Day 5

Left the heat of Phoenix and entered the heat of Southern California. Not sure what the high was, but I did see 113 register on the car thermometer. Not really much to say about the drive. It was longer than anticipated as the maps on the blog pages were just to the general vicinity of Joshua Tree. It turns out we were camping on the West side of the park, thus a longer drive. It really is amazing how much the landscape can change in just a few hundred miles of driving. The 12,000’+ peaks of Colorado to the desolate, dry, arid desert of Arizona.

There is an inspection when entering California. You cannot bring in fruits or plants! Not sure why, and it seems an awfully big expense to “man” the checkpoints. Mayzie made the point that surely CA has better ways to spend money it doesn’t have. Trying to stop the illegal smuggling of Oranges and Hydrangeas can’t be the best option?

As we approached the turn off of the highway we entered Palm Springs. There must be well over 500 wind turbines in this town. Wonder how much electricity they produce?

We got to the campsite, which was “self-service” because we were out of season. I guess only idiots camp in Joshua Tree National Park in the summer months! However, it turned out to be not too bad. Especially when the sun set. Because we were off season, the campsite was barely occupied and we really did feel like we had the place to ourselves. See below for a select few pics. And yes, those funny looking trees are Joshua Trees.

I was hoping to see more stars as there was not a cloud in the sky, but the moon was too bright. Maybe in a week or so there will be less moonlight and more starts. Perhaps at Moab.