Today was all about Joshua Tree National Park. We stopped and picked up a sandwich to eat later in the park and then went to the Joshua Tree (town) Visitor Center. This visitor center is in town a few miles outside of the park entrance. After a quick stop there we headed into the park. We kind of had low expectations. We had seen a Joshua Tree forest in the Mojave desert and expected more of the same. What we did not expect was the many very cool rock formations that were easily accessible from picnic areas. The rock formations in the North portion of the park make the trip worthwhile. Many people were scaling the rocks both using easy approaches and using true mountain climbing approaches. Maverick, Donna, and I explored a number of these formations and it was a lot of fun. We continued on to exit the South side of the park. From about the middle of the park to the South we found the park pretty dull and uninteresting. I’m sure some people really like it but it wasn’t for us. At the south entrance there is Cottonwood Springs with a stand of enormous and old palm trees. The springs was very cool. It looks like there is a similar feature near the 29 Palms (north) entrance but due to our route we didn’t see it. If we were to return we would only bother with the path between the Joshua Tree (town) entrance and the 29 Palms entrance. That route would take you by all of the interesting portions without a long tedious drive in the southern portion.
The park namesake, Joshua Tree Cacti and cool rock formations. Note pick-nick table for scale
After the park we decided to go downtown Palm Springs and see the historic shopping area. It was pretty cool and very popular with many restaurants and high end shops. We didn’t feel like fighting the crowds and didn’t have much use for the high end shops so we simply drove by it all. We did drive through one of the older very nice neighborhoods known for the renovated mid-century modern homes. It was neat to see if you like that sort of thing (which we do).
Once through with Palm Springs we went back to the RV resort. We decided to try the mineral hot springs fed swimming pool and hot tub. The pool was beautiful and super relaxing. Very warm and beautifully lit. There weren’t too many people and we regretted not trying it the night before. All in all this is a super nice resort. Unfortunately we plan on moving on tomorrow morning. Why? If we wait any longer we will head to San Diego on the weekend and don’t want to fight the crowds. We could stay here until after the weekend but simply didn’t find enough to make us want to stay 4 more days.