Joshua Tree National Park, Part 2 of 3

Monday, November 14, 2011, After a three days of BLM boondocking it was time to go into the Park.

A stop at the jumping Cholla Cactus Garden.  I have never seen so many in one place.  There are many warnings to stay on the trail.  The jumping cholla can attach to you pant leg without you knowing it.

We finally arrived at our campground, Jumbo Rocks.  I was expecting some big rocks here and there but these are gigantic.  I think this little guy is a Desert Woodrat.  He watched every move we made while setting up camp.  The elevation at Jumbo Rocks is a little over 4,200 feet. Very cool at night, once is was down to 37 degrees and then warms up during the day to the mid 70's.   Anything in this area above 3,000 feet is considered the Mojave Desert and has a completely different habitat.  There are pinyon pines,junipers, scrub oaks, Mojave yuccas and Mojave prickly pear cacti.  What truly tells you that you are in the Mojave Desert is the wild-armed Joshua Tree, which really isn't a tree but a species of the yucca.  After they are established they grow only an inch a year and can be as tall as 40 feet with many arms.

Rock climber, is he crazy? I think so.

 Whew! he made it

There are many hiking trails, I even got Joe to go out on a couple of them

Joshua Tree

This one is getting heavy.

This is a big one, Joe is 6'

Joe can always find a chair

This is one of those set the timer and then run to get in the picture.  It usually takes me about three tries because I start laughing so much

We took a drive up to what is called Key's View.  The views were magnificent.  The far away mountain top is Mount San Jacinto, 10,800 feet, the mountain we were on was only a little over 5,000 feet.  The cloud under it is moisture from all the farming in the Coachella Valley and just plain old smog from the LA basin    

Our evening campfire and dinner, I guess we are still tent campers at heart.  These were the really good kind of hot dogs, Hebrew National.

Stay tuned for part 3 of Joshua Tree tomorrow.

Safe Travels to all

Nancy