Left Death Valley southwest to Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve. The joshua tree only grows at higher desert elevations in this part of the country; it is a member of the lily family; Marlene is standing next to a rather large example above. The rocks here are monzogranite and pinto gneiss (very old); they form interesting formations that basically look like rubble, but are fun to climb.
Another desert cactus Marlene took a picture of. High season for wildflowers and blooms.
Many tried to tame the Joshua Tree area and failed. One ingenious conqueror was Bill Keyes, who, with his wife, from the early to mid 1900's raised a family here on a working cattle ranch and lived to age 89. Very clever guy, accumulated all he could from the homesteaders who abandoned their land, created all kinds of machines, gadgets, built this one room school house for his and other local kids to be educated; he and his wife were amazing creative survivors. Wonderful tour of his ranch with a park ranger.
Further north, in the Mojave desert, another bed of salt, though not at below sea level such as Death Valley, and much more vegetation outside of the salt beds.
Just outside of Mojave, the remains of the Amboy volcano crater, a recently created volcano cone (6000 years ago) in this area; you can hike to the edge of the crater, but we did not.
Lastly, we crossed famous Rte 66, the major highway between Chicago and LA until the US Interstate was developed. This diner/cafe is an often used setting for movies with the need for 1950's local color. You may not be able to see it well, the police car in the picture was in perfect shape.
Left Death Valley southwest to Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve. The joshua tree only grows at higher desert elevations in this part of the country; it is a member of the lily family; Marlene is standing next to a rather large example above. The rocks here are monzogranite and pinto gneiss (very old); they form interesting formations that basically look like rubble, but are fun to climb.
Another desert cactus Marlene took a picture of. High season for wildflowers and blooms.
Many tried to tame the Joshua Tree area and failed. One ingenious conqueror was Bill Keyes, who, with his wife, from the early to mid 1900's raised a family here on a working cattle ranch and lived to age 89. Very clever guy, accumulated all he could from the homesteaders who abandoned their land, created all kinds of machines, gadgets, built this one room school house for his and other local kids to be educated; he and his wife were amazing creative survivors. Wonderful tour of his ranch with a park ranger.
Further north, in the Mojave desert, another bed of salt, though not at below sea level such as Death Valley, and much more vegetation outside of the salt beds.
Just outside of Mojave, the remains of the Amboy volcano crater, a recently created volcano cone (6000 years ago) in this area; you can hike to the edge of the crater, but we did not.
Lastly, we crossed famous Rte 66, the major highway between Chicago and LA until the US Interstate was developed. This diner/cafe is an often used setting for movies with the need for 1950's local color. You may not be able to see it well, the police car in the picture was in perfect shape.
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