Joshua Tree National Park with Luke and Maya

We came this far into the southwest because I wanted to see the Joshua trees. I let my great nephew, Luke, know of our plans in case he and his girlfriend, Maya, might be willing to make the trek from San Diego to see us. Well they were, and yesterday morning they came to the camper.

Luke had been to the National Park, but Maya had not (despite having family in nearby Indio). They said they’d like to do the additional drive to visit the park with us. It was a 45 minute drive to the south entrance to Joshua Tree National Park, the “back door”. From there we drove many more miles through desert, seeing only rocks and bushes, ocotillos and a lot of cholla cactus. Finally we spotted Joshua trees. “They look like yuccas,” said Bud. Later Maya looked up information on them, they are a species of yucca, Yucca brevifolia.

But as we drove further and saw ever larger specimens you could see why they are called trees.

We stopped to hike the Barker Dam Nature Trail, but first we had to find a good specimen for pictures. Joshua trees only grow at higher altitudes. We were above 4,000 feet here and when we stepped out of the truck it was a pleasant 70 degrees.

Maya took a photo so I could be in it. Notice the tree we picked was one that still had some flowers.

I just love the varied shapes they take.

We enjoyed the hike.

Besides the Joshua trees there were a lot of boulders.

We found yellow,

salmon and

maroon prickly pears.

There was also silver cholla in bloom.

Barker dam was where ranchers had added a wall to a natural water catchment in the rocks. There was water in it, which is not always the case.

Recent rains might be why we saw so many different flowers in bloom.

Some were very small.

Some were larger.

Some had interesting shapes.

We enjoyed them all.

Bud remarked there were more flowers than we’d ever seen in the desert.

Maya even spotted another specimen…

for my tree hall of fame. That specimen must be growing in just the idea of soil.

Altogether it was a very satisfying walk.

We very much enjoyed our day with Luke and Maya,

and now I’ve seen the Joshua trees.