Joshua Tree

 

After leaving Death Valley, we headed towards Joshua Tree, where we were very excited to have showers and laundry and sleep in beds again! 

Our original plan after Joshua Tree was going to stay with my college roomate in Phoenix and have a super fun taco night and then go to Saguaro National Park the next day. Sadly it did not work out like that...we were all getting sick and so I booked last-minute hotel rooms in Phoenix so we could keep our germs to ourselves and then the winter storms got crazy and we ended up driving through (and no refunds on the hotel rooms, lame!!). The saddest part was when I looked at Google Maps and realized we were less than 7 minutes from my friend's house. Such a bummer. 

But I digress--we got to Joshua Tree in the afternoon and hiked around a bunch and then I started wishing we had a week there. We visited Skull Rock and then headed to the Hall of Horrors but there was a mine somewhere in there too...

Soooooo much rock scrambling! 

Seriously love these trees, you can imagine the Lorax popping out at any second. 

If I recall correctly, these pics are from Hidden Valley. 

We drove a couple of unpaved roads that were my favorite (I think going to/from the mine?) because there was hardly anyone else out there and the Joshua trees were so close to the car that we could have reached out to touch them. Also--did you know that they start out all palm-tree-ish and then they grow bark-ish stuff as they get older? Seriously so cool, I loved seeing so many in different stages of growth. 

The kids LOVED all the rock scrambling and would have been happy to take up residence. 

And Neil had a great time too (I was babying my massively swollen ankle and mostly just took pictures). 

Overlooking the San Andreas Fault & Coachella valley...

Honestly pretty cool to see how prominent the San Andreas Fault is. 



Then we headed south towards the edge of the park towards Phoenix. But first we stopped to see the cholla, aka teddybear cactus, which look soooo fluffy and soft BUT THEY ARE DEVIL PLANTS. 

Somehow--not exactly sure how--Matthew leaned down to examine a cactus and came up with a chunk of it hanging from his cheek. He said "Mom Mom Mom help!" and I reacted on pure instinct and pulled it out of his cheek with my fingers. Then Neil had to use pliers to pull it out of my fingers and holy cow, it burned sooo much. 

We stopped at the Cottonwood Visitor Center and ate lunch...







Then we happily went on our way towards Phoenix. By this time we were all super tired and very much looking forward to going to bed (remember we were all not feeling great) and then I got a weather alert and realized oh my gosh, we are due to get a crazy winter storm the day we get back! And then I started looking at our travel path and basically the entire middle of the country was going to get pounded (Winter Storm Blair). 

So after an hour of frantic calculation we ended up driving through the night to get home and I was SO bummed (and also, it was a horrendously long time to be in the car). 

So we went from driving past wildfires in Arizona just off the freeway...



To these suuuuper fun signs all across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. We stopped for gas and 5-minute bathroom breaks and that was it; we could see on the radar that the storm was about 20 minutes behind us and it was seriously pretty freaky because I was reading the traffic and weather reports for cities we'd just gone through and they were a MESS. So we felt like we could not stop or slow down a bit. 

Thankfully we got home safely with nary a flake of snow at our house (it really came down later!) and only a couple sketchy times when we intersected with outlying storm bands, but nothing as scary as coming through Vail on our way out a few weeks ago! 




Then we watched the snow start to come down and wondered if Abigail would be able to make her flight out on Tuesday morning, since everything Sunday and Monday was sketchy enough that airlines in Indy were offering free rebooking. I can't remember how much snow we ended up getting but it was a pretty decent amount. Somewhere between 8-14 inches but I honestly can't remember! 

Ubehebe Crater

On our last full day in Death Valley, we spent the morning driving up to Ubehebe Crater, which was formed when lava hit a pocket of groundwater. The area around the crater is also full of other craters, but at about half a mile across, this one is the biggest. 

You can hike down into the crater or hike around the rim; we opted to hike the rim. 

There was not a lot of enthusiasm for this hike--we were hiking through ash and cinders which was reallly slow going and pretty exhausting going uphill, it was super super super windy, and not everyone had opted to wear pants so there were some cold grumpy legs. 

Matthew was probably yelling at me and refusing to hold my hand as I took this picture, haha. 

Eventually when we got up to the top of the rim we saw a bunch more craters so we decided to go explore those (cue looooots of yelling from Matthew). 

Here's Luke at the bottom of one of the smaller craters with his ever-present tennis ball. 

And another cool-looking crater that we could see from our higher vantage point. 

All the coloration in the rock and soil in Death Valley is so beautiful--there's so little growing on it that you can pretty much see everything. It reminds me of the part in The Last Battle when Aslan is closing down Narnia and all of the plants get eaten up and die and the book talks about seeing essentially the skeleton of the earth. 

But there are occasional plants and they're so different from anything you see elsewhere! 

Luke demonstrating some safety tips...

More hiking up--it was a very rolling trail and was equally hard going down. 

And the MVP of the afternoon. 

Nobody really wanted to do anything after lunch so some people napped and others (me & Luke) started making things out of the wax that had encased the cheese. 

And then we packed up and headed back to Badwater! 

 

Badwater Basin

Well well well, I'm back with updates (finally) which can mean only one thing: it's midterm grading time and I'm sick of grading! This trip is all out of order but I'll get it all in someday. Probably pretty soon because I hate grading. 

Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America and it is super cool because it has these incredible salt flats. We actually went there twice because the first time we didn't walk out far enough (but that was before my dad was there so it was fun to go back with him since he had only seen it underwater, which is SUPER cool, because last year when the lake appeared for just a few weeks I texted him and told him to go and then he got to kayak all over it and sent me the coolest videos of his paddles just...chiming through the water because it was so full of salt that it made really cool noises when he paddled through it). 

Anyway, before you get to Badwater (if you're coming from Furnace Creek) you'll see a bunch of cars going down a dirt road that does not appear to lead anywhere. 

But actually they're all headed to the Devil's Golf Course, which is legit crazy and definitely worth a stop. 

It's just these crazy huge salt formations. Soooo cool (and not something you want to fall on!). 

Cue Dr. Bailey assuming his lecture voice and describing exactly how they form. 

We found that you can't really break them, but some places there is a thin crust and then it basically breaks up like lace as you walk on it, but most of the giant lumps are immovable. 



Juliet and I both licked it. Tastes like salt, didn't die. 

The crystals eventually peter out as you get closer to Badwater itself. You could walk there but it would be a LONG walk. 

Can you see that white line about halfway up the cliff? That's the marker for sea level. 

The salt flats are beautiful but there are SO many people that you have to walk a really long way to be able to see the patterns on the playa, because most of it has been stomped over by people (we were super careful *not* to step on the ridges as we walked). 

Just miles and miles and miles of salt stretching all the way to the Panamint Mountains. 

And then stretching back towards the Black Mountains on the other side. 

Someday (when I don't have an impatient crew with me) I would love to watch the sunset here. 



So cool and absolutely worth a stop!!! And keep walking waaaay out, it's worth it.