Joshua Tree 2-19-2020

We depart from Palm Desert this morning headed west on Hwy 10 to the junction of Hwy 62 then on to Joshua Tree National Park. We are traveling this route because Joshua Tree Lake RV is off of Hwy 62. There is a park entrance on the Palm Desert side but we wanted to get to the RV site and settle in first. Traveling down Hwy 62 we pass through the towns of Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree, these communities are surprisingly vibrant although you can tell they are mostly driven by tourism. Twenty Palms is just a short distance down the road and known for its Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center and extreme hot dry weather. It’s sunny today and in the mid 60’s, it is sunny most of the year but, can get down to freezing in December and January. Joshua Tree Lake RV is a very interesting place that offers a pond for fishing and another whole area for festivals of all kinds, it definitely stirs the hippie in me. All the RV spaces and road are packed sand and they do meticulously maintain them with water trucks and graders. We get settled and then head to the Joshua Tree National Park, we are so glad to have our life time senior park pass, free entrance to National Parks is good thing. The Covid 19 virus looks like its spreading quickly but, every where we have gone no one seems concerned. We get a few hikes in before dark and find the park amazing. It’s hard to believe pioneers would work and live in this desolate country. The rusting auto shows you what happens when you get off the trail. The Joshua Tree looks more like a cactus than a tree, they can live from 150 years to a 1,000 years and are kin to the agave and asparagus. On our way back home we bought a new RV with free graffiti, what a deal. I’m sure there is a story about this one.