Joshua Tree National Park

Day 1 on the Southwest National Park Road Trip Expedition. Left Encinitas about 9 am en route to Joshua Tree National Park. The drive itself Was pretty scenic. The bouldery hills through Temecula were awesome. I am continually amazed at the diversity of landscape throughout Southern California. The mountain drive ended with a steep descent into Palm Desert. This was my first visit to the Palm Springs area. I now get why old people like it here. It's rediculously nice , everyone drives a Mercedes and the place is immaculate. Finally arriving at joshua tree, I purchased a National Park annual pass (as I will be hitting several of them and this gives me unlimited access for a year) and set off for a hike up the Palm Oasis Trail.



Upon my return I set off for a drive through the rest of the park. The Joshua Trees for whom the park was named, were much farther north in the park. The park is vast, taking me almost an hour to drive though, and was largely deserted. About half way through my drive I was accosted by a grove of yellow-white cacti. These cacti looked like a smaller but much more prickly relative of the saguaro cactus. A sign pointed to a 1/4 mile walk though this Cholla Cactus Garden. It was like walking on another planet. These cacti absolutely overwhelmed the earth. And they only existed in this small stretch of the park.



Finally made my way to the Joshua Tree section of the park. The trees themselves weren't that impressive. It was amazing, however, that these trees are 300-600 years old! There were some cool rock formations including Skull Rock.

Headed back down to the entrance and on to Phoenix for the night where I used some of my HHonors points (that I've been racking up staying in LA every week for the past 6 months) for a free night in the Hilton Garden Inn.

Tomorrow, off to the Grand Canyon!