Joshua Tree – The High Desert
We left Anza Borrego in the middle of March and climbed up to Joshua Tree, which meant shorts to jeans and no extra room on the cramper. It was windy most of the time we were there, but luckily is wasn’t strong enough to to move Joshua Tree’s trademark boulders – so I could go out for sunrise and sunset every day. The park is a pretty neat place (Joshua Trees are a form of Yucca) and a mecca for climbers during Spring Break. There were plenty of them there, and I’ll probably have to photoshop some of them out of shots. But after eight days or so, we were getting a little stir-crazy and went looking for a campground that had something green in it. We went up to Lancaster where the California Poppy Reserve is, but all the cold weather has delayed the bloom for a week or so and the wind was blowing pretty hard. We did get to spend another day with Joe and Sue, and the steaks were delicious. Thanks again, guys.
On to Ventura for our planned trip to the Channel Islands. Unfortunately, their season hasn’t started yet, and they’re only running boats on weekends that allow you to camp overnight. It being Monday, neither one of us wanted to face a week in Ventura waiting, so we’ve started back north a little early. We’re now at King City, camped in a county park with trees, grass and shade. We’ll leave the cramper here and head over to Big Sur tomorrow and tent camp for a couple of nights. We couldn’t retrace our route on Ca 1 because a piece of it south of Monterey has fallen into the ocean and will be months getting fixed. So we’ll go up US 101 and head back over to the coast north of Monterey.
Stay tuned…
Loggerhead shrike
Joint Pattern - Joshua Tree
Joshua Tree
April 1, 2011 at 4:59 am
Joshua Tree National Park and Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base are only a dozen or so miles apart, as I recall.
I didn’t appreciate Joshua Tree when I was a 17-18 year old stationed at 29 Palms, in 1956 and 57. We just went into the park on liberty to find a secluded place to drink beer. If you know where to look, you can probably still find our old can piles.
BTW, both have been upgraded in the 50+ years since I was there : Joshua tree from a National Monument to a National Park, and the MCB from a “Training Center” to full “Base” status…for whatever that’s worth.
April 1, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Sorry CA was an atypical year but looking at your experience last season, I’ve sent your name in to the EPA in case they need rainmakers. It’s 80 here today but it looks like another storm next week. I like the boudar shots, I guess I didn’t realize what was there in 1959 (like Wag, I was more interested in girls and beer than in rocks.)