This is pretty late coming, but I wanted to share some additional photos from my LA trip back in April. First up is our abbreviated trip to Joshua Tree National Park!
We didn’t really plan to visit a national park when we headed out to California, but Valerie sort of spontaneously brought it up and we went for it. We figured we could have one day where we didn’t spend time with my grandma, but in hindsight we still should have put a little more planning into this side quest. We didn’t really get on the road until 9:30 in Hollywood, so by the time we drove all the way, picked up some groceries for a picnic lunch, and pre-purchased our souvenirs at the main office, it was after 1:00 PM.
With only a few hours to actually explore the park before heading back to the city, we didn’t get to do any proper hiking. We stuck, mostly, to the ring road and pulled off many times to explore some of the otherworldly sights. And you know what? Even a few hours is worth it at Joshua Tree. Every turn seemed to bring a change in geology with mountains shifting from soaring peaks to massive rock piles. The desert grasses and flowers (not many, but they were out there and beautiful!) decorated the otherwise dry and rocky landscape, but the titular Joshua trees certainly were the star of the show. I had always assumed they were more or less the size of a large shrub, but we saw many older plants reaching up over 30 feet at least.
It’s not easy for my family to take the time and cost to visit California, but if I ever get the chance to return I’m building in more intentional time at Joshua Tree. Spending at least a full day there would be easy and worth it.
Oh yeah—we even saw a road runner scurry across the road in front of us on the way out, but I was driving and couldn’t get a photo. Meep meep!