Joshua Tree National Park's Rock Formations

What was the biggest surprise about Joshua Tree National Park was the rock formations. We have some very unique mountains around Tucson. The huge rock piles in Texas Canyon of the Dragoon Mountains (about one hour east of us); the hoodoos on Mount Lemmon (just up the road from us); and the grottos and amazing formations of the Chiracahua Mountains at Chiracahua National Monument (just under two hours from us). But, for some reason I only pictured joshua trees at Joshua Tree National Park. We had just completed our "moderately strenuous" hike to 49 Palms, and it was getting close to dark when we came across these wonderful rock formations above.  The top photo is a rock formation that looks like an elephant to me. The bottom photo is of a rock formation called "skull rock." There is a Skull Rock campground with trail that our daughter Erin and family took a couple of years ago. We wished we had a lot more time exploring these trails. We'll be back!

Joshua Tree National Park

On to Joshua Tree National Park. There is good reason why this is a National Park. It is simply an amazing landscape. As unique in the world as Saguaro National Park or Organ Pipe National Park. The notion that the only place in the entire world where Saguaros grow is in the Sonoran Desert; or Organ Pipe Cactus only in the extreme Sourthwest Arizona; or Joshua Tree only in about 400,000 acres of Southeast California makes these parks very special. But, in addition to the joshua tree, the rock formations take your breath away (more tomorrow about that). We did a hike into 49 palms. This is a hike over a barren mountain (no joshua trees in this part of the park) to get into a small canyon where water exists year round -- along with 49 palm trees. Since there is water it attracts birds and animals. We found big horn sheep scat in several places, yet we came up empty again. There were lots of birds as expected. And the occasional red barrel cactus added a bit of color to the landscape. The hike was exhilarating and the 49 palms oasis worth the exercise. Our drive through the park at dusk gave us wonderful colorful views such as the Joshua Tree (s) above.