Jan 28, 2020 Joshua Tree National Park

On Monday, we left Phoenix and continued to head further west.  We changed plans a bit and went to Joshua Tree NP and made a couple of stops before driving 40 miles to the northern entrance, planning to return the next morning.

 This is a Cholla (pronounced Choy uh) Cactus.  It may look nice but it is very dangerous.  If you contact the needles, they will easily stick into your clothes or skin and are not easy to get out.

 Grammie may look like she is covered but she was careful.

 The park is a desert but there are mountains around and some of the smaller ones are piles of boulders.

 One of the tourist spots is the Skull Rock.

 Grammie having fun.

 The next morning, we were having breakfast and there was a picture of a local artist that had done some sculptures.  For the last 10 years of his life,  Antone Martin had created sculptures.  They are made of steel reinforced concrete that weigh from 4 to 16 tons each.

 Although not common to the Joshua Tree NP this Rosemary was found growing in Antone's sculpture park.

 The Joshua Tree is really unique.  It must be damaged to reproduce, needs a moth to create seeds, helps to feed birds and becomes a house for insects and reptiles after it dies.  It is also known as the Tree of Life.

 Many of the Joshua Trees were small but generally from 10 to 30 feet high.

This was one of the larger ones that we saw.

 

  About 65 degrees today and still some leftover ice in southern California.

 There is a large rock in the park that is used to practice rock climbing.

Grampy even did some rock climbing today.

 A wide angle view of the piles of rocks.

 There are areas in the park where there are many trees but they are not too close together because the water supply could not support them.

 The seed pods grow at the top of the stems

Thanks for keeping a lookout for Grammie.