We headed south after some discussion with the GPS. Man Karen can be so persistent and Wes likes to check her plans with the map to be sure the shortest distance is not via some back country gravel roads. Finally after some gentle nudging she accepted his plans and we were on the road. It should be about a 4 hour drive if we did not stop anywhere, but of course we planned on some stops.
The drive through this country is not very exciting. Lots of desert, shrubs and otherwise a total lack of vegetation. Having said that, someone will tell me that I missed all the really cool things about deserts and they are right, I did.
We drove into California and headed to Barstow California for lunch. The real cool thing about Barstow was that the McDonald’s was built around retired railway passenger cars. Three cars were lined up side by side with a bit some space between them. A building had been build and the cars were ‘attached’ to this building creating seating space for customers. What a great idea for using retired cars.
However, the downside of Barstow was the price of gas. Primarily gas has been costing about $2.50 to $2.75 per gallon but here it was priced at $3.80. At Palm Springs the price is about $2.80. I really think that the dollar difference is hard to explain other than ‘you have no choice’ explanation.
As we left Barstow we headed south on a secondary highway which of course is the fear many of – driving across the desert on a 2 lane highway. There is nothing to be seen in any direction for miles – including shade trees. Wes was concerned about car troubles on such a lonesome highway and would you believe, at about the 10 mile down the road, the low tire light came on. We stopped thinking – what another tire problem? Well checked all the tires and the new tire showed a tire pressure of almost 50 while the other tires showed only 40. The reason is the new tire has air in it and the other tires have nitrogen which does not expand with heat like oxygen does (so we are told). With the heat and the driving, the one tire pressure sensor indicated that the one tire had more pressure than the others. So to fix it, I released some pressure from that one tire and the car (and Wes) sighed a breath of relief and both were happy again.
We decided that we wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park which was on our way to Palm Springs. As we arrived at the West Gate entrance we stopped at the visitor’s center to deal with upgrading our park pass to an annual card. There is an annual card that you can get for $80 which gives you access to all national parks, monuments, etc. We had been told that if we paid for individual access that by keeping the receipts if we got to $80 we could request an annual pass which we did. We learned that our receipt for the Red Rock Canyon could not be included (although if we had the pass it would have been accepted). Watch that any receipts you do want to use are dated within the last 14 days as well. We were ok and now have an annual pass to all parks in the USA until next Sept.
Joshua Trees, named by the Morman’s based on the look of the tree and a biblical reference, are a member of the Yucca family. However, the trees grow only in desert areas and are restricted to certain locations. The Joshua Tree National Park is one area where it thrives and grows in an almost forest like thickness (for a desert). We were amazed at the number of trees we discovered and their range of sizes. Although it is a member of the Yucca family, the flower is considered to be of the Lily family. Needless to say we did not see any trees in bloom and there is no guarantee that we would even if we arrived early spring. Apparently they only bloom if they have had a frost during the winter and there is enough water in the spring. (The pictures of the blooms added to this blog are taken from the internet – got to love the internet.)
One of the features of the park is the rock formations. As we drove through the park we could not believe how the ‘rock piles’ were in fact rock piles. I can only describe them as looking like someone had taken rocks of various sizes and tossed them into a pile letting them fall as they landed. Only difference is that these are huge boulders and the person doing the tossing would have made Paul Bunyan look tiny.
At the recommendation of the Park Ranger we stopped and hiked into Hidden Valley. This was a short 1 mile hike that took us through a narrow passage way into a valley that is completely surrounded by rocks. From the outside it looks like the ‘rock pile’ is huge and you could ride about it not realizing there was actually a small valley hidden inside. This hidden valley was reported to be used by rustlers at one time and then before the area became a park, the local rancher Bill Keys, who noted that this hidden valley with a unique eco system due to the protected state, would be good range so he blasted open a narrow passage way in which we used to walk in today.
In the surrounding area you would not find piñon pine, California juniper and scrub oak, however in Hidden Valley you find all three. I had fun taking pictures of the acorns since they are so small and cute looking. It was very informative to walk along the nature trail that has been set up showing samples of vegetation and discussing the wild life in the area.
We continued from Hidden Valley (by car now) on to Keys View in the Little San Bernardino Mountains. This view provides a panorama of the view south into Coachella Valley, the Salton Sea (230ft below sea level), and the Santa Rosa Mountains behind Indio and the San Jacinto Mountains behind Palm Springs. In the valley floor, the San Andreas Fault is clearly visible. Unfortunately by the time we got to the viewpoint the view was very hazy. I took a few pictures and will do my best to adjust the pictures but am not confident they will be very inspiring.
From this viewpoint we carried on to complete the loop back to the East Entrance of the park. On this drive we saw Cap Rock, Skull Rock, Split Rock and Jumbo Rocks. See if you can figure them out in the collage.We left the park glad that we took the time to divert slightly on our way to Palm Springs. The park has lots of hiking trails that we could not do this time but we think that there is a good possibility for a winter trip to Palm Springs which include a couple of short hikes in that area. After all, the park is less than an hour’s drive from Palm Springs.
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