Joshua Tree NP and Mojave Desert for Spring Break

Life on the road is what automobiles were made for, share your road trip stories and pictures here.

Moderator: volvite

User avatar
RacerZX
Site Admin
Posts: 869
Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:00 am
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
Contact:

Joshua Tree NP and Mojave Desert for Spring Break

Postby RacerZX » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:43 pm

My kids and I took off from San Jose for a Spring Break tour of the California Deserts the Tuesday before last, arriving at the Black Rock Canyon Camp Ground in Joshua Tree National Park in almost exactly 8 hours.

Image
Image

Next day bright and early we headed off-road exploring into the old Dale Mining District in BLM territory to the NE of JT.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

As you can see from that last shot, the wild flowers were blooming with profusion, an amazing sight in the desert.

We continued down the Gold Crown Mine road from the Dale area into the SE portion of JT, and this quick video clip is of the most interesting bit of 4-wheeling (or rather, 3 wheeling :wink: ).

Also along that winding mountain path we found at least 10 of these huge lizards hanging out in the rocks, can anybody ID these brutes?

Image

Down in the JT valley the kids explored a Teddy-bear Cholla Cactus Garden while I aired the tires back up.

Image
Image
Image

The next day, Thursday now, we went for a hike around the Black Rock Canyon area...

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

And then to the dry lake bed of Dale Lake (or almost dry)...

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

Friday we packed up camp and headed North through the Mojave Desert, as an unplanned fluke briefly drove on historic Route 66, and stopping for lunch at the huge Kelso Dunes.

Image
Image

Then off-road again winding our way up a cinder cone, well testing out the Pathfinder's ABLS system scrabbling our way up as far as we could make it on the trail before hiking the rest of the way to the top.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

And lastly in the lava fields near the cinder cones we explored some lava tubes...

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

We ended our northward journey in Pahrump NV, getting a good night's rest before meeting up with other forum members for a group tour through Death Valley National Park.
Last edited by RacerZX on Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.


User avatar
guinnessjim
Posts: 245
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:58 pm
Location: Newport, OR

Postby guinnessjim » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:59 pm

great pics carl. can't wait to see the DVNP pics.

btw: that lizard is a chuckwalla.

pretty cool, tough desert lizards....they are alway found in those SHARP rocks! defense is to hide in cracks and inflate themselves so they can't be removed.

boogyman
Posts: 519
Joined: Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:04 am
Location: Jersey

Postby boogyman » Thu Apr 03, 2008 6:07 pm

Great pics Carl. The video was entertaining too. Your daughter didn't do too bad once you starting moving. How did the rear wind deflector work on keeping the dust off the back window? I still can't believe they didn't come with the wind deflector from the factory.

User avatar
NVSteve
Sponsored Member
Posts: 1987
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:27 am
Location: Salt Lake City

Postby NVSteve » Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:13 pm

Wow! Very nice. You have some fantastic photos there. It's been far too long since I've been there.

User avatar
pdslug
Posts: 67
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:45 pm
Location: Kansas

Postby pdslug » Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:36 pm

Nice Pics! Looks like a great location. Amazing how much life is in the desert!

User avatar
RacerZX
Site Admin
Posts: 869
Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:00 am
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
Contact:

Postby RacerZX » Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:49 pm

A Chuckwalla! Very cool. We started seeing them as we left the Dale Mining District and decending into the lower JT valley, felt like we were going into the land of the lost with a Chuckwalla around every rock watching us :P

The wing DID work! Check the Death Valley link to see pictures.


Return to “Roaaad Trip!!!”