Day 36 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

Today our friend Patty will join us as we spend our second day in Joshua Tree National Park as we visit a couple of areas that we did not see yesterday.

First stop in the park is Jumbo Rock. We saw similar types of these rocks yesterday, but there were a couple of rocks that were fascinating. This one has a round rock somehow perched and balanced on the surrounding rocks.

This raven was watching us as we drove by, probably hoping that we would throw him some tid bit.

There are individual camp sites tucked in among the rock formations. Each camp site has a picnic table, and a cooking grill.

Karen spotted these Gambel’s Quail hiding among the brush.

As we were driving, we occasionally saw what appeared to be tennis balls scattered here and there, so we got out to investigate. On closer inspection, they are not tennis balls. They are Coyote Melon vines. The coyotes will eat these when they ripen.

We stopped to look at the Cholla Cactus Garden.

After leaving Joshua Tree National Park through the South Entrance, we jumped onto I-10 and headed back to our hotel. Along the way we saw another huge wind turbine generating plant. Wind turbines for as far as you can see. It is interesting to see them all spinning in the wind.

We enjoyed another dinner at Sizzlers this evening, and said our goodbyes to Patty. She is heading back to San Francisco early in the morning, and we are heading North and back to Barstow California. Tomorrow we will drive on Route 66 from Barstow CA to Needles CA and that will complete another piece of our Route 66 road trip that we started in 2008.

To see all of our photos from today, you can click on this link to my FLICKR site.

Day 35 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

Back in 2008 we drove Route 66 from Needles California to Joliette Illinois. So since we are in Barstow California, it made sense for us to visit the Route 66 Museum in Barstow. Unfortunately, the museum is closed today. It is only open on the weekends. We did stop and see the Harvey House and drove past some of the Route 66 businesses. We will return to Barstow in a couple of days because we want to drive from Barstow to Needles California and fill in that part of Route 66 that we did not drive in 2008.

We left Barstow CA and headed towards Joshua Tree National Park. We will visit the park this afternoon and return again tomorrow.

We entered the park and showed our annual pass.

There wasn’t much to see once we first entered the park, but then it got interesting as we started seeing some Joshua Trees.

We started seeing some desert cactus.

Then the part of the park we were in totally changed from desert cactus to dramatic rock formations.

This next rock is called Skull Rock. Sure looks like a skull to me.

These rocks remind us of giant potatoes.

So if you like Rocks and Joshua Trees and Desert Cactus you will enjoy Joshua Tree National Park. We would like to come back to this park again, but come back in April when all the Joshua Trees are in bloom.

After our visit to Joshua Tree National Park, we met back up with Patty at the hotel in Yucca Valley CA. We had dinner at a nearby Sizzlers Restaurant.

There are many more photos that we took today, so if you wish to see the rest of the photos, click on this link to my FLICKR site.