Joshua Tree

Another great National Park visit. We were expecting to see a lot of Joshua Trees, but it was the trails and beautiful rock formations that we loved more than the few Joshua Trees we saw. While there are many Joshua Trees still standing today, apparently the majority were lost to forest fires and ironically vandalism in 2018/19 during the US Government shutdown individuals went in and dug up or cut down several hundred of these trees, it's really sad. None the less this park is till magnificent as the Mojave Desert and its wildlife can be seen everywhere you turn. It's a big National Park with three main entry points, the North, West, and southern entry points require a paid entry pass. You will need to drive through the park and spend at least a day if not more to see and do everything. There are hundreds of trails and it would take weeks to do all of them. We did a 1.5 mile loop in the middle of the park called the Hidden Valley Nature Trail. There is a lookout point at the southern entry of the park which provides an awesome view of the Coachella Valley, the Salton Sea (a future post) and the San Andreas Fault.