On Thursday the 9th we drove from LA to Joshua Tree National Park.
Now this is the kind of view you get for $5 a night with the senior pass at national parks. Pretty good, huh? These two pictures are in the Jumbo Rocks Campground in the park. When we pulled in on Thursday afternoon there were quite a few sites (out of 125 sites) for RVs 24 foot and under or tents. However, on Friday and Saturday campsites were very scarce. All the campgrounds in the park are first come-first served.
Here Sandy is standing by a young Joshua tree. The trees are estimated to live to be about 150 to 200 years old. No one can say for certain the age of a tree since the Joshua trees do not have rings to count. A park ranger gave a talk on Joshua trees and he said photographs were compared to photos taken in the exact locations during the 1930’s. Trees that were known to exist at that time were compared to their current size. However, the same age tree can differ in size depending on the moisture available in the area in which it grows. Trees in higher elevations usually receive more moisture than trees at lower elevations.
The Joshua tree is part of the Yucca family and grows primarily in the Mojave desert at around the 4000-5000 foot elevation. The Joshua tree is called the “tree of life” because of it’s use by both humans and animals. It can grow to be over 40 feet tall.
Within the park is a 55 acre area called Hidden Valley which is surrounded by rock hills that created a naturally fenced plateau with good grazing grass. This area used to get 10-12 inches of rain a year and there were lush native grasses before it was over-grazed by the ranchers. Purportedly, this spot was used by cattle and horse rustlers in the late 1870’s to hide and rebrand the animals before transferring them out of the area.
What's left now would make grazing cattle pretty tough.
This is a picture of a Beaver Tail Cactus—something we have not seen before.
Outside the park in Twentynine Palms is the Oasis of Mara. When government surveyors came to the area in 1855 and 1856 they found marsh plants surrounding several ponds and water flowing from springs. Water was so plentiful that the Serrano Indians were diverting water to irrigate fields of corn, beans, squash and melons. Also the minerw used a of water in their processing of gold. There has been no water flowing since 1947 so resource managers are piping water to a small pond and if the water level drops to more than 10-15 feet below the surface they will start watering the palms. Only a few palm trees remain to mark the original oasis.
One day we drove up to the Keys View. From there you can see the San Andreas Fault. If we came back to this same spot next year it would have moved about 2 inches southeast because of the movement of the fault. The fault can be seen in the photo as the dark line running through the valley between mountain ranges.
The park also has a Geology Tour Road that took us through various terrain. We could only do about half of the drive because the last half is for 4 wheel drive vehicles only.
And this is some of the good road.
Here is more of the good road.
In the center portion of this photo you can just make out the road we came in on and the hill to the left is the start of a volcano that did not completely form.
This is Skull Rock next to the Jumbo Rocks Campground. I think it needs a little more sleep from looking at those sunken eyes.
The road going to the south entrance passes through a large area of Jumping Cholla cactus. So as you walk through this area stay your distance from these plants. You do not want an encounter with one of these prickly plants.
For our last night in the park we moved to the Belle Campground which also has a pretty nice view for $5. This campground had only 15 sites, but the views were more expansive than at Jumbo Rocks.
I thought this older (1965-1975?) restored Travco RV looked pretty nice.
Until next time,
Dave and Sandy
