Joshua Tree National Park

For the rest of our trip to California, we stayed in Palm Desert which is right by Palm Springs. Susanna served the first part of her mission in Palm Springs. Thursday we went on a hike. The weather was good and we enjoyed being outside.

The next day was Friday and we decided to go to Joshua Tree National Park. It was New Year's Eve and we thought it might be crowded so we got an early start, arriving about 8:30am at the south entrance. There weren't very many people at that time but it started getting crowded later.

Joshua Tree is a unique place. We especially enjoyed seeing the cactus in the Cholla (pronounced choy-ya) Cactus Garden.

Working our way north, we started seeing Joshua trees which are in the northern part of the park. They need a certain environment to grow. I thought they were more like cactus but they are more like palm trees. They're part of the yucca plant family. Definitely cool plants. The kids also really enjoyed scrambling on the huge rocks which are plentiful in this park.

It's a cool place!

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