We woke a bit late and were worried we’d miss breakfast. I walked to breakfast around 9:50am and, yep, missed it. As the inn was largely empty and there hadn’t been anyone to breakfast for an hour or more they had put up the food a little ahead of 10am, the normal end of breakfast. We took the opportunity to go to a new place, Cactus Trails Cafe in Twentynine Palms, around 10:30am. Michelle had bacon and fried eggs over medium with peaches and toast as did I (with hashbrowns instead of peaches) and we shared a large side of… chipped beef and gravy (S.O.S.)! We’d never seen it in a restaurant and just had to try it. Very tasty!
Leaving breakfast around 11:30am we drove the Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center in Twentynine Palms that focused on the culture of the the various tribes that called the park home. It was informative though the people staffing it were a bit grumpy. Around 12:15pm we headed to 7-11 to fuel up and buy four liters of water for the day. We entered the park and instead of going straight toward the Cottonwood Springs (south) entrance we turned right onto the loop road.
Along the way we made several stops, of course. The loop was entirely in the Mojave Desert, which is higher, so the lots of Joshua trees. Also the rocks were the tan lumpy variety more often than not. We saw a rock called Skull Rock which I guess vaguely resembled a skull. I took a picture of a mother and her teenage son as they were awkwardly trying to prop their phone and set a timer. There were also quite a few rocks used by climbers that had amusing route names like “A Cheap Way to Die” and “Right On”.
We went through Sheep Pass but alas no sheep were to be seen. I took some pictures of larger Joshua trees as we approached the Joshua Tree entrance of the park, taking a U-turn and going back the way we came on the loop road towards Twentynine Palms. Along the way we took the road up to Keys View, arriving around 3:30pm. Like Dantes View it was a bit higher in elevation and brought a welcome drop in temperature and a nice breeze. After a short walk a vantage point afforded views of Palm Springs, the Indio area, and the northern part of the Salton Sea. Unfortunately the bees were here as well but I was able to avoid them for the most part thankfully.
Back to the road we completed the loop and exited at the Twentynine Palms entrance. As we were getting hungry we decided to go straight to dinner rather than back to the room and risk falling asleep and not getting out in time to get a decent dinner. We decided on pizza at another restaurant that Malcolm had recommended — Rocky’s New York Style Pizza — around 4:45pm.
Michelle had a barbecue chicken, bacon, and pineapple pizza with tea while I had a garbage pizza with root beer. While the crust was OK the rest of the pizza was really great. Toward the end of our meal a couple of members of a band were practicing and decided to do America’s “A Horse With No Name” including the “plants and rocks and things” line. Just perfect given the setting just outside Joshua Tree National Park.
After dinner we headed to Cold Stone Creamery as I’d been craving some coffee ice cream. I had that while Michelle had a double dark chocolate in a cone. Returning back to our room Michelle relaxed while I walked around the inn’s grounds and took some pictures and enjoyed the sunset.
