Joshua Tree in the moonlight and more

We spent one last glorious night in Indio and enjoyed the most beautiful sunset:

As we were sitting there, I was thinking about the fact that we were going to be driving through Joshua Tree National Forest the next day on our way to the Grand Canyon.  Suddenly it occurred to me that it was a full moon that night and we would miss seeing the park in the moonlight.  I asked Mike if he would mind driving over there even though we would have to come back and do it all over again in the morning.  He agreed and off we went!

How can I explain the feeling of driving through that eerie park in the moonlight?  I had the amazing feeling that we were crawling around at the bottom of the ocean, or an aquarium.......in the headlights everything looked very eerie, indeed!

Although my camera isn't the best, I did manage to capture a couple of pictures of the full moon over everything, although, believe you me, they don't capture the beauty of what we actually saw!

We were so very glad that we took the extra time to go there and see it at night!

Joshua Tree National Park is a very different park with vegetation there that you don't see anywhere else.  We spoke with a park ranger at another park who told us that the Joshua trees only grow in two places on earth.  Here in California, and also in Israel.  We found that to be fascinating.

Especially beautiful were the Cholla Gardens; a huge area where all these amazing cacti grow:

Again, as with most places we visited, the pictures we take do not even begin to capture the magnificence surrounding us!  Imagine being here in the Cholla Gardens.......now imagine as you slowly turn in a full circle, that as far as the eye can see, there are these cactuses.....or cacti??  Stunningly beautiful!

You might think that the desert is very desolate, and you would be right.  At the same time, though, it is literally teeming with life!  Not the same kind of life we might be used to, but life all the same.  It was amazing to see how plant life can adapt to even the harshest climates.

The Joshua trees themselves were so beautiful.  At the visitor center, the ranger told us there were over 2 million trees in the park.  Again, as you look at these pictures, imagine seeing these trees go on and on and on as far as the eye can see!

Believe it or not, every once in awhile, we came across these beautiful white flowers......anyone know what they are?

The contrast between the desert sand, the green trees, the yellow flowers, the mountains in the background was incredible.  We were glad that we took the extra few hours in our day to drive through and see this park.  On the way out there was another visitor center that had a beautiful garden of its own:
Heading over to Arizona and on to the Grand Canyon, we drove on the famous Route 66!! It was a beautiful ride and the scenery magnificent!

 

 This was a volcano we passed near Ambio, a town where, if you blink, you miss it!  



It did get a bit warm, though:

We decided to stop at a little local place for lunch, which was fun!

  

 You can't really tell, but the Route 66 sign is actually a hooked rug. 

We arrived at the Grand Canyon just about sunset for more than a few wonderful surprises!  Stay
tuned.

~Karen

From Mike:

Joshua Tree is one of those gems that you don't really appreciate fully until you drive though it. The juxtaposition of the trees and rocks was beautiful.  Almost unearthly.

The park was fairly quiet.  It was still summer,  their slow season.   The rangers said it will get much busier in about a month. We chose to do Joshua Tree in the moonlight instead of the Palm Spring Thursday night Village Fest, where every Thursday all year long they close off Palm Canyon Drive and the entire town fills with arts and venders and a really fun time.   Next time!  (A recurring theme!)

--Mike