Sunday, April 17, 2016
After staying in Twentynine Palms four extra days, we were ready to leave there and move on to another adventure.  The winds have died down pretty much, but we still had some on our travels today.  I found this scenic drive from Twentynine Palms to Pahrump, NV and it proved to be just that.  We actually, drove along the west edge of the Mojave Desert, and then went through it near Barstow.  At one point, we passed Silver Lake and we both thought it had water in it, as we saw a reflection of the mountains and the palm trees there.  As we got closer, there wasn't a drop of water to be seen.....it was a mirage!  Can that be?  Do they produce a reflection?  We aren't delusional, as we are drinking plenty of water!  We also saw several microbursts in the flats, also.  They are large swirls of sand swirling around like a small tornado.  We definitely drove through the mountains, going from 4500 feet elevation to 432 and then back up again.  We made great time and got into our beautiful campground around 3:00 p.m.  People that we talked to in Twentynine Palms told us that they wouldn't stay here because you have to drive on a gravel road to get to the campground.  Not true.  We had blacktop and it's a very nice campground, perched high atop the city.  We can't even see the city below us, but we do have the mountains with snow on top, in our backyard!  We are going to be happy here.  The campground is connected to a winery, and it's next door.  We'll have to check that out, for sure!  Tomorrow we will go to Death Valley, as it looks like the coolest day there.  I'll be posting late tomorrow night.

 This shows the Mojave Desert meeting the mountains on our way to Pahrump, NV.

 I thought these mountains looked like pyramids.  They had so much texture in them.

This is our home for four nights!  It can't get much better than this. Oh, I forgot....the mirage is missing!

Saturday, April 16, 2016
This is our last day in Twentynine Palms, CA, and we've had a wonderful stay.  We've run out of national park things to do, so we did a little road caching today.  We found some interesting ones, and one in particular struck a chord with us.  The title was Glass Outhouse, and most of you don't know this, but we belong to the Outhouse Club in Wisconsin.  It's too long to explain here, but believe me, we've had some fun with it over the years!  This 'glass outhouse' was at an art studio on the edge of town, and it was quite interesting from the get-go!  He had lots of desert/lawn displays all over the place, and then he took us into his studio and he had some very nice paintings from different artists in the area.  Jim reminded me that if we buy something, we need to get rid of something.  Where would I hang a painting in the motor home, anyway?  I couldn't take any pictures on the premises, but he did give me a postcard of the outhouse and I was able to take a picture of it on my camera.  I'll post it on this blog.  The winds are dying down, so we should be good to travel tomorrow.  We will arrive in Pahrump, NV and we're staying at a campground that is connected to a winery!  Good planning, I'd say!  She's so cute when we call, as she is on a recording and she ends with, 'and have a Chardonnay Day'!  She sounds like my kind of gal!  I found the 'most scenic road to Pahrump from Twentynine Palms, so I hope Jim is still talking to me when we get there!

 These are the little critters that we saw at the art studio, and we are seeing the same here at our campground.  

 Twentynine Palms is very much like Wittenberg, as they have lots of murals painted on the buildings in town.

This is an actual working outhouse, and it's glass!  I didn't try it out.

Friday, April 15, 2016
We did go to the local restaurant in Twentynine Palms last night and had a wonderful meal.  Of course, it was called Twentynine Palms Inn!   They serve Wagyu beef, so Jim had the Flatiron steak, and I had their tuna special of the day.  We both agreed, it was a very good meal.  It is a pretty eclectic place, and one you wouldn't expect such fine dining, but we are glad we went.  They even had an elderly guy (about our age) play and sing contemporary music while we ate.  Nice.  The winds have picked up here and we had to get up last night and pull our slide outs in, as it was very windy and the noise kept us awake.  We also didn't want our awnings torn to shreds!  It had let up quite a bit this morning, so we decided to do some road caching near us.  That ended quickly, as the winds picked up again and blew sand across the road like it blows snow in Wisconsin in the the wintertime!  Yes, we still remember that!  We did find 13 caches, so the day wasn't lost.  We just kicked back and enjoyed the R & R that we deserved after doing every day in the national park.  The big news today was, they had tranquilized a very large mountain lion that ventured into Granada Hills.  It is a lightly populated, highly diverse and high-income neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley portion of Los Angeles. They moved the mountain lion back to the mountains, where it came from.  We will have another day tomorrow like today, so we'll try caching earlier in the morning, and prepare to leave on Sunday.  No pictures today.  I've saturated you with pictures up until now, so a little reprieve won't hurt. 

