Joshua Tree

Being the smart cookies that we are, we went for a quick trip to Joshua Tree National Park on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend instead of Monday, to avoid the returning traffic. Because you all know that any planned SoCal holiday getaway becomes a traffic insanity once you get about 5 min from home.

About 2+ hours from Burbank, it's not a bad drive. We only had a few hours there, which was plenty for us to drive around and see the sights. It was hot (it's a desert, duh) and we didn't think it was smart to take Ella on the side trail excursions which were several miles of hiking each. That was fine, though. There were plenty of amazing rock formations and of course, Joshua Trees.

I owe my recent appreciation for national parks to Melody, who has been to a lot more than I have in her 10+ years in the US. She's been to Yellowstone (which she says is by far the best), Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, and several others. She had also been to Joshua Tree several times prior to last Sunday. I was excited to see this place, which is a transition area from the lower Colorado Desert and northern Mojave Desert. Imagine being stranded out here...



Why are the rock formations the way they are? How did they form? And how did the Joshua tree get its name? We don't know. Maybe we should look into it. I like Melody's description of the rock formations: it looks like a massive giant was playing with his blocks.



Ella wanted to climb the rocks too..


in her own words though, some of them were so high...

Joshua Tree from jason on Vimeo.

The caterpillar Ella mentioned has to do with a Dora episode...

After leaving Joshua Tree, we stopped by Palm Springs (it's only a couple exits away) for a bite to eat. Mel and I had been there once before, in 2004. It's a nice little town, with plenty of restaurants. We had a great time, and were happy to have Chauie join us. We also remembered to stamp our National Parks Passports at the Visitor's Center. Now, if we can figure out a way to get up to Yellowstone sometime...