Joshua Tree National Park

You don't have to get to the park to see the Joshua trees!  Every yard and vacant lot is filled with them.  These beautiful trees fill the landscape.  The Mormons thought that the trees looked like the prophet Joshua with uplifted arms.

The Joshua tree...

The prophet Joshua

We are fortunate to be here in time for the blooming of the trees!  They have a 12" high cluster of white flowers.  Like all of the other plants in the desert, blooming timing is determined by rain.

A forest of Joshua trees along the road to the park,

The nearby mountain range is made up of huge rocks.

Really huge

We walked a trail through the Hidden Valley.  This valley was used in the early 1900's by rustlers.  Boulders completely enclose a valley with only one narrow gap to enter or leave.  This proved to be a perfect temporary holding corral for newly acquired livestock.  They could be contained here in the lush valley until they could be rebranded and then sold.  This lucrative business slowly faded out as more law abiding ranchers settled in the region along with the decline of the lush vegetation due to overuse.

This big lizard is basking on one of the boulders in the sun on this 60 degree day.  That is the only animal life we saw.

The next morning we drove to Keys View, a mountain top at 5185 feet elevation with a view of the Coachella Valley.  We could see the San Andreas fault line and the Salton Sea.  It was hard to get the full view in one picture, so the quality isn't that great, but you can see the fault line as raised boulders along the middle of the picture.

Cap Rock, aptly named.

Lots of split boulders.

How about Skull Rock???

Luke took a hike on the Split rock loop and found rock climbers.  This is the most popular pastime in the park.  It makes us nervous just to watch.

He noticed this "fallen" rock along the path.

And one last view of the many boulders in the park.

Today is very windy and actually has rained.  It's sunny now.  This is our last day here so we will probably drive the road that traverses the park from north to south.  Next stop, Death Valley.