Joshua Tree National Park

 After a few days of high winds and higher altitude snows we said goodbye to the Freeways with spaghetti roads turning on Rt. 62 for a quieter...more serene place in the high desert.

To our right was what we thought to be a small water tank with "Desert Hot Springs" painted on its side...later to learn it was a disguised (for aesthetics) signal tower.  Hmmm  Beware of the thermal hot springs water!  Their pools contain a rare and sometimes fatal disease called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis.  So, no toes went into the springs.

 Snow was on the high desert mt. tops to our left.

A little further down the road was a big horn sheep crossing sign.

J slowly wound his way around the Joshua Trees to our hillside pull-thru camping spot #41.  

Black Rock Canyon Campground is located near Yucca Valley, CA, in the Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave Desert.

Yucca Valley is a cool alternative to Palm Springs & is noted as one of the top 10 most affordable places to retire.

A covey of Gamble quail greeted us as we entered Black Rock Canyon Campground with an elevation of 4,000 feet above sea level. These beautiful birds would sing us to sleep and wake us at sunrise with their unique calls.  Here one is calling to the others as it stands on the edge of a picnic table with a tent as its backdrop.

Ground squirrels were everywhere scurrying about campsites for crumbs.  These do NOT live in trees....but, have burrows in the ground under bushes.

Dry camping was fun with no worries as he ran our generator during designated times for me to cook and charge our batteries. Spring break had the parks full of kids enjoying the outdoors as they ran, sang, and played.  One tent camper launched his drone that was short lived due to the winds.

Twenty-nine Palms is the gateway to Joshua Tree National park.  This has long been a refuge for the desert travelers.  The cool waters of the Oasis Mesa & shade of its palms beckon the weary wanderer.  Here the native Americans made their homes.  Later, came the prospectors & miners, cattlemen, & others came this way.  After WWI, Veterans arrived seeking health & vitality in the dry desert air.  Known for its clear skies, star-filled nights, desert & mountain vistas, PLUS.

A day trip around "The Loop" took us to Joshua Tree National Park where two vast deserts come together...the Mojave Desert in the western half with its granite rock formations & the Colorado Desert with its creosote bushes, ocotillo, & cholla cactus to the east.  Driving "The Loop" we viewed the Joshua Tree forests, said to be named after the prophet Joshua by Mormon pioneers, with their arms outstretched toward heaven.  Joshua trees can grow over 32 feet high with a trunk circumference of 12 feet.  They do not have growth rings like true trees, so determining their age can be difficult.  One Joshua tree in the park is estimated to be about 900 years old.

The Joshua tree has a difficult life.  As a young sprout, they are eaten by grazing animals, so most trees begin life in the protective canopy of a bush.  Unlike other yucca, Joshua trees are only pollinated by a specific species of yucca moth...making it again hard to survive.

At Keys View & Cap Rock, one can look across Palm Springs, the Coachella Valley, the San Andreas Fault, & the Salton Sea, all the way to Mexico on a clear day.  Today, the clouds were obscuring our view.

Roads and trails wind thru a jumble of  stacked boulders where it looks as if a Giant Child was at play. These rock piles began underground eons ago as a result of volcanic activity. The monzogranite rose from deep within the Earth.  As it rose and cooled, cracks formed.  When it came in contact with groundwater, cracks widened and edges rounded.  Surface soil eroded leaving heaps of monzogranite scattered across the land like careless piles of toy blocks. 

      These rocks take on multiple shapes from animals to people like this one resembling an old man.

Wonderland of Rocks are rock formations that serve as one of the world's leading rock climbing destinations as climbers climb on the massive faces of the granite rock formations along Park Blvd.

Elevations here range from 506 ft. to 5,814 ft. above sea level.  One has to be prepared for a wide variety of conditions.

Next stop was Pioneertown, a practical 1940's Western movie town built as a replica of an 1880's town in the west. Several investors created this town named after the singing group...Sons of the Pioneers.  The town had genuine buildings, not facades, constructed to survive the harsh desert environment.  This was a movie location, a functioning community with motel rooms, a restaurant-bar for cast and crew, and a bowling alley with Roy Rogers tossing the first ball.  Here the Cisco Kid and Hopalong Cassidy films were born.

Old Woman Springs Road carried us from our boondocking adventure to Pinon Hills for an extended family visit camping at their home in the high desert.  In the 1850's a nephew of George Washington surveyed this route for the government laying out the grid that all land parcels are tied to in Southern California.  As the story goes, there was one or several old Native American women living at the springs.  Thus, Hwy 247 got its name.

These hills had the tachometer revving up as the white "ghost" pulled our rig up and over.

With a shortage of water....here is a dry lake bed. California is in dire straights when it comes to a water supply.  They are fudging as they pipe water from the Colorado River and others to survive. 

Finally arriving at our family destination....here is the valley view out our big back window after a day's work repairing our day/night shade.  One of its 4 strings broke keeping us from using. We had repaired 2 smaller shades in the past; but, this one was a real challenge. Yeah! Fixed!  Pinon Hills, CA, at 4,173 ft. above sea level runs along Pear Blossom Hwy. in San Bernardino County.

From our family to yours....take care...travel safe...see you by the campfire...N & J plus J & M.