Joshua Tree National Park

12/26 -- 12/30, 2010

[Joshua Tree Gallery] [Back to Photo Page]


Joshua Tree National Park, located in Southern California, encompasses some of the most interesting geologic displays in California's deserts. Two deserts, Mojave Desert (High Desert) and Colorado (or Sonoran) Desert, come together at Joshua Tree National Park. The Joshua trees, growing in the higher, moister, and slightly cooler Mojave Desert, are the foremost attraction in the park. Below 3000 feet, the drier Colorado Desert is indicated by much sparser plant life and is dominated by the creosote bush.

Getting there ...

We had a similar Mojave-Joshua Tree trip in 2001, but Linus and Iris have no memories of that trip at all.  We decided to have an almost the same trip for this Christmas so we can retrace our footsteps.  It was a very long drive from San Francisco Bay Area to the Southern Californian Deserts.  We had one additional stop, Hearst Castle, before we got to Barstow for our first night.

 

 

 

 

The Second Day ...

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

The Third Day ...

 

 

 

 

We stopped at Hidden Valley and took a 1-mile nature trail which took us into a rock-enclosed valley rumored to have been used by cattle rustlers in the late 1800's.  Linus and Iris liked to explore the side trails among the rocks and was difficult for me to follow them closely.  Although it's supposed to be a 1-mile easy walk,  it became quite a challenge until Linus complained his knee hurt and we were back to the normal trail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fourth Day ...

 

 


 

 

Last Day. Going Home ...

 

We stopped at Mojave to have a quick lunch (I originally wanted to pass by the Mojave Airport to get some close-up look of the airplane graveyard).  Linus and Iris both were very cooperative and didn't complain too much during the entire 9-hour drive (62 -- 247 -- 18 -- 395 -- 58 -- 99 -- 198 (because we missed 46) -- 5 -- 152 -- 101 -- 85 -- 87 -- 280). With a little bit traffic near Gilroy (HWY152 to 101), we had an early dinner close to home at about 5:30PM. Although there was a winter storm in Bay Area all week long, we enjoyed the wonderful weather in the desert for our Christmas this year.
A good thing to re-do a trip we have taken before is that I did not need to do much research for the trip.  Even for this journal, I could copy/paste from the previous one :-)

 

 


[Back to Photo Page] [Go to Joshua Tree Gallery]