Joshua Tree

Since we got a National Parks Pass in Yosemite we wanted to go to as many as we could this year. My friend was getting married in Los Angeles, so we added a few hours to the drive to go to Joshua Tree National Park. 

Since we finalized our plans very last minute we did not have a chance to reserve a campsite. Our plan was to get up really really early and get there as close to the check in time as we could. It worked out well enough. I wish they had a street view tour of the campsites so you could pick out which you wanted ahead of time. We stayed in Belle Campground. It was supposed to have very dark and clear skies. This was very true. 

The campsites are very tiny. Some would only fit one very small tent. We got a decent spot, with two of our own personal huge rocks to climb. We liked this spot because it had a wide open not camping spot behind the huge rock that made it look bigger. 

Street view of our campsite

Street view a little to the left to include the funky yucca.

Plant life near our site.

View from our tent.

We got settled around 4pm, and started to explore the rocks nearby.  A lot of the rocks near us were very easy to climb and not very high. The one across the street you could almost hike up. 

Steven climbing a big boulder.

A few campsites down we found this easy climb. If you go up the right side is very easy to climb, no rope needed. Going up the front would probably be easy, but if you fell it would not be safe. There was a really good looking rock to set up an anchor on for top roping. Steven climbed up there to check it out. It ended up not being a good rock, so we gave up and went to make dinner.

We had a very simple dinner consisting of leftover food we could cook on a fire, sausages and potatoes. Cooking sausages over a fire always makes them so tasty. After dinner we had to move our tent. The wind was crazy, so we tried to get it as close to the big rock as we could. It helped some, but not perfectly. Luckily since we packed light for camping we were able to just pick up our tent with everything in it and set it down in the new spot. The stuff even stayed were it was supposed to. 

We brought a nice camera in case we wanted to take star pictures once it got dark. We were too tired to bother. I did get this shot of a Joshua Tree with my phone. 

The next morning we got up very early, packed up our camp and headed out for hiking. Just up the road at another camp area, was short hike to see Arch Rock. Despite being a guided trail complete with informational signs the trail wasn't very obvious. The ground all looked like the same sandy texture, we didn't get lost, but it was a big difference from the very obvious forest paths that we are used to.

After that hike, we headed over to the ranger led hike to learn about rocks. It wasn't a long hike, but it felt like walking in sand. There were lots of desert plants in bloom, but it was too windy to take pictures of most of them.

We had planned to do more hiking after the Ranger walk, but it was cold and windy and we were tired. Swimming at our hotel seemed like a nice option. After a quick stop to get my National Park stamp, we headed to Anaheim. There ended up being a lot more traffic than we had planned for so we didn't have enough time to swim before our dinner plans. Afterwards I was too tired.

My new row marker/ pattern holder.

Benihana fried rice near Disneyland.