Thursday, April 14, 2016
With our extra days in the area, we went back to the Joshua Tree NP and did part of the Boy's Scout Trail and found it quite boring.  Are we getting immune to all the flowers and rocks?  We did see a lot of the Desert Dandelion and Pincushion flowers, but nothing else.  This was a very flat hike and we got bored quite quickly, so we turned around.  We were in about 1.5 miles and the trail is 8 miles long.  Not for us today!  We went back to the trail that we did yesterday and I took some video of all the flowers on that early part of that trail, as they were the best we have seen since we came here.  The winds were starting to pick up, so we decided to call it a day early.  We stopped for a few groceries to tide us over, as we think we will be holed up tomorrow when the stronger winds prevail.  One thing we kept looking for, were the tortoise and of course, they are saying the snakes are out now, also.  With all the rain they had earlier in the week, they are coming out of the ground, and we were sure we would see some.  We stayed on the trails, so if we did see one, we wouldn't be startled. Nobody showed up today!  We are going to dinner tonight, at the only good restaurant in this little town.  Everything is called 29 Palms here, so sticking to tradition, they are the 29 Palms Inn!

 This is a cactus that we don't see in The Valley.  It's called the Pencil Cactus and it's obvious how it got its name. It is quite attractive.

 This is a gorgeous Mojave Yucca bloom.  They look so waxy.  Very pretty and compact.

 I loved this shot of the Desert Dandelion with the Pincushions surrounding it.  They are so plentiful here, and if we were back in Wisconsin, I know what we'd do with our Dandelions!  Make wine!  

 This is the entrance to our campground, and you can see how the sandstorm is getting closer.  The winds are stronger north of us, so it's a good thing we opted for staying here.  The mountains are barely visible.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Things have changed on our 'home front'.  After watching the morning news today, we decided to extend our stay in the area of Joshua Tree NP, because there is a weather advisory out starting tomorrow morning at 5:00 and lasting through Saturday.  A huge front is coming in and we don't drive the motor home when it's that windy.  They are expecting 50mph winds in the area that we wanted to visit next. We made the necessary cancellation at Pahrump, NV, but did make it for the same time starting on Sunday.  They were very cordial to do so.  Then we made sure we could stay where we are.  We don't mind, as we still  have some things to do in Joshua Tree NP, and this will give us that opportunity.  We had a wonderful day today, by doing a 6.6 mile loop hike to the Lost Horse Mine.  The mine was discovered by Johnny Lang when he went looking for his lost horse.  He filed a claim in 1893 and began mining the gold.  The 10-stamp mill was erected in 1895 and 9,000 ounces of gold was processed here until 1908 when the vein played out.   It was an excellent trail and it made us huff and puff a bit with the elevation climbs, but it was good for us.  We realized that we started the hike in the wrong direction (counterclockwise), which to us, was the right way to go.  Others made the same mistake, and after finishing the hike, we would do it the same way again.  We kept hopscotching with a younger couple and they told us that they saw an adult Desert Tortoise about a half mile back.  We stopped to look at the mine, and they went ahead.  Lo and behold, they saw another one!  I told them that they were tortoise magnets!  He actually, hurried back to tell us that she was keeping an eye on the tortoise so we could see it.  They were such sweet young people!  They were from Grand Rapids, MI.  We decided to call it a day, as we were tired and we want to do a hike again tomorrow.  We did stop at the visitor center to tell them that we had seen the tortoise and they told us that they are coming out now for water from the recent rains, and also to eat the many flowers that are blooming.  That's another thing.  We saw so many flowers again today on the trail, and we just think we hit this at the right time.  We are hearing that the flowers are gone in Death Valley, but we don't mind.  We are seeing so many here!

 This is the sunny picture I promised you of the San Andreas Fault.

