Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Joshua Tree National Monument

It finally stopped raining, and we finally stopped driving.  It hasn’t stopped blowing though. We spent 5 days in Joshua Tree National Park.  We intended to drive from Los Banos to the park in one day, but fortunately we thought better of it when we realized we wouldn’t arrive until after dark.  Instead we stayed overnight in Victorville, 2 hours away.

When we reached the park entrance the next morning we were told that the campgrounds had been full the night before and they wouldn’t get a report till after 1 pm, also that our truck and camper could only fit into 2 campgrounds.  So we headed into the closest campground.  Luckily there were 3 campsites open, and we parked under our own sheltering boulder, with our own personal Joshua tree.


We lucked out because we found out later the other campground had 120 sites while our small quiet site has only 18.

In the afternoon we hiked up Mount Ryan, which turned out to be the most popular (crowded) hike and probably the least interesting.  We did get a spectacular view of Los Angeles smog blowing into the valley below; by the next day it had blown away and is probably hanging over Tucson, AZ, now.


Highlight of the Day:  the Tamales Leo bought from a vendor in the El Super grocery store parking lot. Delicious! Leo said they were the best he’d ever tasted; I thought they were as good as ones we’d had in Mexico.

Bird of the Day:  Rather birdless so far, but we did see a rock wren on our Mt. Ryan hike.
  

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