We left at 9:30 am yesterday and drove 80 miles to the Cottonwood Springs Road entrance on the south side of Joshua Tree National Park. The park contains two deserts, the Colorado and Mojave, and has more land mass than the state of Rhode Island. We entered the Colorado, and drove north, and constantly uphill, to the Mojave. The elevation there is over 3000 feet above sea level.The Colorado is distinguished by the yucca cactus, and the Mojave by the Joshua Tree.
It was 39 degrees and windy in the Mojave, 52 in the Colorado. It was 38 miles from the south to the north, with stunning scenery. The Cholla (pronounced choy-ah) Gardens were interesting, the big rocks area, and have I said the stunning scenery? We were near Twenty Nine Palms, San Bernardino, Riverside, and the town of Joshua Tree.
Skull Rock
Cholla Garden
Cholla Cactus
From there we went back the way we came and went West to the Salton Sea, which is 236 feet below sea level. Just another landlocked body of water, which like the Dead Sea in Israel, has no influx of fresh water and gets saltier as the water evaporates. In one century it has shrunk from 45 miles to 36 miles in length. At one point we were only 120 miles from Los Angeles.
On the way home, we stopped in Coachella, the site of a huge annual music festival, and had dinner at the buffet at the Spotlight 29 Casino. We got back at 8:30 pm, after driving a total of 356 miles.
Today, we are doing nothing but relaxing.
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