Desert Day

Tuesday, Jan 17…  

First stop is Pepe’s again, but no success in obtaining whatever Greg needed. We turn north off Grapefruit onto 66^th Avenue towards Mecca (hmm, I wonder how it got that name – maybe a quick click…). Several miles later we reach Joshua Tree Nat’l Park. First impression: Where are the trees (Joshua, John, whatever…  this is desert). We reach the Visitors Center quickly and head in to be enlightened. ”Yes,” we’re told, “you’re in the Colorado Desert now, and Joshua trees don’t grow well here. You’ll start to see them farther north when you enter the Mojave Desert.” (The scrubby trees we had seen were ironwoods – picture below).  

Ironwood w/ parasitic mistletoe (the dark blobs)

Joshua Tree

Eventually we will see lots of Joshua trees, but before (and after) the trees are HUGE ROCKS. There’s a lot of 6^th grade science involved – think magma, gneiss, granite, cracks, uplifting, weathering, & erosion – which eventually produces “heaps of monzogranite scattered across the land like careless piles of toy blocks” (Nat’l Parks pamphlet). The pictures below do NOT do justice to these ‘blocks” – they are massively impressive! (
This "little" one behind the close-up Joshua tree is over 30' tall.😃

Joshua Tree goin' for "down dog"?

We drive through the park, stopping for photos, but certainly not taking advantage of all the viewpoints. (There’s one that offers a clear view of the San Andreas Fault, which we’d driven across a couple times w/o even being aware. I do wish we’d made that side trip.)

Lunch in the town of Joshua Tree. All I really craved were onion rings and Pepsi, but I settled for a (really good) carne asada taco and ice water. From there it was I-10 back to Indio.