California or Bust!

I crossed the border into the land of fruits, nuts and insane gas prices! Sorry, not sorry, if that offends any Californians but although your state is beautiful, it's jacked up. Once you leave Arizona, gas prices, (along with the cost of everything else), goes up at least $1/gallon. And what’s with the Agricultural Inspection stations? What is their purpose? I wasn’t asked any questions, just had to stop long enough to be told to go on through! Oh, and it's against the law to bring cans or plastic into the state for the sole purpose of recycling them and getting the 5 cent deposit back. They will prosecute you! And don’t get me started on the speed limit signs. Now, all of a sudden, any vehicle towing a trailer can only go 55 mph when in the rest of the country you can go up to the speed limit? Uh huh, yeah sure. This state makes no sense! Okay, sorry but I had to get that off my chest. Rant over. Now for the good stuff.

I did my first “true” boondocking this week. I camped at BLM Joshua Tree South. BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management. Basically, it’s public lands set aside for recreation that you can camp on up to 14 days for F-R-E-E! Yes, some things are still free. This site is right outside the south entrance to the park and was surprisingly quiet considering it’s only a mile off the freeway. The sand was deep in some spots and I almost got stuck but was able to get out without engaging my 4WD. Whew! I had no trouble setting up once I found a reasonably level site. I took my shower, cooked some dinner and sat outside with Gable and relaxed until the sun went down…then the excitement started!

As you can see, the ground is flat, pretty barren, between two mountain ranges and apparently makes a great wind tunnel. The wind was howling so bad the trailer was rocking and my slide topper (an awning attached to the top of the slide out that protects it from debris) was flapping so hard I thought it was going to tear off. It was so bad, I made the decision to bring the slide in. The only problem with that is I can’t access my bedroom from inside the trailer with the slide closed. Because of this, I have a second exterior door that goes directly to my bedroom. If I slept in the bedroom and had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, (which you know will happen since I'm old 😂), I would have to go out the bedroom door and back in the main cabin door. That's not something I want to do in the dark with the wind blowing sand everywhere, so I chose option 2, sleeping in the main cabin. I learned several things that night.

1. My couch is too short to sleep on without unfolding it.

2. I don’t have room to unfold the couch with the slide in.

3. While my dining table breaks down to another bed, it isn’t much more comfortable than the couch.

4. I’m 68” tall. The table/bed thing is 67” long. Do the math.

5. If you make a bed, they will come. Yes, all 3 of my fur kids slept with me on the table/bed.

6. Windstorms are not conducive to sleeping well. It was very nerve wracking having your home shake and rock back and forth. I was afraid it was going to tip over. It was an exhausting night but we survived! Aww, the adventures this lifestyle brings.

The next day I visited a Joshua Tree National Park. It’s been on my bucket list for a while now and I was so excited. As you can tell by my hair, it was still windy the next morning.

I didn’t know this but there are two deserts that meet in this location. The Colorado and Mojave Deserts. Both are beautiful in their own way. The Colorado is part of the "Lower Colorado Valley Subdivision" of the Sonoran Desert and is the lowest lying and warmest desert in North America (except for Death Valley which is in the Mojave. Confusing, I know). It tends to be drier and have less vegetation than the Mojave.

The Mojave is about 1500-2000 ft higher here and is quite a bit cooler. It receives less summer rainfall and endures longer periods of freezing temps than the Colorado. This is where you find the Joshua Trees.

The first thing I wanted to know was why do they call them Joshua Trees? Well, I found out that the Mormon settlers that crossed the Mojave Desert back in the mid-19th century thought they looked like Joshua raising his hands in prayer so that’s what they named them. They can live hundreds of years and their root systems can grow more than 35 feet deep. There has to be just the right amount of rainfall and adequate winter freeze for them to bloom. The freeze damages the end of the tree causing it to flower and branch off in a new direction. If you see a straight Joshua Tree that means it’s never bloomed (like the small one in the picture below).

I also met the infamous Cholla (pronounced Choy-yah) cactus. This one you really don’t want to mess with. They call it the jumping cactus because they have segmented branches that break off and easily stick to anything that brushes up against them. I've been told they're very painful to remove too. I didn't get close enough to find out!

Cholla Cactus Garden above. Close up of Cholla below.

When the segments break off they can pile up. Who else thinks they look like prickly Tribbles? Remember that Star Trek episode?

The rock formations are gorgeous! The lines in these rocks are called "intrusions". When molten rock cools underground it shrinks, causing cracks to form. Later, more molten rock squeezes into these cracks and hardens. Erosion has stripped away most of the surrounding rock to reveal these filled-in cracks.

Skull Rock. I about broke my ankle scrambling over the rocks to get this picture!

Several places had rock climbers. I admire their bravery. I could never do this as I'm afraid of open heights

See the roadrunner on the rocks?

After a day of hiking and sightseeing I

went back to the trailer for a rest and something to eat. Fitz was whining to get out so I took him out for a walk along with Gable.

Everything was fine until he decided to be a drama llama and lay down and roll around in the road! Sometimes I would love to know what's going on in his head.

I decided to go back in the park to see the sunset. Wow! Was it spectacular! None of these pictures have been altered. What you see is what I saw.

I think this is one of my favorite parks so far and would love to come back again. There never seems to be enough time to see and do everything I want. In the future I plan to slow down and stay longer in each place.

Lessons learned this week:

Check weather/winds better so I'm more prepared
Slow down!

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