Joshua Tree

Just a 2 hour drive from LAX, Joshua Tree is a place everyone should visit. The drive on the way is through the windmill laced desert and mountains of southern California. One can stop off the highway and visit different reservoirs or natural parks.

We stopped in Yucca Valley which had little, but to note, the America’s Best motel was quite interesting. They had many themed rooms such as the Jungle Room, Tahitian, New York New York, Grecian Style and so on. The ambience of the room makes a big difference.

Just past Yucca Valley is PioneerTown – a small that started as a live-in Old West motion-picture set, built in the 1940s. The set was designed to provide a place for the actors to live while using their homes in the movie.^[1] A number of Westerns and early television shows were filmed in Pioneertown, including The Cisco Kid and Edgar Buchanan‘s Judge Roy Bean. It now has a population of 350 people.

The small old western restaurant there served amazing chili.

Joshua Tree is a beautiful park. We started at the southern entrance and drove up to the northwest entrance/exit. Along the way we stopped at all of the key areas. I did a quick run up the 1.5 mile Mount Ryan which took me 25 minutes up. The rock formations are magnificent. The sunset filled the sky like pink cherry blossoms.