Day 55 - The Mojave Desert

We left 29 palms and the Joshua Tree NP early to cross the Mojave Desert on our way to Las Vegas, NV. We drove straight through the desert for 4 hours. It was not that hot and the desert was green for a lot of the way since a hurricane 2 weeks earlier dropped 5 to 8 inches of rain on it. There were several different types of terrain. We went over mountains, through washes, through basins and salt flats, past desert sands and drove on a portion of the old Route 66.

Long and straight road through the desert

Black mountains in the desert

Miles and miles of barren desert

A long train crossing the desert floor

Evidence of volcanoes

Multicolored mountains

Day 54 - Joshua Tree National Park

We left Ali and Dave at about 8AM and began our drive to Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree National Park. We stopped in Riverside for breakfast and arrived just before noon at our campground. We kinda skipped lunch and went directly to the National Park after registering for our enening campsite. On the way to Twentynine Palms we passed through an area of wind farms and took a few pictures. It was just about the most wind turbines we had ever seen. The entire valley floor and all the mountain ridges were dotted with generators. California is pretty serious about alternative energy and this place proved that to us.

Joshua Tree NP was, as usual, a great sight. We drove to a high point to view the Palm Springs Valley floor, the Sultan Sea and the San Andreas Fault. The trees looked more like tall cactus to me. They are unique to the Mojave desert. The ridge line in the middle of the valley photo is the San Andreas Fault. We were glad that we were on the east side of the fault just in case it decided to give way.

Video of the drive through the trees
Driving through Joshua Tree NP

A panorama of the valley from the mountain top

San Andreas Fault across the center of this photo

A Joshua Tree Named by the Mormons on their way to California. They thought that the trees looked like Joshua in the Bible.

Joshua Trees (Don't they look like Cactus)

Lucy and Cooper liked this place

2.5 million Joshua tree in the park.

Huge granite rocks

Skull Rock

Day 52 & 53 - Weekend with Ali and Dave in L.A.

No pictures but we had a wonderful 2 days with Ali and Dave. We went out to eat 3 times and the Sunday night dinner was perfect. We went to the best restaurant in LA and joined Ali & Dave's friends that they had just completed vacationing with in Spain for 2 weeks.

Day 51 - Soledad Canyon

We lest San Clemente about 10AM and headed north to LA and Soledad Canyon Campground. The drive was about 3 hours. As we passed LA and headed for the Los Angeles mountains we noticed that the landscape had changed to desert and we thought that we were in for another hot day and evening. A pleasant surprise when we arrived at Soledad Canyon. It was a green oasis and a very nice camping area. We had booked 3 nights there but we changed to one night after Ali and Dave invited us to stay with them for the weekend. We packed up on Saturday morning and headed for Hollywood to spend 2 days with them.

Day 49 & 50 - San Clemente State Campground

We spend 2 more days at San Clemente State Beach Campground. It is a nice area close to the water. We have to dry camp ( no electricity, water or sewer) here but that is no problem for us as we are self sufficient and contained. we spent most of day 49 with Jackie's childhood girlfriend from across the street in Acushnet. She has a beautiful home up on a hill overlooking Dana Point. She took us to lunch on the pier at San Clemente and we spent the afternoon talking about Acushnet and their childhood adventures.

At the campground we were intrigued by the small trees surrounding the campsites. I took pics of them. Tomorrow we leave here for Los Angeles to spend the weekend with Ali and Dave.

Day 48 - Dana Point Beach and San Juan Capistrano

This morning we drove to Dana Point Beach from San Clemente, about 6 miles. There was a hurricane off the coast and it stirred up the Pacific so the beach was loaded with surfers and paddle boarders. Dana point beach is a beautiful beach just west of San Juan Capistrano. We stayed there all morning and got a campsite on the beach for the night. In the afternoon we drove a short distance to San Juan Capistrano and had lunch before touring the mission. The mission is where the swallows return every March 19th like clockwork. The mission is one of the oldest in California. It was established in 1776 by Spanish missionaries and it has the oldest church in California dating back to 1778. It has been mostly restored and is still an active church.

Panorama view of the mission quadrangle

mission quadrangle

Swallow nests in the eves of the mission

walkway in the quadrangle

Ruins of the stone church destroyed by an earthquake in 1812

rest stop in the shade it was 96 in the shade

Ruins at the mission

surfer dudes

paddle board dudes

some really good surfer dudes

Day 47 - Headed south to San Clemente

We left Rancho Oso about 10 in the morning expecting a 3 1/2 hour drive to San Clemente. After 7 hours we arrived at San Clemente State Beach Campground. L.A. traffic and an accident on the CA 405, coffee brakes and lunch took the whole day up so we didn't arrive until very late in the afternoon. We are camping on a bluff overlooking the Pacific. Hope to get a sunset out of an otherwise event less day. Great breeze here by the ocean especially after the temp hitting 105 on the way down. Humidity is low but the sun is hot as He!!.

San Clemente Beach