Joshua Tree

This lonely stretch of road between 29 Palms Marine Corp base and Las Vegas was were I was working a few weeks ago. The desert's are so fascinating to me, but also beautiful in their own unique way.

On our way back to Ontario, we decided to take the long route and drive through Joshua Tree National Park.

Most of these pictures were taken through the window/windshield at 60 mph, but at least I didn't have to drive.

The full moon out in the middle of the day was very neat.

It took us a little over an hour to drive from the north end, through the park, down to I-10. It was a 2-lane little windy road like this, but a great drive.

This is a Joshua Tree in case you didn't know (I sure didn't!).

These trees definitely remind me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book with their unusual appearance.

Another very neat thing were these large rounded boulders. Some of them were around camp areas & we saw trailers/campers INSIDE of them. What a neat place to camp.

It was neat to wind our way through the mountains, waiting to see what would be around the next twist and turn.

In the middle of this barren desert, we came across the Cholla Cactus garden.

There was a large field of these very peculiar looking cacti.

As if to tempt you to touch them, there were these neat looking flowers that beckoned you to take one.

However, these needles were no laughing matter & there were numerous warning signs to visitors to take caution to not accidentally brush by a cholla cactus.

One bizarre thing about these cacti was that the bottom of their trunk would turn brown, while the top remained a light shade of green.

It was just very pretty to be in the cactus garden, as the sun was setting to the west and illuminating the area with a warm light.

We continued driving south through the park, taking in all the different, but very distinct areas of vegetation that we would pass through.

Another peculiar plant that we saw was this Ocotillo (tree?).

There were a few dozen of this interesting plants, then they were suddenly gone. I'd be honest and admit I was a bit disappointed with JTNP. Obviously, we didn't see all of it, but after all the hype, I was expecting a bit more. The desert and mountains were beautiful, but perhaps I'm just more of a forest and mountain gal.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I voted yesterday!!! On the 2nd day of early voting in Texas, I had to wait about 30 minutes at 3PM to exercise my rights. Hope you all will consider early voting if you can in your state.