Yes, “that” Joshua Tree. The one from the U2 album. I was in High School when it was popular but didn’t know there was an actual place until years later. It wasn’t on my “list”, but Valeria wanted to see it so, we went!
It’s a beautiful park if you like desert architecture. There is an actual tree (or a whole species of them) named a Joshua Tree. Okay, I’m lying. It’s not a tree. It’s actually a cactus, in the yucca family. Look it up, you’ll see it has a lower section that looks like a tree and the upper part looks like a cactus. There are no inner age rings, they judge the age by the height. Very unique plant.
Anyway, we arrived in Joshua Tree on Tuesday night (April 27th) and did a quick drive through before heading to the hotel. It was a long drive so the park closed 1 hour after we arrived. It turned out to be just enough time to drive through it to get to our hotel.
This morning we had some business to take care of in the morning and then we went back to Joshua Tree. Lucky us! The weather report said today would be bad, but it turned out great! Beautiful sunshine and nice temperatures, just a little wind. So we went for a couple walks on the trails of the park. Very nice place.
We left the park about 1:30pm but still didn’t know exactly where we were going. After some discussion, we finally decided to skip San Diego (was supposed to be next on the list) and head to LA for a couple days. Universal Studios, Walk of Fame, and who knows what else.
As I am writing this, we are in a small (but nice & cheap!) hotel not far from Universal Studios. We’ve had a lot of long days, so it’s rest time again before heading out tomorrow to see the place. They require non-Californians to be fully vaccinated (done!) and we cannot pre-book (no problem!). So, with a little luck, we will get to take the tour tomorrow!
Ciao for now!