Magical Desert Tour

We spent another day driving through the beauty that is the desert. Or should I say two deserts. The eastern half of the park, which is below 3,000 feet above sea level is within the Colorado Desert and includes the jumping cholla cactus we saw the other day as well as the ocotillo and palo verde. The western half is in the Mojave Desert, at over 3,000 feet and includes pinyon pine amid the boulder stacks, as well as junipers, Mojave yuccas, prickly pear and of course the Joshua Trees. We spent most of our time this day in the eastern half where the Joshua Trees are every where, some as tall as 40 feet or over. We drove on the Geology Tour Road, which is 18 miles long and goes through fascinating geological sites. 4 wheel drive recommended on parts of it but didn't seem bad to us. Joe did air down the tires which makes it less bumpy. Not so much shake,rattle and roll. We also drove up to Keys View, which is 5,185 feet in elevation and overlooks the valley. We took a few quick pictures and a couple took a picture of us. As you can see in one of the pictures below, it was rather windy and sooo coldddddd!!! and so we didn't hang around there much. We had lunch at a day use area on the Geology Road area. Also near another great little campground among the rocks. Too small, as most the campgrounds in the Park are, for our big Beast. Oh well, we like where we are staying as it is very pretty and free!! Can't beat that. Another day we drove up to 29 Palms and then checked out Indian Coves that has another campground in the Rocks and a day use area where we had lunch and then came back through the park from the West entrance to the park. Pictures below of our days include some where I used my ipad app Luminar, which is a great little photoshop like program I really like for some special effects and different frames from what is available on my picasa program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another great sunset, no touchup needed.

 

 

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