Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29                                                                               Campbell House, Twenty Nine Palms, California

The campground at Joshua Tree was in the brutal sun and the wind was whipping sand around everywhere, so we decided to spend the night at a little hotel in nearby Twenty Nine Palms.

Joshua Tree is really interesting; the landscape and the cactus and plants are very different than anything we had ever seen before.                                                                 These photos were taken at the cholla cactus garden.

I had never seen an actual Joshua tree.  (My experience of them is limited to the U2 album cover.)  Here’s what they look like.  These trees are a type of yucca, and they’re quite beautiful. We learned that native people used the foliage to make baskets and clothing.  Settlers made fence posts from the limbs. Other desert plants like yucca, sotol, and agave had many uses; food, medicine, clothing, shoes, and rope to name just a few.

Joshua Tree is a mecca for rock climbers, and it’s easy to see why.  We encountered these and many other formations as we hiked to 49 Palms Oasis.  It was about three miles of rocks and wildflowers (I took a lot of photos of them, but will save those for another post).  It was almost startling to come upon the oasis; the first one I had ever seen.

We met a man there who has been coming to Joshua Tree for a long time and we had a nice conversation under the palm trees.  I asked him if there really were 49 palms, and he admitted that he had never counted them, and immediately started to do so. Turns out there really are 49!

There was a nice breeze, but the day was still pretty hot. It is amazing to me that people set out on long hikes in the desert with no water! After our experience in Big Bend, we don’t leave the car without at least a liter in our packs. Coming back from the oasis we met a shirtless man carrying nothing but a large lizard that he was squeezing around the neck.  Go figure.  Andy had a few theories about what he was planning, but I won’t repeat them here.

Saturday, April 29                                                                                                                   Shoshone Inn, Shoshone, CA

We left Joshua Tree headed north toward the wine country and other delightful California locations..  We spent the night in Shoshone, California, population 61.  Of course we had to stay at the town’s finest hotel.

We ate at the best restaurant (actually it was pretty good), but unfortunately the gas station was closed. The inn did have a pool, but apparently it is in another town.

It was after our stay here that we drove through Death Valley.  I’ll fix that post so it will appear in the right order. (later!!)