When we left Quartzite we made a side trip on the way home. Despite it being in our backyard, we had never been to Joshua. One of our newer National Parks, Joshua is spectacular. It’s where the Mojave and Sonoran deserts meet. Where one begins and the other stops has be marked by their elevations and, thus the kinds of vegetation you’ll find in each of our great deserts. The Sonoran is a low desert and famous for the stately Saguaro Cactus. We spent our three days in the north end of the park defined by the high Mojave Desert.
The higher elevations are the home of the Joshua…
The geologic history of the area has resulted in some of most spectacular rock formations you will find anywhere.
According to Wikipedia…”The rock formations of Joshua Tree National Park were formed more than 100 million years ago from the cooling of magma beneath the surface into monzogranite, with roughly rectangular joints. Groundwater then filtered through the joints to erode away the corners and edges to create rounded stones, and flash floods washed away covering ground to create piles of boulders.[9] These prominent outcrops are known as inselbergs.”
We hiked for hours among these great formations…
Local Native Americans left their message for us…
