Joshua Tree National Park

We left the salt flats in Badwater Basin of Death Valley around 10:30am.  After heading 45 minutes towards Joshua Tree we came across a road closure and had to turn around.  This of course added about 2 hrs to our 4 and a half hour drive to Joshua Tree.  I had found a restaurant online in Pioneertown that I had decided would be worth a little extra driving out of our way.  However, this was before the detour…. so needless to say our drive to Joshua Tree wasn’t exactly efficient.  As we approached our dinner spot, I got a little nervous that perhaps I banked too much on that yelp review and what if it was a big let down.  But,the reviews didn’t let me down and after enjoying a delicious dinner of burgers at Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown, we entered Joshua Tree during the golden hour. What a treat to get our first glimpse of the famous  Joshua trees in the light of the setting sun. 

 

We watched the sunset from Keys View.

 

 

As we walked back to our van, we spotted a jack rabbit!

And as we drove out of the parking lot we spotted its predator…. 

We spotted numerous other jack rabbits on our drive to our campsite.

Unfortunately, our timing for Death Valley and Joshua Tree were not ideal for star gazing.  Both parks are famous for their star gazing, but with a full moon shining it wasn’t the ideal setting for watching the stars. 

But, Scott did get some nice shots of the moon in the background of the trees.

The weather cooled down in the evening and we all slept quite comfortably in the tent with the rain fly off, and nothing but a screen, moon and stars above us.  Was the first time the kids and I slept under the stars. And the full moon was a great night light. We went to bed eager to wake up and explore the jumbo rocks surrounding us.