Joshua Tree

A Joshua Tree is neither a tree or a cactus, but instead a member of the lily family. They grow very slowly, taking several hundred years to reach their final size of about 30 feet tall.

Joshua Tree National Park is a mix of cactus and boulders and the Joshua Trees. The history of how it got to be a national park is interesting too...feel free to look it up!  The hiking is normally very water dependent in that it is usually hot here, but not the last two days. When we first rolled into town it was 76 degrees and the weather report was calling for some high winds. Yesterday the high was 50 and the low 36 and today started out at 32 and the high is supposed to be 49.

All that being said, we still got in some smaller hikes and spent a good amount of time in the park. Monday we hiked out on a little trail until the wind chill forced us to turn around and then we headed through the park and found a relatively quiet wind area to get out and explore some more.

Today we did the 49 Palms Oasis trail and another short loop in Indian Cove, a part of the park we didn't see yesterday. Tomorrow our plan is to drive the Cottonwood road which will take us from 29 Palms to near Palm Springs before heading to Long Beach to visit friend first and family.

We are putting the pictures and video at the end. We hope you enjoy them.

Peace and more soon....

Retired people are strange.

There are lots of Joshua Trees in the park. Here's a 360 video of an area with lots of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANLYuDwTlh4

The 49 Palms trail is pretty easy and huge bang for the buck. Here's a quick video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBV7-cLJUgU

Thanks for watching!

Owl Canyon Campground and Trail

Wow! We stayed at the best $3 campsite we gave ever found and there is a great hiking trail attached to boot. The Owl Canyon Campground is a BLM site near Barstow California. There were pit toilets, water when available (not for us), and 30+ sites, each with fire pits, cooking grills and a covered table.

Sunrise

Pam with her coffee watching sunrise.

Heading out to the trailhead.

The trail is an out and back that winds up a wash into the canyon and sports a thru hike of a cave/ tunnel. We, of course saw what looked like but wasn't a trail and hiked up to a dead end and had to descend, but we got a good view of the actual trail from there so we could follow it when we got down.

This wasn't the actual trail, but made for a fun scramble to the top, only to find, a dead end, with a beautiful view!

Back down to the dry riverbed and the actual trail.

The cave!

And we made it through to the other side...

The tunnel/cave, from the other side.

About 3 miles into our route is where the tunnel is.  We didn't know that it was there let alone that we could thru hike it. It was pretty cool even for Mr. Paully who is no fan of caves or tight spaces.

We made it back and had our second breakfast of breakfast burritos and were about to take showers when we found out that our on-demand water heater had frozen and broken while it was in Washington - likely while we were in Ecuador. We will have to get a new one at the next Camping World. The only other problem thus far is Paul dropped his phone and needs to have the screen replaced.

After we broke camp we drove the Rainbow Basin drive which was a sketchy road that was well worth the crazy challenge. It is a worthwhile one-way dirt road (RV's, cars with trailers and long trucks are prohibited) about 3-4 miles long, and definitely worth the slow drive on this windy, narrow track.  Don't miss the turn-out to the viewpoint too!  Enjoy some pics below.

Don't be fooled...this was a very nice section of the dirt road.

Pam enjoying the scenery from the viewpoint.

Some folks at the campground suggested we go to Pioneertown which was a fairly dumb place that we could have missed so we moved on. The drive through Pipe Canyon area was pretty though, so it was all good.

Tomorrow we begin exploring Joshua Tree National Park which should be a blast.

More soon.

The First Few Days Of Freedom

Today is day three of our journey. We landed at a BLM campsite near Barstow California called Owl Canyon. We arrived at 1:30 after a much shorter day than the last two.

This place is is near Barstow. 

Day one we traveled down to Tidewater Oregon to visit Pam's Uncle Buster and were surprised to also hang out with his sister Shirley and Brother in Law James. We brought lunch and spent a couple hours before heading down the coast to Coos Bay before heading back to I-5 to a rest area about four miles north of Grant's Pass where we spent the night.

We must have been wrecked on arrival since I read about one chapter and was out by 7:30, and Pam made in until 9:30 or so before passing out. It is so dark in the back of the van and the industrial earplugs we have kill the sound so well that we didn't wake up until 7:20.

We headed into Grant's Pass for gas and breakfast and then continued south on I-5. We found a campground that would sell us the shower codes for $5 each and got a necessary shower before continuing south, moving to I99 and eventually landed at a rest stop 13 miles south of Modesto that was just as good as the one the night before.

Today we woke by 6 and headed to the next town for breakfast, and mail a postcard since Pam has promised her nephew Dakota that she would send them along the way. After that stop turned off of  99 and out of the sprawl and heavy traffic, hit the grocery store for some provisions and headed for the spot we find ourselves at now.

If we like this spot we may have to stay another night even though we are paying a whopping $3 per night (normally $6, but we have the Interagency National Park Pass which gives you half off). There are a few hiking trails in the area, so we're looking forward to checking them out later this afternoon. For now, we're enjoying a cold beer, blue skies and this beautiful, tranquil area.