Joshua Tree National Park

We left the KOA in Barstow and headed on Thursday to Joshua Tree National Park--we were unfortuante, however, in that it was spring break and all the campgrounds on the north side of the park were full--a campground on the southside was apparently open with a few available sites, but the ranger did not mention this, probably because it would take an hour to reach it through major road construction.  In any event, we ended up at the 29 Palms Resort (Good Sam) in the lowlands of 29 Palms, where it is much warmer than in the Park elevations.  The A/C is getting a good test. 

Later that evening, however, the wind kicked up with strong gusts that shook the camper throughout the night, and a nice cool down came with the wind. 

The next morning we planned to explore the souithern area of the park, including Cottonwood Oasis, Cholla Gardens, and the Ocatillo Patch.  Regrettably, the road construction was a 15-mile pilot car led portion, that would not let us stop at either the Ocatillo Patch or Cholla Gardens. 

The Ocatilla Patch was amazing, and it was disappointing that we couldn't stop--the tall tree-shrubs looked dead, leafless, except the bright crimson 7-inch blossoms that draped from the tips of all of the dead-like branches--the following images were captured as we drove past, so they are not as crisp and clear as we would like:

Then, the Cholla Gardens were backlit in the early morning light, and were quite magical:

Once at Cottonwood Spruings, one of the desert oases in the Park, we saw barrel cactus, a blue flower alone in the sands, and the wide-spread, blooming Yucca, and other plants:

 

 

 



 

The Yucca was more prevalent on this side of the park than its cousin the Joshua Tree--we hope to see many of those tomorrow.  The Yucca blooms, then forms deep purplish-brown seeds:

 

 

 

On the return, we were again stopped for the roadwork, and as we waited, we decided to have our picnic of crackers and cheese in the car!

 

We stopped at White Tank campground to go on a short nature hike to Arch Rock, and it was here that we saw the rounded granite boulders up close, as well as more plants and even a western whiptail lizard (he was moving so fast that I missed part of his tail in my picture):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weathered granite was rounded below the ground surface from the eons of percolating water, then exposed by erosion.  The arch is shaped similarly tothose in Arches National park, but here it is white granite instead of soft red sandstone.

 

After leaving the Arch Rock area, we went to the Oasis of Mara which is reached from the Oasis Visitor Center.  A fully accessible trail of about 0.5 mile loop leads to the oasis, which is now artifically kept watered as the lowering water table from human activities was threating the native flora and fauna of the oasis.  Here we spotted a desert rabbit resting in the shade about three feet from a pool of water:

 

 

We also saw an unusual white lizard, perhaps not a whiptail as the tail was not as long as the last lizard`we encountered, and have not yet identified this one pictured below (we have now identified it as a desert iguana).

 

 

Tomorrow we are exploring the north and middle part of the Park, and hope to see more wildlife--perhaps even the desert tortoise!