Joshua Tree

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Brenda I and I had a wonderful time at Joshua Tree National Park in mid December. We stayed at the classic funky, comfortable 1950 era motel in 29 Palms right outside the park, and every day we walked about 10 or 12 miles for 5 days. The weather was superb, warm by day, cold at night, with clear blue skies to greet us every morning. We did a combination of new and old hikes and enjoyed every step. Our friends Max and Jean from the area took us on a nice hike on property owned by the Wildlands Conservancy, who are working hard at saving 100's of thousands of acres of desert land. The population is rapidly growing in the southern deserts, and they want to conserve as much as possible. The area around Victorville and Apple Valley, only a few years ago was nothing but mesquite flats, now filled with endless malls and housing tracts, and this in a place with little of its own water and temps in the 100's all summer.

But Joshua tree NP is a wonder of a desert. I invite you to look at pictures from a few years ago during the spring bloom and pics of our recent trip.

Dec 09 album
http://picasaweb.google.com/nichols70/JoshuaTreeDec09123009738PM#

Spring trip 08 includes J Tree, Tucson, New Mexico and Texas deserts.
http://picasaweb.google.com/nichols70/DesertSpring08#