Joshua Tree

Harry Potter World and Joshua Tree National Park.  These two destinations could not be more different, but they were the two big things I was most looking forward to seeing on our SoCal Tour.  There are 9 national parks in our state, with this week's visit to Joshua Tree, we've now seen 6 of them (Yosemite, Kings Canyon/Sequoia, Pinnacles, Lassen, and Alcatraz)!

Joshua Tree was just as spectacular as I had hoped.  The cool thing about this park was how much of it you could see with a little driving around.  We got out of the car a dozen times, but never hiked more than a mile to see cool stuff.  And the variety of landscapes was awe inspiriting!  God is a good creator.  If you go, you should know that you are in the middle of the straight up desert.  There is no water, no cell phone service, and, for us, no people really.  You just have to be careful and prepared.

So, here are few cool rock formations we climbed on and park features we hiked around.  Above, Skull Rock.  Below, Arch Rock.

The Cholla Cactus Garden, home of the famous "Jumping Cholla" or as Delia called them, "Mean Cactus".  She was actually kind of terrified of needley cactus balls attacking her legs as we walked around here.  But, they sure are pretty, right?  Artist Ella appreciated their color gradation and ombre effect.

The Desert Iguana was the coolest wildlife we saw on this day (and we saw them all over).  He looks like a regular lizard, but much bigger.  With caution signs for rattlesnakes, again, I'm relieved we never really encountered anything more interesting!

Those amazing Joshua Trees!  They lined almost every road we drove along-- sometimes as densely as a forest!

We climbed lots of rocks!  Climbing is always the girls' favorite!

Above, the Hidden Valley Trail and below, Key's View-- two great little hikes with a wonderful payout in views!  Key's View showed us the whole Coachella Valley and all the Palm Springs communities.

And the best sight-- my super star hubby doing ALL the driving on this road trip!  He drove us safely through mountains, cities, and windy valleys to see cool stuff and we appreciate him!  The soundtrack in the car on this day was, of course, U2's Joshua Tree album.  We found this little shout out to my favorite band in the visitor center.  "Desert sky, dream beneath a desert sky..."