Trips

Saturday, 1/2/10 - Arcadia to Twentynine Palms, CA

We had coffee and Danish in the Rally tent then hitched up, said our goodbyes, and headed east to Twentynine Palms, CA, which is near the north entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. Our RV resort is Twentynine Palms and is a Good Sam campground. It is very nice and offers a lot of activities.

We spent five full days in the Twentynine Palms area seeing the sights around the town and going into Joshua Tree National Park to hike and look at the scenery.

Twentynine Palms

One of the nice features of the town are all the business buildings with sidewalls painted with murals depicting the history of this area. They are very attractive and well done. They are collectively referred to as an “Oasis of Murals.”

One day we drove east, then north to Landers and visited Gublers Orchid Farm. We were the only visitors for the two gals working the store and greenhouses. We got a tour of the greenhouses. They are getting ready for the busy Valentine’s Day rush. They have the usual varieties and many “intergenerics” that have smaller flowers with very colorful and designed petals. We had a good time.

Gubler Orchid Farm

From Gubler's we drove to find Giant Rock – reported to be the world’s largest freestanding boulder! According to Native American culture the million year-old boulder would split apart during the new millennium. If it split one way, Mother Earth was mad at the human population and would disown them. If it split in the other direction, she was opening her arms to receive people. In February 2000, it did split – in the positive direction.

Giant Rock

The Rock was home to an eccentric German immigrant who used the piezoelectric forces in the rock to boost his radio antenna signal. He supposedly was signaling aliens from outer space but was killed as a German spy in 1942. Since then (mainly in the 60’s and 70’s) the rock has been the focal point for UFO conventions. Take your pick! We ate a quiet lunch looking at the Giant Rock.

Giant Rock

The Integratron was closed (for a special group) so we couldn’t go inside and have the energy restored to our aging body cells. This part of the desert is full of strange things and ideas.

We also drove around on some more dirt roads (Snowflake has four wheel drive and high clearance) looking for the Noah Purifoy Sculpture Garden. We couldn’t find it, so we went back to Twentynine Palms and to the Oasis of Mara, which is behind the Joshua Tree NP Visitor Center. We walked the little trail around the oasis. The water pool is/was created by earthquakes pushing ground water up to the surface. There are beautiful California fan palms growing in the oasis. We saw several Gambel’s quail and two desert cottontail rabbits and many birds eating the palm and mistletoe berries.

Palm tree and clouds at the Oasis of Mara

California Fan Palms - Oasis of Mara

Gambel's Quail - Oasis of Mara

Oasis of Mara

Joshua Tree National Park

First stop in the Park was at the Oasis (Northern) Visitor Center.

Sculpture at the visitor center

A Joshua Tree

A Joshua Tree with broken limbs

Joshua Tree Forest

We drove down to Keys View to look out at the San Andreas Fault line (which is clearly visible), Palm Springs, Indio (where we stayed last March for the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament), the Salton Sea, and all the way to Signal Mountain 95 miles south in Mexico. There was no smog or haze but it was cloudy. We had a good view of the numerous vegetable farms to the southeast and the wind farms and the town of Banning to the northwest. We stopped at every information sign on the drive.

San Andreas Fault - lighter colored area in front of the somewhat darker ridge in the middle of the picture

San Andreas Fault - closer view

Indio/Palm Springs

Wind farm

Salton Sea and Signal Mountain (95 miles away in Mexico)

We went to Hidden Valley picnic area to eat lunch and stayed in the truck because it was only 54° out and no sun. Then we walked the nature loop at Hidden Valley, which was a favorite spot for cattle rustlers to rebrand the cows.

One of the interesting features of the surrounding rocks is the dikes, formed when molten material was forced into cracks in the rocks.

The light stripe in the rock is a dike

This dike is exposed because the rock above it has been eroded

Closer view of a dike

After lunch we walked the 1.2 mile loop at Barker Dam. A cattleman built a dam to trap rain water run off in a little reservoir back in the early 1900’s. Joshua Tree NP is a place of world-class rock climbing sites. On our tour today about half of the visitors were here to climb. Many of them were foreigners.

Bearded prickly pear cactus - something to avoid when hiking

Jumping cholla cactus - give this a wide berth

Inscription at Barker Dam

Barker Dam

Silhouettes at Barker Dam

We saw lots of Joshua trees and Mojave yucca today and some cholla, juniper, scrub oak, pinon pine, and Parry’s nolina. We learned that the biggest Joshua tree in the Park is 42 feet high with a 34 foot spread at the top and a trunk almost 9 feet around. They didn’t say where it was. Since the trees grow about one inch a year, this tree is amazing. Trees live an average of 150 years but some are 300 to 500 years old.

Monzogranite boulders create a unique and interesting backdrop for the plants.

Another day we took a 3-mile hike up to the top of Ryan Mountain. It was a mile and a half all up hill with a 1200-foot elevation gain but the views at the top were worth the haul. We could see 360° and it was so clear we could see a long way. The workout felt good.

Ryan Mountain - 5457 ft.

Marker at summit of Ryan Mountain

Gorgeous views

Rocks and sand as far as you can see

A young Joshua Tree

Perfect picture backdrop

Friday, 1/8/10 – Twentynine Palms to Casa Grande, AZ

This morning we hitched up and drove to Casa Grande, AZ, and settled into the Western Horizons resort, Desert Shadows.

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