In the previous post Verne talked about the Southwest US mega cities and mega attractions. Here I’ll share a bit about our hot road rip to its deserts!

It took me a while to start writing this post. Whenever I started writing something, it would always sound like a cliché or a truism: all the deserts that we visited were indeed vast and grandiose, as is often said, they do make you feel small in comparison, and they were undoubtedly hot, very hot! In some places our thermometers reached 46C (115F). However, as I couldn’t find a way around being a bit cheesy, here it goes…

During this road trip we visited three deserts: the Joshua Tree National Park, the Mojave National Preseve and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. I used to think that all the deserts were alike: hot, dry and with lots of sand. I couldn’t be further from the truth! It’s like each one has its own personality, it’s own way of displaying their greatness. And if in the beginning I was not super excited with the idea of spending so much time in places with so little green, the desert indeed grows on you, and now that I’m far away writing this post I already miss that quietness.

Entrance at the Joshua Tree National Park

Wherever you look, there’s a great picture waiting to be captured

A garden of Cholla cactus

Verne pretty smiley at the begining of our hike in the Joshua Tree Park

Looking at the way forward, in the begining of our hike in the Joshua Tree Park

This part of the hike was pretty easy… You can see it from Jules’ smile!

Still some steps to get there! But can you believe this landscape?

Almost at the top!

This mixture of bright blue sky and golden sand was beautiful

Endless landscapes and breathtaking views

Not much vegetation growing around the Lost Horse Mine

Lost Horse Mine, in the Joshua Tree Park: Verne’s reward for making it all the way to the end of the trail

Despite the harsh conditions, life always finds its way

Skull rock in the Joshua Tree Desert

Shame on us, but we really had to take a selfie here!

This image doesn’t do justice to the beauty of this sunset! We really had to stop and stare!

Amazing sunset in the Joshua Tree Park, with the famous Joshua trees in the background

The never ending roads…

Living in the desert is not an excuse for not receiving mail!

There are freight trains with literally hundreds of meters crossing the desert

Jules & Verne goofing off to one of Ivanpah’s power towers mirrors

Overview of the Red Rock National Park

The rocks that lend the name to Red Rock

Jules fighting to maintain equilibrium

Jules tries out some rock scrambling in the Red Rock

Rock scrambling is awesome!

A much deserved rest at the the Calico Tank, in the Red Rock National Park

These terracota colors were amazing! We couldn’t stop snapping pictures

The two faces (or at least this is what we called them!) in the Red Rock desert

In the back you can see some of the red rocks that give this desert it’s name

On a Red Rock path…

… To the middle of nowhere!

A rainbow over the Red Rock, after some rain that caught Verne in the middle of one of his hikes

We know these photos are a cliche… But we couldn’t help it!

On our way to the Big Bear Lake, overlooking a stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail

Verne has a growing desire to make the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches from the Mexican to the Canadian border… I’m sure that the moment they make it accessible to bikes we’ll have to come back!

On our way back from all those deserts we decided to make a pit stop at the Big Bear lake…

… And do some kayaking

Kayaking is for sure one of the cool things we discovered in this trip. We’re hooked!

We had just visited the USS Midway when we hit the road towards the Joshua Tree desert, so all those memories of heroism and bravery were still fresh in our minds. All that seems to have been amplified by the desert landscape. The name Joshua makes me think of old times and immutable things, and somehow this related to what we found here. Kilometers (or miles) of road to ourselves, a beautiful orange and purple sky and the vastness of the sandy colored landscape, interrupted only by the enigmatic Joshua trees. It was peaceful and intense at the same time.

The Mojave on the other hand is more what I had in mind when I imagined a desert. Never-ending sandy plains with sparse vegetation (including some Joshua trees), it is the driest desert in North America. Some of our initial projects in consultancy, almost a lifetime ago, were on renewable energies, more specifically on concentrated solar power (CSP), a very efficient way of harnessing the energy from the sun. The oldest of this CSP plants is from the early 80’s and was built quite appropriately on the Mojave, so this is a name that has been haunting us for many years. Now that we were there, we had to go and check it. We went for the most recent plant, Ivanpah, and it is an impressive view! A mirror field in the middle of the desert. Shiny and beautiful.

Our last walk on the desert was on the Red Rock. For me this was the most beautiful, probably because of the strong terracota colors, with incredible tones of orange, red and yellow, in amazing dégradés. We got to do a bit of rock scrambling here and it was pretty fun! From the look on Verne’s face I would say this one was also his favorite… Am I right?

It’s a close call! Rock scrambling at Red Rock was definately a lot of fun, but so were the long hikes at Joshua Park. There’s something thrilling about being surrounded by nothing but eerie silence and having to look for your own footsteps to figure out the way back to the car!

Just a quick word of caution: visiting the desert was an amazing experience but we were extra careful, always carrying plenty of water and food. In the same week we were doing this, a French couple died of dehydration in the New Mexico desert. Stay safe!

Catching now a flight to the Cook Islands, to the land of the Maoris!

Jules *