June 22 - 25th Twentynine Palms California

Over the 22-25th of June we stayed in Twentynine Palms, California and explored Joshua Tree National Park. This is a different NP, joining the High Mojave Desert and the lower Colorado Desert areas. Driving through the park you climb from about 2500 ft up to a high point (Keys Lookout) of over 5,100 feet. The land consists of desert sagebrush and Yucca plants transiting to Joshua Trees above about 3500 feet. The first day we drove around the northern loop from Twentynine Palms over to the town of Joshua Tree. The park is dotted with hugh piles of rocks, magma formed and cooled under ground and then brought to the surface by erosion. Across to the west of the NP is Mt. Jacinto in the San Jacinto range, still snow covered. This is a picture across the desert in the NP with the mountain in the background. We also drove up to Keys point and looked across to the San Jacinto range and the Santa Rosa range and down into a beautiful desert valley. Unfortunately, pollution from Los Angeles had come east and dimmed visibility. The second day we drove south through the park to the Cottonwood Oasis near I-10. We stopped at the Cholla Cactus Garden and walked the trails through the cactus. Very pleasant. At the Cottonwood Oasis we stopped and walked under the tall palms in the oasis. Drove the next day to visit a classmate of Carolyn's, Anna's and Carl's (Bev East) down in Lake Elsinore.