When we entered
Joshua Tree National Park this morning, we thought we landed on the
moon. The landscape was stark and barren, with brown and red
tones and lots of rocks. Lukas described it as the "exact
opposite of the Redwood forest". That boy has very keen
powers of observation, he does.
It all changed when we caught a glimpse of the first Joshua tree. They are like drawings out of a Doctor Suess book, so twisted, hairy, weird, and unreal...
Our first stop
was Hidden Valley, which was gorgeous beyond words, with massive
boulders, dramatic cliff faces, ragged edges, smooth boulders, and a
cornucopia of textures. Lots of drama, lots of opportunities to
climb on rocks. The kids loved it. They have never seen
anything like it.
We spent the
whole day hiking, lugging a tired Eva around, drinking in the drama
of the landscape, and soaking in the sun. The temperatures
hovered above freezing all day, but once we got out of the wind into
full sun, we actually took our coats and hats off. (The night
before, it was so cold that the condensation on our RV windows froze,
and Eva slept restlessly, because she kept kicking off her many
layers of blankets. Hence the tiredness today.)
One of the
highlights of this National Park is Cholla Cactus Garden, where a
forest of amazing cholla cacti shoot out of the ground. They are
called "Jumping cholla", because they have a tendency to
attach themselves to innocent people walking by. A sign at the
trailhead even warned of the viciousness of these plants. I
smiled at it overbearingly, knowing that a seasoned wilderness girl
like me would never be attacked by a stinking cactus. Twenty
minutes later, I howled in pain, as I brushed against one of these
cacti while taking an especially scenic picture of its neighbor. Its
spikes immediately bored into my skin, through two layers of pants,
and no matter how I tried to detach it out of my epidermis, it
wouldn't budge. It didn't help that its needles were like...
needles, and by grabbing them, I poked my fingers as well. Five
minutes later, I managed to tear the damn thing away from me - with
Kai's patient help. He mostly calmed me down and told me that
the needles are not poisonous.
The two days
before reaching Joshua Tree, we spent time in Newport Beach with
Steve's brother and his family. They have kids who are Lukas
and Kai's age, so they all had fun hanging out and playing in the
pool. Guess who had fun hanging out in the hot tub?
His relatives
are lovely and generous people, who let us park our dingy motorhome
in front of their house, located in a gated community. Steve
and I went grocery shopping in their Mercedes SUV, which Steve didn't
even know how to turn on. His ten year old nephew Brady had to
show him how to press a button to start the car. I assured
Brady that we are, in fact, not as dumb as we look. Sweet Brady
told us he was sure we just forgot how to do it. Right.
We all went to Crystal Cove, where we explored tide pools, chased each
other, got insanely wet, and took lots of photos.
Incidentally,
we picked our time to visit California when a cold front threatened
frost every night (which didn't stop the kids from playing in the
pool during the day). Steve's relatives assured us several
times that usually, the weather is much warmer. We really
don't care, as long as we get sun.
Talking about
the weather, here is one interesting tidbit: We fled the
Pacific Northwest, the corner of the world we call home that gets 100
inches of precipitation a year, to this desert we are camping in
tonight, which gets 4 inches a year. And the best thing? There
is lots of sun, so who gives a hoot about cold weather? Except
when it keeps Eva from slumbering peacefully through the night. Wish
us luck tonight - we all could use some sleep!
