Joshua Tree National Park

The Joshua Tree is a member of the lily family.

Neither tree nor cactus, the Joshua Tree was named by Mormon pioneers who thought its arms resembled Joshua beckoning them to the promised land.

Some of the hills and small mountains in the park look like piles of loose rocks.

Nolan loved this overhanging boulder at one of the rest stops. People were climbing the opposite face of the rock.

These gigantic rocks are the result of molten lava that oozed up toward the surface and then cooled. Over time this monzogranite developed a system of rectangular joints then they were exposed when flash floods washed away the ground surface that covered them.

I just loved all the interesting shapes.

This is Saddle Rock and it is much larger than it looks in this photo. Read all about it in the following photo.

Double click to enlarge. I learned some interesting facts about climbing at Joshua Tree National Park. It is one of the most popular rock climbing areas in the world and there are 4,500 recognized climbing routes throughout the park!

We decided to got for a short hike and this is the trail we took.

We saw these flowers all along the part of the trail that followed a wash. See how tiny they are? I think they are Desert Sunflowers.

We also saw these flowers in the wash. They aren't much larger than the yellow ones. They are called Chia.

Just one of the interesting rock formations on the route.

We saw this formation and Nolan called it the Dog House so I sent him off to test it out. Yep, stuck in the dog house again. He was bummed because we were unable to get the internet working the afternoon before.

I told him the niche looked more like a religious place so he began to pray for the Internet to start working.

A view of skull Rock from across the road. Lots of people around it.

More interesting flowers but the photo is extremely blurred. I was trying to show that a yellow and a red flower came off of each stem. Very different. They are called Desert Rock Pea. Next is a better picture.

Well I didn't see it at first but Nolan was dead on when he said this formation in Jumbo Rocks Campground looked like an elephant. Can you see it? It even has the tip of the trunk sticking up in front if it. The eyes are bushes.

I believe I read at the Oasis Visitor Center that of the 158 fan palm oasises in North America, five are in Joshua Tree National Park. Probably the most accessible is the Oasis of Mara at the Oasis Visitor Center. Double click to enlarge.
Here's a photo of the oasis from behind the visitor center. The oasis has quite the history of being the stopping place for water because it used to come to the surface here.
Hey, Beaver tail prickly pear starting to bloom. I bet they are really pretty when the flowers are fully open.
Just a lonely fan palm off by itself.
See following photo for a view of Maria Whalton grave.

Maria Whalton's grave is being overtaken by this tree.
This beautiful flower is a California Buckwheat that I saw along the Skull Rock trail but we didn't know it's name until we saw a huge bush of it at the visitor center.

Nolan saw some Gamble's Quail run across the sidewalk at the oasis but he wasn't fast enough to get a good photo. This is a photo I took by Casa Grande.

As we headed south through the park we passed through an area where lots of chola cactus grew. It was called the Cholla Cactus Garden. Then we saw an area where lots of ocotillo grew. We've see them dry and brown all winter but these are green and starting to bloom.

In the sandy ditches along the road, we would occasionally see these plants with their big white flowers. I don't know what they are called.

Windmills of San Gorgonio Pass

The largest windmill farm I have ever seen is along I-10 just west of Palm Springs, CA. Every time I have been through this area it has been windy.

That's because I-10 cuts through San Gorgonio Pass el. 2,600 ft (790 m) at this point and all the wind funnels through this spot. The San Gorgonio Pass runs between the San Bernardino Mountains on the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. Like the Cajon Pass to the northwest, it was also created by the San Andreas Fault.
Look at these photos and you can see the different types of windmills that have been put up through the years.

The San Gorgonio Pass provides the main link between the Los Angeles Basin and the Coachella Valley and points further east.
The pass itself is not as steep as the Cajon Pass or the Tejon Pass (the Grapevine), but it is still one of the deepest mountain passes in the 48 contiguous states, with the mountains to either side rising almost 9,000 ft (2,700 m) above the pass.

When I was driving motorhomes four years ago, I drove through all these passes but the San Gorgonio is the one I went through the most.

Desert Flowers

I just thought I would post some photos of the flowers we see out on our walks. This is an ocotillo blooming but it doesn't have any leaves on its stems.

The real time to see flowers in Arizona is June and July but we aren't staying here that long. That's when the cacti bloom. I think these are Distant Phacelia or Wild Heliotrope.

I couldn't figure out what either of these flowers are named. It rained a few hours last night so there should be lots of flowers coming up soon.

These are Caliche Globemallow.

Well this is a saquaro cactus and we don't know why he formed this way. We called him Shar-pei since he's wrinkled like that breed of dog.

Maybe a California poppy.

See how the ground along the trail is covered in flowers?

We found another trailhead and really enjoyed this area.

Going up a hill the trail had many switchbacks. We are standing at one and you can see another to the left of center.

Nolan was actually taking a photo of a bicyclist that was doing this trail. You can barely see his yellow shirt if you enlarge the photo. There were lots of mountain bikes on this trail.

Someone had made the effort to construct this picnic table and another bench on an offshoot of the trail.

Just look at all those saguaro!

This dude is missing his top but he's still giving us the peace sign with his right arm.

This is a Fairyduster plant. The color is much better in person. If you want to see good photos of the flowers in this area, go to www.fireflyforest.com/flowers/

We went through one area that had running water and a couple big trees. This was before the rain.

I don't know the name of this plant.

At the Starr Pass trailhead it looks like turquoise was mined. There's a thin layer of green on most of the rocks around the parking lot.

Desert Penstemon

No flower here but I find Cholla skeletons interesting. I'd collect some of the downed pieces but I have no use for them and no yard to decorate at this time.

This is a live Chain-fruit Cholla.

We walked to Starr Pass. This is our view from left to right as we approached the pass.

The pass.

After we passed through I zoomed in on the cliff to the left and took this shot of a saquaro clinging to the side and it looks like birds were roosting in holes in the cliff.

I liked this balanced rock to the right of the trail.

Nolan took a lot more photos of the trail as we headed back since I was hunting for rocks. Just trying to pick up some I could tumble.

You sure can't tell from the photos just how rocky this trail is. Remember it's used by mountain bikers.

Back at the park I took a few photos of the flowers. This gal had been watering her lawn and it looks great now!

Aloe vera plants are blooming now. We see a lot of them planted in the road medians. The flower stalks look like asparagus when they are growing up.