California experiences a phenomenon of which we were unaware and that has been unusually prevalent this summer apparently. Colloquially known as May Gray or June Gloom is the Marine Layer which basically results in an overcast day, blocking the sun and making it cooler. It came as a big surprise to us as we always imagined bright sunny days with clear blue skies whenever we thought about a Californian summer. It didn’t bother us unduly as we experience plenty of sunshine at home, but it did make our trips to Nevada, Arizona and Joshua Tree even more of a contrast as it was sunny all the time. We were fortunate to have a couple of sunny breaks down on the coast on occasion so we did get to experience the Californian sunshine then too.
Our trip to Joshua Tree National Park was, like our other road trips to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Sedona, extremely memorable and enjoyable. We saw snow-capped mountains in the distance and we passed by these huge wind farms located beside the highway that seemed to stretch for miles and were located in a very windy corridor which of course made sense!
We stayed not all that far from the National Park in a lovely Air BnB located on a hill with a bit of elevation and a afforded us a great view of the surrounding hills and mountains. We arrived at dusk and delighted in hearing the calls of the Gambel’s quail and then spotting them in the vegetation. The hills were lit with a pinky glow from the setting sun and the heat of the day disappears fast in the desert, but it was such a lovely evening, we sat outside for a while eating dinner and listening to the sounds of the night, hoping we might hear a coyote call but it was not to be. We did however hear some on the morning we checked out and they made a great racket!
We rose before the sun to sit outside with our cuppas to look at the local wildlife. We saw very shy and skittish Jack Rabbits with their extremely long ears, local lizards and even some humming birds which are very hard to photograph as they are so tiny and don’t stay still for long! A cheeky little squirrel would scamper about at the top of a pile of rocks outside the kitchen window but always duck away when I moved outside to take a photo. He would pop his head up briefly from time to time, but then duck down again. Not as tame as the little guys who live down at La Jolla who practically posed for me 😀
Joshua Tree National Park is hard to adequately describe but it is almost other-worldly. As you drive along the roads into the park, you notice of course the Joshua Trees and the amazing rock formations, or piles of rocks and boulders which is what they look like, some small, some immense, different shapes and sizes as well as colour, and are quite incredible. Needless to say, it was hot and there wasn't too many places for shade. It's a dry heat, rather than the humidity we are used to, and drinking enough water is a big priority. I don't like wearing a hat and actually left mine at home, but my son gave me one to borrow and I really needed it and did not care one jot what I looked like! We enjoyed scrambling up some different rock formations and apparently some people visit the region to do a certain type of rock climbing where they hang from the underside of the rocks. We saw them carrying their foam mattresses under their arms. Not for me, but each to their own 🙂
There is a type of lizard that calls Joshua Tree home, the Chuckwalla, of which we saw quite a few and they were an array of colour and size, and we spent time capturing them on film sunning themselves on the rocks on our two days of exploring. We saw other types of desert lizards as well, plus a cheeky squirrel or two. The vegetation includes the Joshua Trees, which had just finished flowering, and also Cholla’s which is a type of cactus and has beautiful yellow flowers, as well as pretty, hardy wildflowers. Unfortunately, despite my son’s warning, I got a little too close while walking around to get a close-up of a flowering prickly pear cactus and ended up with little spikes all over my socks. My encounter resulted in an angry red rash which hasn't disappeared yet. Lesson learned!
We stayed in the park until moonrise and saw the sun slip below the mountains in the distance. We scrambled up a couple of piles of rocks to assess the best vantage point for sunset but in the end settled for ground level to get the silhouette of the Joshua Trees in the foreground. We saw the full moon rise but didn’t hang around long as we were tired and hungry by then and didn’t have the really long range lenses needed for great photos of the moon. It looked amazing though as it came up from behind the hills against the purple blue sky.
We did some more exploring on different trails next day, saw more lizards and visited The Cholla Garden as well as the Ocotillo Garden before heading back to Irvine.
It was a great experience visiting the desert and once again we were so grateful for our knowledgeable guides in Dean and Jo.