Tuesday (6/19) Me, Pat, Hayden, and Maggie drove out to Joshua Tree National Park to explore the desert, climb around on rock formations, take a million pictures, and experience something new. I had been really excited about getting out there since we started planning our trip. I think the boys were a bit skeptical at first but I know for a fact that Pat at least, thoroughly enjoyed himself.
Below is part one of our explorations. I had to divide this post up because of how many pictures I took. The really unique thing about this park is how vastly the terrain changes from one mile to the next, so we really got the whole experience. Here is a link to a park map to give you an idea of its size.
Included in this post are the loose rock formations that line the windy road at the West entrance of the park, as well as the Keyes viewpoint, which is several thousand feet up above the park. The nice old man I gathered our park map from said that on a clear day you can see all the way in to Mexico from here. You can also see the Saltan Sea, the San Andreas Fault, and the entire Coachella Valley below. If we went back here, I would make sure to stay until sunset and experience that up here, I can't even imagine how gorgeous that is. And of course, I had to take pictures of some of the Suessian Joshua Trees before we made our decent and went on to other park areas.
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| [[ joshua tree national park part I: rock formations at west entrance. keyes viewpoint. joshua trees. all photos by me & pat in california, june 2012. ]] |
