Joshua Trees & Rocks Out the Gazoo!!!

7 April 2014--On Friday, the 4th of April, we headed out to a different section of the park, with our 1st stop being at an area called "Key's View".  It overlooks the Coachella Valley from 5200 feet above it, and is the site of the San Andreas Fault, where lots of the earthquakes emanate from .  A park ranger told us about the earth moving in opposite directions here at a rate of about 2 inches a year, and said if you hang around long enough that means that Los Angeles will some day be where San Diego is today.  The movie gives you a bit of a close up of the Fault.

In the 2nd picture here you can see the Santa Rosa Mountains in the background, and that is Mount San Jacinto with the snow on it.  The entire valley is very hazy no matter which direction you look.



You can also see Palm Springs from here, right past the rocky portion of the Fault in the 2nd pic, which is about 20 miles away from where we are standing.



Off for a hike now, to the Lost Horse Mine up in the mountains.



Everything is very desert-y looking here...bland but with patches of green or colorful rock.



The prettiest things here are the occasional and lonesome Yucca you come across.  Blow up the 1st pic here to see how nothing seems to be around for miles except this lone Yucca.  They are actually quite pretty.

 

That is the Lost Mine in the 1st pic, and Cathy is standing in what looks like a structure they built to pipe water in and then hold it behind the mine.  She then went to the very top of the mountain and took the 3rd and 4th pictures here of the valley below her.




What most of our trek looked like.



From the Lost Mine we headed over to the Hidden Valley Trail, a section of the park once used by cattle rustlers and horse thieves to hide and feed their animals.  This is where we entered from, where they blew a hole in the rocks to make way for the animals.



It is hard to believe that as recently as the late 1880s this was "Plush grasslands"...can you believe how much it has dried up in just over 100 years?

 

Pockets of color.



Are the rocks here incredible, or what?!  Both the big and small ones are just amazing to me.




We were driving through the rockiest and most "Joshua Tree-d" part of the park, so we pulled over and climbed a rock in the hope of getting a good angle to take pics and a video where you could see better what we are seeing.  In regular pics the trees seem to get lost in the rocks or something, so check out these ones for the best view of what is seen here for miles and miles.  That is Cathy up on the rock right before I joined her.  Once up there I get going a little faster than I wanted to with the video, but there are spots where you can see pretty good.

And there is Cathy back on the ground while I continue shooting from above.

 

On our way out of the park at the end of the day we pulled over to watch this girl climbing the face of this mountain.  In the 1st pic she is about half way up while the boy on top awaits her arrival.
The 2nd, 3rd and 4th pics almost make me sick to my stomach...look how she is stttrrreeetttcchhing to get her foot across to that crevice!  haha  And then squeezing onto that outcrop of rock...I wouldn't do that if you put a gun to my head!  haha



Because my cousin Donny used to live there for years, and because we have all heard of it from the stars and mobsters who used it as their summer getaway in years long past, Cathy and I took a drive down to Palm Springs on Saturday, the 5th of April.  Although it was only 20 miles as the crow flies from Key's View Overlook, it took us 1 1/2 hours to drive there down very steep roads...which by the way we have to do again tomorrow, but in the RV...UGH!

Anyway, Palm Springs is beautiful!  The weather was probably about 77 degrees and sunny with a light breeze...couldn't be better.  I took a picture of this postcard for Donna and Hallie...look at the golf course you could have been on had you flown in for the weekend ladies!!!  haha  If you like to eat, drink, shop and play golf, this is the place to be!!!




We went all up and down the main strip, with the most entertaining thing being their "walk of fame".  They had the usual suspects there, but I wasn't expecting Tab Hunter, Cheeta, or certainly not a plastic surgeon to be there.  The plastic surgeon cracked me up!!!



Probably more than anything I was surprised by the amount of smog that surrounds the area. There are mountains in all directions, so even with a wind it doesn't seem to blow out the dust, etc. Those are wind turbines in the 2nd pic...they seemed to surround the city also...so it is not for lack of wind that keeps all that stuff trapped in this valley.



We were only in Palm Springs a coupe hours, but I got a sweatshirt so I helped the local economy I guess.  Taking Sunday off to rest and then one more trip into the park on Monday before we leave for the beach.