Joshua Trees Themselves

Today Liz and I explored the northern and eastern portion of Joshua Tree National Park, and here we found the famous namesake trees everywhere, on spiky single stems, in shapely tree-like foms, and in twisted, bizzare shapes--and most were blooming.

Our first short walk was at Split Rock, where the trees abounded, and the massive rocks were impressive.  A short time later, we pulled into a picnic area, and came upon an Indian mediating or performing a ceromony high on a rock--he sat motionless for many minutes with one arm extended:

We travelled on to Skull Rock, which has a wonderful nature hike where we encountered tent caterpillas, a charcoal black lizard, another western whiptail, and even paintbrush blooming:

 

 

It was on this easy 1-mile walk that we also encountered a desert Jay:

 

We took the shorter, fully accessible 0.3 mi nature trail around cap rock, Lizzie in the lead, and here saw a western shrike, and more beautiful rocks:

 

 

 

 

We travelled to the end of this spur road, to an overlook that showed the sanAndreas Fault, the Coachella Valley, Palm Springs, and more.  The haze (attributed to pollution from the Los

Angeles basin) made it difficult to see details, but the snow capped Mount San Jacinto to the northwest stood out:

 

 

We returned to Cap Rock for our crackers, salami, and cheese lunch--just as good as yesterday--and then continued on our way out of the park, coming back to the highway at the town of Joshua Tree.  We had planned shopping and laundry, plus organizing the camper to take off early tomorrow to Anza-Borrego State Park (where we may not have wifi, so the blog may be a few days later).  Although it was a comfortable temperature within the Park, it has been hot in 29 Palms, and I will be glad to get to some place a bit cooler.