Morning coffee by Lake Pleasant was peaceful and the view of the water was spectacular. Carol and I got an early start so we could hike before the temperature got too high. We hit the trail early and hiked a couple of miles. We found ourselves down at the waters edge. It was very inviting so off came my shoes and socks. Harper and I played in the shallow water, and it felt like heaven. We hiked a while longer and then packed up and moved on.
Beautiful water..(I look positively stubby)
We took two lane highways west and rejoined I-10 just east of Quartzsite. Quartzsite is apparently the Mecca for RV travelers in the winter time, campsites are everywhere, lots of open free space. It was featured in the movie ‘Nomadsland’, a place for those unfortunate folks living on a thread in their vans and old RVs. We also learned that it has an annual gemstone gathering that draws over a million people. But, on the first of June when the temps are hovering around 108 degrees, it didn’t have the large crowds. We stopped for lunch at the Stagecoach Restaurant, good service, friendly people and Harper ate all the bacon out of my club sandwich. With my permission of course.
We filled the van with diesel, at $3.14 per gallon and headed west toward California, just a dozen or so miles down the road. We crossed at Needles, and the price of diesel jumped to $4.65 - welcome to California. We also had to drive through an agriculture checkpoint where we were just waived through. We stopped at the General Patton Museum, and checked out the tanks in the yard, but we didn’t go in. It didn’t interest Carol and it was way too hot for me to go walking around looking at hot metal tanks in the desert… but maybe if we were here in better weather we would have.
The general
Three more miles down route 10 and we turned into Joshua Tree National Park. It is about a thirty five mile drive through the park with lots of scenic spots and informational signs along the route. We stopped at the Cottonwood Visitor Center and went for a short hike there but it was really hot. One of the things we have to keep an eye on is the bottom of little Harper’s feet..hot sand and tender feet don’t mix. The drive through the park, from south to north was a leisurely drives with stops here and there. This is a barren landscape, at least by New England standards. There is actually a lot of things growing here, just few I recognize. Soon we knew the difference between a cholla and an ocotillo and the famous Joshua Tree. There are actually surprisingly few Joshua Trees here in the park. They all live in one area. I think we drove for about 45 minutes along the drive north before we actually saw a Joshua Tree, and then there were a lot of them.
Entrance on the south side, off route 10
We were heading for the town of Twentynine Palms and an RV park there. Our original plan was to camp in the park but we realized too late that this is not the season to be camping. At night it only cools off to the mid eighties!! Too hot for us to be camping, and I am not running the generator all night, too much noise. So we snuggled in at the RV park, hooked everything up and turned on the air conditioning. I made a Mexican style supper for Carol and I and we watched a bit of Netflix, the Kominsky Method - highly recommended. Asleep early and up early, I got this blog started and Carol did some laundry and we were on the road by nine.
Hummingbird at the Oasis Visitor Center Trail
We stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center and did a nature trail there where we saw bunnies, lizards, horned toads and even a hummingbird. A great walk, but ended up carrying Harper quite a lot. When we returned the ranger was taking the surface temperature, 122 degrees, air temp was 107! We took the same road back through Joshua Tree, heading south this time and driving at a much more reasonable pace.
Doodle in the camping area.
We stopped at every spot and even drove back into the campgrounds. The camp sites were set in amongst the rocks, if it was cooler weather, this would be a great place to camp. Eventually we ended up back on I-10 heading West toward Palm Springs and the Happy Traveler RV Park. We are happy travelers.
That’s a big mountain… and far away.
We crossed one ridge and out before us was what appeared to be a smog filled valley with huge mountains rising up on the other side. I am still unsure if it was smog or maybe just moisture in the air, but it never cleared. We came into a very populated area and ended up taking Bob Hope Avenue straight toward the wall of the mountain then left, then right and so on until we were right at the base of the mountain at the Happy Traveler. We got checked in and set up, had drinks and snacks and here I am writing to you good folks who read these poorly constructed paragraphs. Carol and Harper are napping and I am hoping to get this finished up before supper. The pool is open all night. . . . . .
Below is a gallery from the past couple of days, sorry no captions today.
