{"id":11952,"date":"2014-10-26T08:40:56","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T12:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/?p=11952"},"modified":"2014-10-26T16:54:52","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T20:54:52","slug":"vacation-joshua-tree-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/archives\/11952","title":{"rendered":"Vacation: Joshua Tree National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since we were only a few hours away (and in California) we made a point to visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/jotr\/index.htm\">Joshua Tree National Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since I always buy books of the places we visit, I decided this time to purchase the books BEFORE we left. One of the books I got was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00I7IVYPM\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=B00I7IVYPM&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=randomreading-20&#038;linkId=JBVCH5G4NZRLZH3L\">Joshua Tree: The Complete Guide<\/a>. This was completely helpful, since it divided the trails into types, as well as distance and time.<\/p>\n<p>Also helpful was the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1566953006\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=1566953006&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=randomreading-20&#038;linkId=TK26FNFPODBTBBIU\">Joshua Tree National Park (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We combined the two, to give us an idea of what we&#8217;d be able to manage in a day, and plan the drive to see as much of the area as we possibly could.<\/p>\n<p>We walked\/hiked the following trails:<br \/>\nCholla Cactus Garden<br \/>\nArch Rock Nature Trail<br \/>\nBarker Dam Trail<br \/>\nHidden Valley Trail<br \/>\nCap Rock<br \/>\nBlack Rock Trail<\/p>\n<p>We drove up to Keys View<\/p>\n<p>We entered the park from the south, Cottonwood Springs entrance. All of the Cottonwood Springs trails are closed, because multiple floods have exposed toxic mine tailings, so no hiking. This took us through the Colorado Sonoran dessert, which was full of Cholla cactus, Creosote bushes, Ocotillo trees, and Smoke trees.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15446281458\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_021 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5613\/15446281458_5a56af9863.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_021\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15446426557\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_039 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5612\/15446426557_da70e5e091.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_039\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15445768229\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_252 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3956\/15445768229_79c245ff4b.jpg?resize=500%2C55&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"55\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_252\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15012235013\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_058 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3951\/15012235013_4ebe633e72.jpg?resize=333%2C500&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_058\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15632415355\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_060 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3933\/15632415355_c7d13a8b1a.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_060\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But what I liked best were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/jotr\/naturescience\/geologicformations.htm\">the rock formations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15011661154\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_074 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5606\/15011661154_c1d6361bf9.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_074\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15632424645\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_087 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5613\/15632424645_7958ecc60b.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_087\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We drove north, and move into the Mojave desert, which really did look quite different from the Sonoran.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15608720426\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_129 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5604\/15608720426_d55741a839.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_129\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15012281603\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_194 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3938\/15012281603_a994bb16ee.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_194\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15632460945\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_202 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3936\/15632460945_0d2b351cba.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_202\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15633286842\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_150 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3945\/15633286842_ac9f1fe456.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_150\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15446318088\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_270 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3937\/15446318088_b500d19eaa.jpg?resize=500%2C106&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"500\" height=\"106\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_270\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/random_michelle\/15629775541\" title=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_138 by Michelle Klishis, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5606\/15629775541_9766739c84.jpg?resize=333%2C500&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" alt=\"20141016_Joshua_Tree_138\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Joshua Tree and the desert were interesting places to visit, but I would definitely not want to live there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since we were only a few hours away (and in California) we made a point to visit Joshua Tree National Park. Since I always buy books of the places we visit, I decided this time to purchase the books BEFORE we left. One of the books I got was Joshua Tree: The Complete Guide. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1071,1070,22,1058],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california","category-national-parkforest","category-photos","category-travel-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pefxA-36M","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}