Friday, 10/7 - Joshua Tree National Park



We decided to do the main loop in the park, starting at the Joshua Tree town entrance and going around to the Twentynine Palms entrance.




We took a selfie of a nice Joshua Tree.


And then we did a short trail to a dam that had been built by a rancher to try to keep some water in the area for his cattle.  (It was quite dry at this time of year).





Susie noticed all of the plants along the way.





And some wildlife:




And the rock formations (kind of like the rock monsters in Galaxy Quest).


And then the petroglyphs.




We took another little nature trail where we all took a rest on the bench..



Then we decided to take the really long way around to Cottonwood Springs, near the south entrance.  It was completely different.  There were very few Joshua Trees in this area, and we drove through a couple of "washes" which had obviously had some water flowing through them recently (I read an article a few weeks ago that a rain storm had washed out part of I-10 just east of the park and guessed that they got some rain here as well.)

We saw some Octotillo.


 

And a whole forest(?) of Cholla Cactus.



Then we headed home - very much downhill to Twentynine Palms.


We then did our last souvenir shopping (Virginia finally found the T-shirt she wanted) and ended up at the GRND SQRL for lunch and a beer (or two).



Link to next post:  10/8 - Enroute Home



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