Joshua Tree

Beck and I woke up early enough to sit and drink coffee on 'the stoop' whilst it was still cool enough and watched a comical family of quail make their way across the brush out front. Beck said that the 29 Palms Inn was "a special place." We spent the morning at Joshua Tree National Park, one of the entrances to which is just along the highway. We drove to Cap Rock to see the trees themselves, on to Keys View, for an amazing vista across the desert to the San Jacinto Mountains  and then to the rather colourfully named Hall of Horrors and Skull Rock to clamber over the curiously shaped stones, worn smooth and round by the harsh desert winds. Afterwards we took the Cottonwood Road down onto the desert floor, where it was by now well over a hundred degrees, to wander round the Cholla Cactus Garden. Later on we hopped into town for supplies so that we could split the remainder of the day between picnics on the veranda, downtime by the pool and a cheerfully redneck dinner of chips and fried chicken sat round the cabin table.