Joshua tree national park
We drove from Santa Barbara straight into the heavy Los Angeles afternoon traffic. Coming through to the other side, we drove our first really long stretch of our driving adventure. When we finally decided to stop for dinner, we unfortunately found ourselves in the middle of the desert with no immediate places to eat in sight.
Taking a left turn in the middle of nowhere, Alexander grew more and more skeptical about the place Alexandra had found to stay. Especially after we passed a road sign which had been shot. Multiple times. It was literally in the middle of the desert with no phone reception or anything.
Luckily, we arrived safe and sound to our destination, Pioneertown Motel, and all our fears washed away. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a very charming Western-looking scene, with the reception being a tiny outhouse-type building complete with a wooden porch filled by old chairs and cactuses. Our room, “The Duke”, was also much larger and nicer, than we had anticipated.
Although we had been recommended Desert Deliveries, we decided that chips and beer were good enough for dinner. So after enjoying a couple of hammocks and watching the sun set, we put Theodor to sleep, left the door ajar, and snuck outside to watch the incredible starry skies and even got to see a shooting star.
In the morning we ate instant oatmeal out of coffee cups and as it was already 25 degrees at 7 am, we wanted to get going as fast as possible. But before leaving we took a look around Pioneertown, which apparently functioned as an old movie set. After a few photo-ops, we hurried on to Joshua Tree Saloon to get some sandwiches to go.
With an incredible smell of sandwiches filling the car and enticing our stomachs, we entered Joshua Tree National Park. Here are some truly spectacular viewpoints of the surrounding desert, but mostly, the park is filled with what look like trees from another planet. We climbed on giant rock formations that looked like fluffy pillows, and we even saw a few lizards. There were also a lot of trails for hiking, but since the temperature was above 40 degrees, we decided against going on any long walks.
Coming towards the end of the park in the early afternoon, the landscape shifted from fields of Joshua Trees, to valleys filled with huge, tree-like cactus. However, our excitement over the foreign landscapes quickly dissipated when we entered our next destination into the navigator and saw a 6 hour drive in front of us towards the next stop.