 We talked at length with this young couple from Germany.  They want to see the blooming Saguaros and are going to Tucson to the Saguaro National Park.  I was happy to tell them of the Chiricahuas, also.

 This is a fireplace/chimney and all that remains from an old homestead.

 These are gorgeous Bluebells that, we have only seen at a filled in mine site.

 This is the Lost Horse Mine Site, and the 10-stamp mill.

 Jim is inspecting the remains of an old cabin.

 One of many geckos that we see along the hiking trails.  

This is the young Desert Tortoise that we were so fortunate to see.  They are on the endangered species list.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016
We put a little diversity in our stay in Twentynine Palms, CA, by taking the advice of a few people we encountered in Joshua Tree NP.  We met a couple who told us about a place west of Joshua Tree NP and, it is where the mountains and desert meet a lush sanctuary for wildlife.  It is a great birding place and a neat riparian area in Morongo Valley, CA.  Much of it has a boardwalk with sitting areas, and beyond that, is a trail that goes into the canyon for an 8 mile round trip hike.  We only did about 4 miles today, as we wanted to do the second thing recommended to us, also.  We traveled north of Hwy. 62 at Yucca Valley, CA to Pioneertown.  It was built in 1946 by several prominent movie stars and they wanted it to represent an 1880's town, where they made many movies.  It still remains as it did in the early days. Many old westerns were made in this town.  We still had some daylight, so we went into the northern part of Joshua Tree NP to finish some earthcaches that we had to do.  Tomorrow is our last day in the area, and we will go back to the park to do some hiking.

 We saw snow on the mountains as we headed west to Morongo Valley, CA.

 This is the entrance to the preserve.  It is free to enter with a donation appreciated..

 We are on the canyon trail, which was nicely groomed and lots of flowers to enjoy.

 This is the Apricot Globe Mallow, and it was very plentiful in one area.

 

This crazy bird kept flying at us, and I thought it was going to land on Jim's head!

 We enjoyed walking on the boardwalk through the cottonwood trees and other lush trees.

 The Lupine Flowers were plentiful in Pioneertown. 

 This plaque at the post office explains the history of the town best.

This is one of many old buildings in Pioneertown.

I have to end with the old saloon.  It seems like that was one of the prominent places in the movies.

Monday, April 11, 2016
I didn't sleep well last night, so I wasn't sure how today would go.  There was a 50-50 chance of rain, and we felt we had an extra day, with 'maybe no rain today', so we struck off for the park again this morning.  We heard thunder, saw lightening in the distance, and the heavy dark clouds kept looming over us, as we did the desired hikes of the day.  Of course, our geo-caching took us to the certain points of interest.  We did about 5 miles today with shorter loop hikes, that we could possibly scoot back to the truck, if it did start to rain.  We lucked out and did everything we set out to do.  We did a very scenic and interesting trail called, Barker Dam.  It was a dam built in the early 1900's, to collect water for an old homestead that raised cattle.  Then we did the longer hike that took us to the Wall Street Stamp Mill that was in operation from 1930 to 1966.  The last loop hike was just a mile long, but very scenic through some beautiful rocks.  It was also very populated, so we were glad it was only a mile long!  We had peace and solitude, for the most part when we did the other trails.  I've logged my caches for today and will post some pictures and I'm off to bed!  We have two more days to explore and the list is still long.  We are thoroughly enjoying all there is to see and do in the park.  We did meet an interesting man from Denmark today.  He actually, shed some light on one of the earthcaches for us.  It pertained to the country singer Graham (Gram) Parsons, and he knew all about him.  It seems that Parson's road manager brought his body to Joshua Tree NP and cremated him at the site of our earthcache!  The things we learn while geo-caching!

 I found a comfortable chair with its own canopy!

 Barker Dam - early 1900's

 An earthcache took us to this old relic in the desert.  It had to belong to the workers at the mill.

 This is the Wall Street Mill Site.

 This is about the only wildlife we have seen.  It's a Jack Rabbit!

 This is a nice bouquet of Indian Paint Brush.

  I had to take just one more picture of a Beaver Tail Prickly Pear in full bloom!