As was becoming typical on this trip we woke up well before 7am. I don’t know if it is not adjusting to the new time zone (three hours earlier), or being used to cats gently (and not so gently) prodding us to get up and feed them, or what, but it happened every morning. In this case, however, it was likely due to the morning light shining through the yurt’s skylight (through which we could see stars last night) and landing on the bed.
The yurt was very comfortable. The bed was soft (though a footboard kind of cramped me a little) and directly below the skylight was a bean bag-like chair that could unzip into a bed. The wood throughout had beautiful designs and there were prayer flags over the entrance door and a beautiful blue cloth over the headboard. There was a sink in the room with potable water as well as an air conditioner, dresser, and a few tables. The floor was concrete and there didn’t seem to be any gaps between the tent’s canvas and the slab that could let critters in so that was good.
We got up, packed, and took our outdoor showers. The shower was nice, all things considered, and had privacy screening. I couldn’t help thinking, however, that surely some desert critters would like to come get some of the water that dripped off the edges of the concrete pad. Luckily none were seen! At 9:30am we hit the road and stopped at John’s Place on CA-62 around 10am for breakfast. It was a traditional American diner and quite good. Michelle had French toast, eggs over medium, and bacon. I had chicken fried steak (with white gravy!), eggs over medium, and hashbrowns. Additionally, we had a side of biscuits and gravy and unsweetened tea. All great!
Satiated, we headed west to the town of Joshua Tree and the National Park Visitor Center there, arriving around 11am. It was small but there were some nice shirts and magnets as well as a few displays talking in particular about the music connection. The Joshua Tree on the back of U2’s album of the same name was just outside the east boundary of Death Valley National Park — we probably drove right past it — and a post-Led Zeppelin Robert Plant allegedly fell for a lady from Twentynine Palms. Allegedly his 1993 song “29 Palms” is about that time.
We then drove south a few miles through an area of nice homes to the actual entrance of the park and upgraded our entrance pass from Death Valley National Park to an Annual Pass. Though it wouldn’t quite pay for itself with Joshua Tree National Park it’d start saving us money with our next one (provided we visit before July — I suspect we will). As we had other plans for the day we turned around and back the way we came, this time seeing a coyote in the middle of the road!
Back in Joshua Tree we headed west on CA-62 a short distance to Yucca Valley then turned on to some pretty roads through desert canyons to Pioneertown, a small village and still active Western set, arriving right at High Noon. In its heyday in the 40s and 50s many TV Westerns were filmed there like Cisco Kid and Gene Autry’s show. Now it is more often used for music videos and the odd movie. Braving the heat we parked the car and walked onto the main thoroughfare. On either side were Western-looking buildings like stables, a saloon, etc. They had legitimate businesses in them like pottery, gifts, clothing, etc. as well as a tiny “Film Museum”. Sadly the main store that Michelle wanted to check out was closed. We did end up buying a magnet and a metal Joshua tree so that was nice.
As were getting a little hungry we ended up eating at The Red Dog Saloon. I ordered a tea for Michelle and myself a ginger beer. The tea wasn’t really drinkable and the ginger beer definitely wasn’t what I expected (and may not have been). We also ordered some chips and queso with carnitas. That serving size was tiny. To say we weren’t impressed is an understatement. Oh well.
We hopped back in the car and headed down CA-62 through the Morongo Valley (including a quite steep and windy stretch that was very much like Old Fort) until we hit I-10. We went west on that until we saw the giant green T-Rex and Brontosaurus in Cabazon around 1:45pm. We entered the rear of the Brontosaurus and climbed a flight of stairs to the cool gift shop within. They hadn’t any magnets! The sales lady, however, was great and we enjoyed the dioramas of dinosaur eggs and the ancestors of Man that lined the edges. One could pay to go up into the head of the T-Rex but it looked like quite the climb and cramped so we passed. There was also an attached “dinosaur park” with animatronic dinosaurs notable mainly for being in one of Pee-Wee Herman’s movies. We passed on visiting that as well, hitting the road and heading east on I-10 around 2pm.
As there was a traffic jam on I-10 we diverted onto CA-111 and entered Palm Springs. Rich people and golf courses. We hopped back onto I-10 past the traffic jam and got back off near Thousand Palms where we drove past the oases at Coachella Valley Preserve. Sadly they were closed but I was able to take a few pictures. We headed back to I-10 and headed east to the south entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. Traffic was pretty congested but moving along, the main issue is that there was a fairly gradual but very long climb and the trucks (and there were lots of them!) couldn’t maintain speed. We eventually got off at exit 168 and turned north into the park via Cottonwood Springs Rd. around 4pm.
The southern and eastern part of the park is at a much lower elevation than the northern and western part. Consequently, the park straddles both the Colorado Desert at the lower elevations and the Mojave Desert at the higher. The Colorado Desert supports very different flora from the Mojave — nary a Joshua tree to be seen but a number of yucca, cholla (a small very fuzzy light green cactus), and ocotillo (a deciduous tree that sprouts leaves when it rains rather than by season and resembles multiple tall (6’+) spindly branches attached at the base).
We visited the Cottonwood Visitor Center just as it was closing but availed ourselves on their clean facilities. The rangers were having issues locking the main door and even set off the alarm, haha! In this part of the park evidence the ancient Pinto Culture dating back to 9,000 years ago was found in the 1930s. The terrain was quite dry and marked by expansive washes from flash floods. The hills resembled more piles of small rocks than slabs of granite.
Farther along we came to the Cholla Cactus Garden around 5pm, an area of nearly 170,000 cholla cacti. It was quite beautiful and I got out to take pictures. Unfortunately when I returned there were hundreds of yellow jackets and bees swarming under our car (and the other car — the park was not crowded). They were attracted by the shade and the puddles of condensation from the cars’ AC. I wasn’t able to enter the car but rather had Michelle meet me a hundred feet away in the parking lot, evading most of the bees. Yay!
In addition to natural sights there were some ruins of old mines. We continued north and gained elevation, entering the Mojave Desert. Joshua trees started to appear and the rocks went from dark-brown and block small boulders to light tan large lumpy boulders. We exited the park in Twentynine Palms and drove to the adjacent 29 Palms Inn, arriving around 8:45pm. The inn was built in 1928 and consisted of a retro lobby area with an attached courtyard pool with brightly colored walls and beyond that a bar / dining room area. The rooms consisted of separate buildings of two or three rooms apiece, some backing up to the park and others to the Oasis of Mara that ran through the property.
We had a pleasant chat with the guy in the lobby, Malcolm. He had lived in Jacksonville, NC as his was a military family (and Twentynine Palms itself is near a very large Marines training base). He recommended some restaurants and directed us to our room. Our room was Buffalo Burr, in a building with two other rooms at the edge of the park. It had its own private courtyard, a bedroom, a small hall, and a bathroom. It was quite nice with a old red ceramic tile floor.
We unpacked and relaxed until about 7:30pm then, as we were getting hungry, headed to The Rib Co. A family owned barbecue restaurant (recommended highly by Malcolm) we knew we were in for a treat as soon as we got out of the car and sniffed the air. The cook had a giant barbecue in front of the restaurant upon which he was cooking everyone’s meat. We went inside and ordered. We both had tea. After some corn muffins Michelle had a huge Cobb salad and I had a ribeye with mashed potatoes and a dinner salad. Though a little pricey the service and food were both excellent. We headed back to the room around 9pm and lounged around before heading to bed.
