One last craft fair and car show at the Golden Village Palms. The park is looking pretty empty and the ducks have taken over one of the swimming pools now that the snowbirds are gone.
Mon – Apr 9
We said goodbye to Diane & Tim and Ron & Sandy today and headed east for the small city called Twentynine Palms.
We want to see more of Joshua Tree National Park and this is the closest spot where we could find an RV park. Originally we thought we would camp at one of the campgrounds in the park but couldn’t find a site that was big enough. So we are at the Twentynine Palms Golf and RV Park in site 99. This is a nice little park and our site has two shade trees which is awesome since it was about 85 degrees when we arrived. We have quail and rabbits running through our site.
There are several stories about how Twentynine Palms got its name. It was originally the Oasis of Mara with a spring and lots of vegetation, including a lot of California fan palm trees. It was used by Native Americans and prospectors as a camping spot and somewhere along the way somebody counted the palm trees and came up with 29. The actual oasis is located near the Visitor Center of Joshua Tree National Park. With the influx of settlers, the water table in this area has dropped so that the park now must irrigate to keep part of the oasis looking like it once did.
Our site #99 in Twentynine Palms RV Resort
Tues – Apr 10
We drove to Joshua Tree National Park and took 6 hours to drive the 34 miles from the eastern Oasis Visitor Center to the western Joshua Tree Visitor Center. The road is paved and not a problem. We just made a lot of stops. The park is huge - 794,000 acres - and we only covered the northwest corner of it!
Joshua Tree blooms
Legend has it that the Mormons named the tree after the biblical figure, Joshua, with the limbs looking like outstretched arms welcoming them to the West.
Although the trees are the main attraction, we found that the unusual rock formations are second. There are piles of huge boulders, most twice the size of a house, everywhere. Some look like faces and some are just strange shapes. Some piles are 10 – 15 stories high or more. This area is very popular with rock climbers and folks who like to do what they call “bouldering” which is climbing without ropes.
They say that instead of the rocks being pushed up out of the earth over time, the dirt actually eroded exposing the rocks. That’s a lot of eroding dirt.
Skull Rock
The Troll?
Cute
Rock eating rock?
Didn't know nephew Ryan had his own campground.
Dot on top of rock is a climber. See the tent at the base of the rock?
Balancing act
Jim sees a face in the white rocks here. Do you?
Split rock - look how massive it is.
Cap Rock - how does it stay there?
Back side of Cap Rock
Literally, between a rock and a hard place.
Keys View 5,185 feet. Highest point in the park. You can actually see the San Andreas fault.
The view above and below is looking West towards Palm Springs and San Jacinto Mountain (top of the tram) where we took pictures looking East in Blog #9. Picture above is of an exhibit; below is the actual photo.
There is so much to see in this park. Most of the campgrounds are at or near 4,000 feet in elevation and clustered around the rock formations. This is primitive camping. Hidden Valley Campground is a legendary cattle rustler’s hideout. The Keys family homesteaded and raised 4 children here in the 1930’s.
There’s also a Fortynine Palms Oasis. Hard to imagine that someone would take the time to actually count 49 palm trees. Why wouldn’t you just round it up to 50?
Wed – Apr 11
We had planned to play golf at the course right next door to the RV park but the winds were blowing about 20 mph with gusts to 35 mph so we worked on this blog instead.
Thurs - Apr 12
Heading for Bakersfield today and slowly north to our rainy home. We forgot to put Joyce's plant up during the night and the rabbits found it.
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