JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK

Although it was HOT - what we were looking for in coming over to Arizona - we decided from Buckeye to head further west. Arizona is a well beaten area for us and really, we just wanted to get to the California coast. 

With that decision made - Sunday morning we hit Interstate 10. A busy busy busy corridor from LA to Phoenix. Good thing it was just a way to get from A to B for us.

Not the most inspiring drive over to Quartzsite.

Except for all these great orange flowers everywhere along the side of the road and within the median.

Not many pictures for most of the drive - funny how I somehow forget to take photos when we pass through an area that we have been through so many times. Plus, we are almost allergic to Quartzsite since we were there for way too long back in 2010/11. 

Following a stop for gas at the Chiriaco Summit, for our first taste of California gas prices! and the site of the General Patton Memorial Museum - we headed here - just a few miles down the highway.

We've been in and around Joshua Tree National Park a few times but have never been through. This year we decided to do it since it was between us and the place we wanted to enter the coast. It really helped us decide when we found out entry was free for the President's Day weekend. Normally, the entry fee is $15. 

Since it was close to five we decided to spend the $15 on the campground - no hookups but with a dump and water.

We stayed at the only campground with room for the night - the Cottonwood on the south side.

We had a really nice - quiet and warm - evening. 

Monday morning we drove north through the park.

Very expansive for the first bit and a bit underwhelming. Here the roads are good but for a while they were very narrow. Not sure why many of the National Parks have such poor roads.

We didn't stop at the Cholla Cactus Garden - I imagine it would be worth it once they are in bloom.

However, we did stop at the big rocks. The Wood Clan stops at sand dunes and big rocks.

There have been a lot of these little guys around - hard to get a picture though.

Ha! I should get Derek to take the shadow shots more often!

Spent yucca flowers.

The parks namesake.

At that we decided to head to the town of 29 Palms and the north entrance to JTNP. We could have wandered through the park for another 26 miles but with all the traffic, heat and winding roads we decided that we had seen enough. I would imagine that once the flowers started blooming would be a better time to visit.

We stopped briefly at the Visitor's Center for Cassia to submit her Junior Ranger Book. She had gotten it from the Camp Hosts at the Campground. There were questions for her to answer and drawings to do. Fun. Here she is taking the JTNP pledge with the Ranger.

Well done Cassia! 

From the Visitor Center we got on the 62 and headed over to Yucca Valley not far away. It was still early in the day so we went over to the California Welcome Center. Nice that they had one there - a good place for us to pick up all the coastal information we needed.

Then back to the Home Depot to do our research.

We also had time to contact fellow RV bloggers George and Suzie of Our Awesome Travels! We were pretty excited about that as we had been trying to tie up with them for a while now. Since they were in Desert Hot Springs  - and have a car - they offered to come see us - even better. We didn't want to take in that crazy place this year.

We sat and had a great conversation in the HD parking lot. Head over to their site to see George's pictures of the five of us.

With that another day had ended. Tuesday we were headed to the coast - not a long travel day but many roads to travel to get there. 

That's up next.

Teresa

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