California

New Years Day came and went along with our intended departure. Unforeseen delays had us settling down in the Walmart car park for the night waiting for the world of commerce and trade to open up the next day.

After waking to 28 F (-2 C), a chilly morning by Pleasanton standards, we concluded our outstanding business and finally started our “Coast to Coast” road trip.

We endured a couple of noisy nights in rest stops. One planned and the other forced after driving Dude high up into the San Bernardino Mountains on a road that promised a campground. We gave up searching when Dude started skating around on the icy road only feet away from a precarious cliff.

We successfully skirted the urban sprawl of the greater LA area and took the first opportunity to exit Interstate 10 for a more leisurely paced drive into Joshua Tree NP.

Joshua Tree NP

The Park surprised us with how quickly the barren desert terrain changed. At first we were surrounded by Joshua Tree covered hillsides with canyons hiding beautiful oasis's of Palms. Then the further we explored the park we encountered boulder strewn landscapes that resulted in the campgrounds being full with eager rock climbers.

Californian Fan Palms

Boulder landscape

The air was chilly but when the wind picked up it was frigid and our faces and fingers, if left uncovered, would begin to freeze. 

Each day we ventured out on a desert hike to explore mountain peaks and canyons of varying terrain and features.

Mastodon Peak

Ocotillo Cactus

Mastodon Peak

On one of our hikes to a mine site we had to take shelter behind a rock wall and sip some coffee from our thermos just to keep warm. Then instead of completing our intended loop we hightailed it the shortest route back camp.

Soaking up the sun's rays

We rode our bikes to some of the trail heads all rugged up to protect ourselves from the chilly morning air.

Eureka Peak, Black Rock Canyon

Jumbo Rock Camp Ground

We came across a wily Coyote circling the perimeter of a campground and inspired to capture our wildlife moment we hastily tried to take his photo but ended up with lots of photos of the grass....! 

Coyote too wily for me....

John was also inspired one night to capture the silhouette of the Joshua Trees against the star filled sky

Joshua Tree and Orion's Belt

One morning I jumped out of bed to capture the blaze of colour as the sun rose but by the time I got outside it had already began to fade.

A blaze of colour in the morning,..

Then on our last morning I woke up to a snowy wonderland and excitedly jumped out of bed to capture it before it disappeared.

A snowy moment

Wandering  through the Cholla Cactus Garden

Cholla Cactus

It’s no wonder it took us over a week before we were ready to move on…..

Teddy Bear Cholla