Joshua Tree National Park

(Me posing with a nice Joshua Tree) It made sense when we planned it but traveling through Arizona and eastern California in early July was probably not the best idea. But we had a car to pick up and since Bill just finished school, it was time to get it done. But it was a hot trip, the entire way! Stop #1 on our road trip from Phoenix to Corvallis, OR was Joshua Tree National Park, just across the border between Arizona and CA.

We were able to drive through the park on our way to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park and I was glad we picked this route, this park was surreal and amazing. I would love to go back in the winter or early spring because it was too hot for us to be out of the air conditioned car for more than 5 minutes. I think the temps were 114 here which felt like I was standing in an oven, way too hot for this white girl, which was unfortunate, there is a lot to explore here. The park has a diverse ecosystem with smaller Yuccas in the east and the larger Joshua trees to the west. There are gigantic alien looking rocks that seemed to have been plopped down in random places and nice hills throughout the park. I think camping and hiking here under better conditions would be completely excellent, you could take some amazing photos at dawn and dusk.

This is one of those unique places in the US that you have to see to believe, I hope you can make it there someday if you haven't already. Just don't go in July like we did, I'm sure you're smarter than us anyway so I'm not worried about it. We had a great trip despite the heat, I can't wait to load all of our photos, you can see them in my Picassa album as I get them loaded. Up next: a drive through the Sierras and into bear country. And yes, I saw a bear, a mother with it's cub and yes I got the hell out of there... more later!

p.s. our new Jeep is way too nice for us to be rolling around in. We're still on the poor college student budget and all of the sudden we have a nice SUV with all the amenities. Bill is already having a love affair with the navigation system, he named her Lindsey after a town in CA when she found a faster route for us. I was a little jealous, I had been studying the map for hours trying to figure out where we were and Lindsey worked it out in seconds. I guess I'll get over it but I'm going to keep an eye out for her. Getting this Jeep is a twist of good fortune for us and we are very VERY VEEERRRRRYYY appreciative. Thank you parents!