JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK IN CALIFORNIA

Our motivation for stopping near San Bernardino for a few days was to look up Audrey's Uncle Howard, whom she had not seen for more than twenty years. We were able to get an address and telephone number for him before leaving Arizona. So we were in business!! We spent time visiting with him twice while there and we certainly enjoyed this. We also met his landlady and her son, and found them to be very likable people. She certainly looks after him well. And I feel confident that he will have good care. While in this part of California, we decided to take a trip through Joshua Tree National Park , which took the best part of one day. On the way, we passed Hot Springs CA which you can see here off in the distance at the base of the mountains. It was many more miles though before we got to the National Park. And I thought that I had seen all of the different kinds of mountains already, ha-ha! The rock formations in this park are said to have been from volcano activity thousands of years ago. It is amazing to see them as they were left after soil and sand washed away from them over the years! All formations different, but yet much the same in this high desert area. We were two or three weeks early to see this desert in full bloom, but we did gee the Joshua Tree, Yucca and many cacti , as well as many rock climbers. Check out the photos and see if you can find them all. Gary is the one scaling the tallest formation!! It was much cooler than the 90's that we left in Arizona, but it did become warm enough to remove our jackets before we finished our hike. We walked 1.3 mile back into the rocks and hills to find a man made dam that was built in the late 1800's for cattle . Believe it or not, I survived the hike! We really need to do that kind of thing more often!! If you believed that Gary was one of the climbers, you sure don't know him very well!! That would be the day!! But that is what he told me to tell you!! As we drove away from Bernardino this morning, we found that we were no longer surrounded by mountains!! Little did we know that we would be back in them before we parked at our next home location. I am sure that the sight seeing at our new location will be more and more mountains as the elevation of many in this area is over ten thousand feet. This is the picture as we sat in the office parking lot, as we look back (and down) into the camping area. Also with other mountains in the distance. It was quite a winding roadway to our site. I am anxious to get more pictures around the park. This is the view from the doorway of our motorhome after setting up home, and it goes down hill from there!

We had a good day even though it rained hard for us twice. It was almost dry though cold when we broke up housekeeping this morning, and again while we set up at our new location. Thank goodness. We hate bad weather for either of those chores!

Have a great weekend while we explore the area. We have to go out first and locate the post office where we can get our mail, a church, a laundromat, a grocery and a bank for the duration of our stay here. Take care.