Another perfect weather day here in the desert on Friday, and no, it’s got getting boring at all. Paulette was up well before dawn Friday morning getting all prepared for her big trip to the Road To California Quilt Show at the Ontario, CA Convention Centre. At 8:15am she left, with several empty bags, to walk up to the North Clubhouse to meet the other women who would all be traveling in the same van.
The strange looking Joshua trees are still very impressive
So, that left me and the muttzo’s home alone and I needed to make a plan for the day. As I was thinking about what I should do, an email arrived from the newly clairvoyant Al, of The Bayfield Bunch, with this great suggestion: “A nice round trip for you would be to go down to Borrego then up Montezuma's grade for spectacular views & hairpin turns to the little mountain town of Julian.”
I read a few more blogs in the meantime, one of which was Randy’s talking about his visit with Pam to the nearby Joshua Tree National Park. Paulette and I went there 2 years ago and we both really enjoyed the day. I wanted to go again last year but Paulette figured once was enough for her so we never did go back. I asked Molly and Rylie if they wanted to go and they said “sure, let’s get outta here”. Again, about Al, if he can talk to donkeys, then surely I can talk to my dogs!
Now, here’s a interesting looking pile of rocks!
So, at 10:30am, we headed out of the park, west on Dillon Rd. towards the 29 Palms Hwy and the 30 mile drive which would take us to the West Entrance of Joshua Tree NP. We arrived at the gate and I paid the $15 entrance fee then headed into the park along the main boulevard. There seemed to be a lot of visitors in the park judging by the cars parked at the various sites of interest, hiking trails and lookouts but the road traffic was light.
The colors of the desert hills and mountains are incredibly beautiful
Two years ago when we visited here, we pretty much stuck to the main road and stopped at many of the viewpoints and lookouts along the way. Yesterday, I ventured off the main road a bit to look at some of the camping spots and rock formations indicated by signs along the way. It was pretty interesting because I never realized so much camping was available in Joshua Tree. I visited a few places that had over 100 sites and saw at least a few dozen MH’s parked there too. No 5’ers though as I don’t think there would be enough room from what I could see.
A few different mountain landscapes – desert to snow!
I stopped at 8 or 9 places along the way to give the dogs a walk and to have a closer look at some of the really neat and unusual rock formations. There were also a lot of rock climbers about scaling sheer rock walls trying to find new ways to kill themselves from what I could see! You have to be a little nuts, as far as I’m concerned, to climb straight up a sheer rock face!!
If you look closely, or expand the picture, you’ll see some nutbar up on top!
After about 3 hours of driving, and walking around the park, we headed back towards the East Entrance which took us right into 29 Palms. This is the site of the big US Marine Base and, also, it’s where Randy and Pam Warner were staying when they were in the area.
It took me hours and hours to pose these rocks!
We arrived back at the Sand’s RV Park at 3:30 and I immediately took Molly and Rylie to the dog park for their afternoon run. When we got back to our site about an hour later, Paulette was just getting home – loaded up with bags from the quilt show. She said it was fantastic and one of the best shows she’s ever been too.
That’s Palm Springs way off in the valley somewhere
So, everyone had a great day. With that, we just settled in for a night of TV and computer time after having a really good dinner of Burrito’s from Trader Joe’s.
Have a great Saturday, and thanks again for visiting!
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