Libations: Dry Camping at a Wet Joshua Tree National Park

We stopped for one night at the Gold Nugget Dispersed Camping. It was an easy off from the freeway just outside of Quartzite, Nevada. I've been trying to plan our return trip with shorter driving days, although it looks like we will have to change our planned route because of snowy and icy conditions north of Bishop, California.

Sunset from Gold Nugget Dispersed Camping.

The I10 freeway was close, but not too loud.

Cedar has figured out how to jump into the bathroom.

We turned north at Vidal Junction onto CA62 and continued around the north side of Joshua Tree National Park. What a fantastic and lonely road! This sent us to the quiet side of the park and to the Indian Cove Campground. Sites were small and non-electric, so we had to use our propane and solar panels. There was no signal, either, but I didn't miss being connected to the modern world at all. There weren't many other people camping there, and the sites were well separated by large piles of rocks, so it was super quiet. We didn't manage to get up in time to watch the total lunar eclipse, bummer.

Nice and empty, except for the trains.

A lonely drive west.

It started raining as soon as we drove into Twentynine Palms, California. We stopped for lunch and Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant (good!), and found the official Joshua Tree Visitors Center. It was a wet and cold night, but our propane heater took the chill off the next morning. We hiked the Indian Cove Nature Trail and walked over to Rattlesnake Canyon. The Park Ranger at the Visitors Center said that Rattlesnake Canyon was terrific after it rains, so we tried to check it out, but I didn't feel comfortable scrambling over all the granite rocks to get to the slot canyon. I hung out lower down while Russ pushed on for more pictures. It turns out, I did find one bar of LTE signal and did my Duolingo Spanish lesson. It's nice that I didn't have to break my streak.

Mmmm. Mexican Food.

Our Campsite.

View from the trail down to the valley.

No Joshua Trees in this part of the Park.

Indian Cove Nature Trail.

Wildflowers still blooming.

Looking towards Rattlesnake Canyon.

Teddy Bear Cholla.

This is a blooming Creosote plant (next to our R-Pod)

Pencil Cholla.

There were climbers in the campground.

We left Joshua Tree early and drove to Bishop, California. This is one of my favorite roads in the country, US 395. The earlier storm put snow on the Sierra; everything was so beautiful. We really live on a magnificent planet. Bishop is going to get very cold tonight... 22 degrees F. There is a snow chains warning for US 395 to the north, so we'll instead take US 6 and stay low, driving through Reno, NV. It should only add about 30 miles to our trip, and it will be much safer. We had dinner in Bishop and finally got clean with showers! I miss being clean, but the shower in the R-Pod is a pain to use. We do plan to stop by the Erick Schat's Bakkery before we leave tomorrow to stock up on pastries, bread, and sandwiches for lunch. We have always stopped there on our way to climb Mt. Whitney, and it is a not miss place when we are nearby.