Joshua Tree National Park

After breakfast we set off to drive to Joshua Tree National Park. On the way we stopped to get coffees from Adam's favourite coffee place in Del Mar, Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, which ended up being a much longer stop than anticipated as there was such a long queue for coffees. We decided to drive the scenic route through the mountains to Palm Springs. Luke is doing all the driving so Gavin is enjoying relaxing and enjoying the scenery.

When we left San Diego it was about 18C, warming up to 20C today. It has been much cooler than anticipated but a staff member at the hotel said that it is what is known as the May June Gloom, when it is cool due to early morning mists off the sea. The drive over the mountains through the Mojave desert was very interesting with a winding mountain pass, and it got warmer and warmer, reaching 37C by the time we arrived in Palm Springs. Palm Springs is in the middle of the desert and nowadays is a popular place for wealthy people to retire. It used to be a stipulation that Hollywood stars must be within 2 hours of production at all times, so that rule made Palm Springs a popular destination for these stars to live. It has very wide streets lined with palm trees and very different looking houses, all low one story houses in what is called mid century modern architecture. It is an unusual place but at the same time surreal in a Stepford wives kind of way, everything shiny and new, the antithesis of European culture. We came to the conclusion that this place is best described as a dystopian utopia! We drove through the suburbs admiring the houses, seeing Marilyn Monroe’s house and Elvis Presley’s honeymoon house. There were other people also visiting these houses, men dressed in Elvis style clothing and women in Marilyn Monroe dresses. In extras you will see the large statue of Norma Jean that is part of a collection of sculptures around the town.

We continued on to Joshua Tree National Park where we are staying for one night just outside the park - there is no accommodation within the park unless you camp. We were going to stay in Airstreams in an AutoCamp but they were a bit small for all of us so we are staying in a cabins instead. It was all a little disorganised there - despite check in being at 4pm Adam's room wasn't ready until 6.30pm, they had run out of BBQ pack dinners so the boys had some very greasy burgers instead that took forever to arrive, both their beer on tap machines were broken - dinner was a haphazard affair and so we were late going into the park for the sunset. We did see a lovely sunset and I did take photographs, but the viewpoint was not the best so I don't like my photos of the sunset. After sunset when we were driving back to our cabins I preferred this image of the Joshua Trees silhouetted against the sunset. The national park is lovely with large boulders and rock formations that reminded us of Spitzkoppe in Namibia, we have enjoyed its desert beauty very much.

Tomorrow we are driving back to San Diego, Adam needs to be back by the afternoon for a work meeting.