Joshua Tree National Park to Mesa, Arizona
Got up before the sun. Bundled up and crawled atop the jumbo granite boulders for a beautiful view of the surrounding area as the sun painted color on the new day. Ate a quick bite before packing up ready to explore Joshua Tree. What an amazing, interesting and diverse place! We climbed and scaled many a huge boulder, investigated fields of Joshua Trees (Yucca trees) with their wildly growing branches, and discovered many new types of cacti. Joshua Tree National Park is a convergent zone between the westerly Mojave desert and the easterly Colorado desert. The distinction is obvious in the vegetation that grows in each. Joshua trees are prominent in the Mojave while Cholla Cacti dominate the Colorado. Skull Rock and Arch Rock trails were the highlight, beautiful landscape sweeping across flats to the foot of the surrounding mountains, with large clumps of exposed granite jetting out sporadically. After throughly exhausting the park’s sights we headed east toward Phoenix Arizona. Almost immediately after crossing the boarder into AZ, Saguaro Cacti (Taco Time Cacti) were everywhere! It was so cool, they are HUGE! Landed in Mesa right in time for a delicious dinner of pizza, ceaser salad, beers and laughter with none other than Jen Anderson and her fiancé Dan! It was so wonderful to reconnect with them and see a familiar face, a piece of home, especially after crossing into this desert world of new and unknown! What a blessing to have such amazing and welcoming friends!
