Day: June 9, 2018

A few miles north of where I am staying in Yucca Valley, California is a little village called Pioneertown. This is a full size model of the old west, and a group of actors periodically put on shows with mock shootouts, etc. It was deserted Friday morning at around 930 (a ghost town, I guess you could say).

And this is a restaurant next to the village called Pappy & Harriet’s. I’ve been told they have really good food and I am hoping to take my Airbnb hostess, Melissa, here for lunch or dinner later this weekend.

A week ago, on June 2, I posted pictures in real time as I drove through the desert in southeast Nevada.  I saw a cactus I had never seen before and asked if anyone (without looking it up on the internet) knew what it was.

Here are the 3 photos I posted:

I said it had what looked like branches on a Christmas tree and I had a name in mind but didn’t tell you what my guess was.  My guess would have been a “Bottlebrush Cactus” because that’s what the green branches reminded me of.

(Photo credit: Walmart!  I didn’t buy it, I just took a picture of it)

Most bottle brushes have more of the white bristles further down the handle which go all the way around the handle.  To me, that’s what the cactus I was seeing made me think of.  I looked it up when I got to my destination that night, and when I learned what it probably was I thought I’d wait a week to reveal the answer, knowing where I’d be at that time.

What I saw were young Joshua Trees, which are neither cactus nor tree.  I am now in Yucca Valley, California, just north of Joshua Tree National Park and I spent most of the day Friday in the Park.  I showed the pictures I had taken to a Ranger in the Visitor Center and she confirmed that what I saw were, in fact, young Joshua Trees.  The detail which clinched it were the black areas at the ends of the leaves.

Joshua Trees are the largest-in-size variation of yuccas (yucca brevifolia) and are actually part of the lily family.  Yucca’s are plants or shrubs, not trees or cacti. The reason I didn’t think what I saw was a yucca is that it didn’t have the telltale “yucca-top”, the big green spikes which resemble the top of a pineapple.

Joshua Trees grow in all shapes and sizes, and were given their name by Mormons who thought they looked like Joshua with his arms outreached, beckoning them to the Promised Land.  Joshua Trees are found primarily in the Mojave Desert.  The ones I saw in southeastern Nevada were at the northernmost range of where they are typically found.  In fact, as big as Joshua Tree National Park is (1,200 square miles), they are only found in the northernmost part of the Park.  That is their southernmost range in the US.

A full grown Joshua Tree has an average life of about 150 years, although some are thought to be 300-500 years old.  I’ll post photos of lots of Joshua Trees in the next post, and will probably post more tomorrow after I visit another park of the Park on Saturday with the morning sun behind me.

 

Here are some photos of Joshua Trees I took Friday while in Joshua Tree National Park in southern California.  I will post more tomorrow after I visit another area of the Park.

These next 3 photos didn’t live up to my expectations.  I will try to take new ones on Saturday and replace them.  This was an area where the trees were in the distance at a slightly higher elevation with only the blue sky behind them.

And here is what I have named the “Telephone Pole Joshua Tree”

It was by far the tallest one I saw in the Park on Friday.  Someone must have spilled a whole box of Miracle-Gro on it when it was young!

 

Although a Joshua Tree isn’t a cactus I did see several different types of cactus throughout the Park.

This one didn’t even some up to my knee:

This one only came up to my waist:

And by far the densest concentration of cacti I saw on Friday were in the Cholla Cactus Garden, near the center of the Park.  These guys were scattered all over the place, on both sides of the road.

Cholla cactus are often called “jumping cholla” because they like to attach themselves to unwary passersby.  This little guy apparently tried “going rogue” and catching a ride with a tourist, only to be cast aside in the parking lot.

 

The southern part of Joshua Tree National Park is mainly desert and mountains.  Visitors who enter the Park from the south at the Cottonwood Visitor Center may be somewhat disappointed that they won’t see any Joshua Trees until they drive quite a bit further north.  The actual Joshua Trees in the Park are only found in the northern areas.

I was driving south from the North entrance and after passing the Cholla Cactus Garden started descending into more desolate parts of the Park.  It looks a little hazy because there is a small wildfire burning near Indio, southwest of the Park, and I suspect some of the smoke is drifting this way.

To my right were the Hexie Mountains, devoid of trees and looking pretty rugged:

Laid out in front of me was the Pinto Basin, a vast, flat desert:

To the right (west) side of the Basin were the Cottonwood Mountains:

And to my left (east) was Pinto Mountain:

One of these things is not like the others….

At an overlook facing Pinto Mountain were a series of big rocks to discourage people from four-wheeling in the desert.

This one definitely stuck out as being a little different.

 

In the northern part of the Park are some big groups of rocks.  BIG rocks.

And this is called “Skull Rock”.  I had to climb up on another large rock to take these photos and was so close I couldn’t get the whole this in one shot.  You have to kind of combine these in your mind.