday
As we pulled into the Joshua Tree National Park we found immediately that this park was going to be an adventure. From our first stop at the Visitor Center on the south entrance to the Visitor Center at the North entrance some 70 miles away. We did our first hike around an oasis.
Now you've got to remember that this is desert area, but we did find were water has been sought for centuries from the Indians to the early and late "gold seeking" settlers of California.
(Do you see the elephant above?) We also had fun climbing the most interesting twisted rock and exposed granite monoliths we've ever seen.
This park is gigantic... As we drove over the first pass and looked down into the valley below we were stunned. As far a we could see wasn't even close to the boundry. All we could see were walls of mountains with more mountains on the other side...mountains of deserts. The Joshua Tree National Park is composed of 2 deserts, the Mojave and Sonoran...it is immense. Our next hike was into the "Cholla Cactus Garden".
They call the Cholla the "Jumping Cholla" because all you have to do is get close and it seems that you've got yourself a mass of cactus quills. We've been around the Cholla for a lot of years but this natural garden is really something special. You would think that we would have seen the reason they called this park the Joshua Tree National Park but we flat ran out of time...now we have a reason to return some day, to see the famous Joshua.