Back to Joshua Tree~Scenic Sunday 041110

Earlier this week, on Thursday, hubby and I took a day and drove through Joshua Tree National Park. We started at the Cottonwood Springs entrance,which is 25 miles east of Indio, CA. We had been there...let's see... in 1977 when we got our Volkswagen van and drove to the Tetons and back home, camping in it along the way. I didn't remember Cottonwood Springs, but I love cottonwoods, so I was eager to see it again. We have a huge cottonwood in our back yard and it has been host to a family of orioles for many, many years and an occasional owl. We paid our fee and then visited the springs. I'm always intrigued by oases in the desert. The visitor center has a graphic which shows how the palms get underground water. Because these oases lie on the San Andreas fault, water moves to the surface and the palms' roots (and cottonwoods) can reach the water. So, if you see natural palms (not cultivated ones) in the desert, you know they are growing on a fault line. Our sandy hills are dotted with oases in our Coachella Valley, since the San Andreas fault line runs through those hills! It was a beautiful, clear day on that visit to the park, but clouds are forecast today. Since we paid our fee and our daughter and son-in-law haven't been to the park, and since it is the last day of our spring break, we decided to revisit Joshua Tree and maybe take some of the side roads that we didn't take on Thursday! Scenic Sunday for April 11, 2010.