Joshua Tree National Park - April 2024

    What a grand spring! Camping in Death Valley with Doug’s son and wife, camping in Joshua Tree with Marilyn's younger son and wife, weekends in Seattle and Davis with our other children and grandchildren.
    We were Marilyn’s son Stephen and wife Jessie’s first stop back in California after 8 months touring the country in their Toyota Tacoma (with my favorite bumper sticker "Make Tacos Not War").  

Joshua trees & rocks, the definition of Joshua Tree NP.

Wildflowers were abundant en route and in the park.

   

Small Leaf Globemallow. Desert Dandelion.

Notch-leaf Scorpion Weed, here & below.

  

    Joshua Tree is my favorite place. As we drove through it on Park Blvd that late-April Sunday, Doug kept exclaiming, "I love this place!" I smiled.

Joshua Tree forest.

We've camped & hiked in Joshua Tree many times, here in our trusty VW bus at Jumbo Rocks Campground, 2015.

"Mz Agnes," our previous van, a PleasureWay Ford Traverse Poptop, White Tank Campground, 2018.

      I'd reserved a site at large Jumbo Rocks Campground because Joshua Tree has become so popular but suggested we go straight to White Tank —maybe we’d get lucky. It’s our favorite campground but small, only 15 sites, and first-come-first-serve. 

    Coming out of the outhouse at White Tank, I saw a Tacoma! Stephen and Jessie had just arrived from Scottsdale! 

Purple: our route. Red: Stephen & Jessie's route.

We walked up the road and found that the campground, to our amazement, was all but empty! 

We set up on facing sites.

Tacoma top popped & awning out, ready to relax.

We enjoyed cool quiet mornings...

Ah—morning in the desert.

Coffee! Doug & Stephen.

6:00 AM

 

...and awing sunsets.

That peaceful, easy feeling,...

The sun, the rocks, the people.

We found shade when it was hot.

Stephen's perfect spot out of the sun.

Steve & Jessie have a great 270° awning.

Tacoma tailgate provides seating & cooking space, which Chef Stephen used to prepare delicious meals for us. 

Tacoma communes with Joshua Tree rocks.

We headed out on the trails near the campground.

There are easy trails from White Tank.

Arch Rock.

Back of Arch Rock.

Stephen at Arch Rock.

Lots of other rocks & rock formations.

Confab.

Quarrell.

We got in some tight spots.

Doug  between rocks.

Stephen in a tighter spot.

Jessie in a daring tight spot!

We found White Tank dam.

Stephen at concrete White Tank dam.

Jessie looking over the dam.

A tank is a depression that has been dammed with a concrete wall between boulders to make a reservoir. There are 2 near White Tank Campground: White Tank and Grand Tank.

Aerial view of White Tank Campground, White Tank, & Grand Tank.

Doug at Heart Rock...

...& Jessie at Heart Rock!

White Tank area.

Looking south from our site.

We checked out other spots in the park.

The Cholla Garden south of White Tank on Pinto Basin Rd.

The Teddy Bear Cholla were in bloom!

    Unfortunatley Stephen went off the Cholla Garden path to take a photo for some folks, and a cholla spike went through his Crocs. Fortunately his foot was spared. He went back to the truck and traded Crocs for boots. They don't call it Flying Cholla for nothing!

The Cholla Garden is mostly Teddy Bear Cholla, but don't try to hug them—their spikes are fierce!

Cholla blooms look loaded with seed potential, yet propagation is mainly through pieces that break off & fall to the ground.

Cholla propagate "vegetatively"—from fallen stem joints.

Jessie examining dead cholla branch.

Dead cholla limb.

Cactus Wren build their nests among cholla branches. Pack rats live inside dead branches.

   

Creosote bushes grow among the cholla, unusual as creosote is toxic to most plants. Beautiful flower for a toxic plant.

Cholla love.

Doug cum cholla.

  

Stephen up close with a Schott's Indigo Bush, which has small indigo-colored flowers.

Beaver Tail Prickly Pear Cactus among all the cholla.

Further south on Pinto Basin Rd is the Ocotillo Patch.

Stephen & Doug among the ocotillo. We'd never seen so many ocotillo together—and in bloom—as in the Ocotillo Patch.

    

Fallen ocotillo.

Jessie, Marilyn, Stephen.

Following Stephen & Jessie on Park Blvd through the Joshua Tree forest.

Keys View: Palm Springs, Coachella Valley, Little San Bernardino Mts, Santa Rosa Mts, & San Andreas Fault.

After Keys View, we stopped at Cap Rock to pay homage to Graham Parsons, then walked Hidden Valley Nature Trail.

Photographing Doug photographing rocks.

Standoff?

Lines running up the rocks are dikes.

Dikes are sheets of rock that form in fractures of other rocks. They can be easy to spot as they run at an angle to the other rock and are a different color and texture.

Who's looking at you?

We didn't see much fauna, a couple of rabbits,...

...a snake Doug investigated for a French family, fortunately, nonpoisonous,...

 

...& a lizard sunning.

Stephen was sunning, too.

There was a plethora of flora to check out.

Jessie & Doug discussing flora.

 

The Joshua Tree flowers were past their prime. On right, Joshua Tree bloom opening.

Joshua trees.

Jessie studying fallen Joshua tree.

Globemallow nestled in rocks.

 

Claret Cup Cactus.

     

White Layia Tidy Tips.  Ambrosia dumosa—White Burro Sage.

  

Califoria Chia.

  

Hoary Aster.

"Telephone Pole Joshua Tree," according to Doug.

     

Street signs in Twentynine Palms are Pink.

 

Brittlebush.

   

Pincushion.       Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus.

    

Wallace's Wooly Sunflower.

   

Pencil Cholla is very spiky. Tips of branches are tinged red.

  

Chia & Wallace's Wooly Sunflower.   Mormon Tea.

  

Brown-eyed Primrose.

A full moon lit our last night.

Jessie.

Stephen & Jessie.

Full moon, Tacoma aglow, 9:00 PM.

In the morning, it was time to part ways.

So long for now, Joshua Tree.

Stephen & Jessie found a cooler clime in the San Bernardino Mts.

We returned home via Tehachapi...

...to home in the San Joaquin Valley.

Note: I love taking plant photos and trying to ID them. My labels should be taken with a grain of salt—there are so many similar flowers!