Joshua Tree National Park

One word: awesome.

It's a shame that the lines are out the door at Disneyland at almost 50 bucks a pop, whilst a carload of people will get into JTNP for 10 bucks over 7 days into some of the most remote and unimaginable country you have ever seen. The kids had a blast rock-climbing and looking at the strange desert plants. We also saw various packrats or ground squirrels, some kind of a hawk coasting in the incredibly blue sky, several lizards, and different kinds of insects. But the thing that is most striking is the landscape. The Joshua tree is so unique as to almost look alien. Up in the high desert, a "forest" of these things stands upon a plains of sorts nestled between majestic mountains. It was an amazingly cool 85 degrees or so.

We went further south, through the "transition zone"; here the transition from Joshua tree to cacti dominated growth was visibly apparent. The heat was noticably greater in the lower desert. Also very striking was the geological transition. The upper desert mountains seemed to contain larger, more intact boulders good for rock climbing (we saw a bunch of more experienced rock climbers scaling really impressive rock walls), whilst the lower desert mountains had a much darker red tint and were more broken. I'm not a geologist, obviously, but this is one of the few times I wish I had a 4x4; the park offers an 18 mile off-road, self-guided geology tour that sounds incredible.

Traveling with little kids prevents exploring too far off the beaten path, and I'm elated that they were as patient and excited (such as it was) as they were. I do look forward to going again. And again. And again. JTNP is what a National Park experience should be, quite, desolate, memorable, and inspiring. Not the touristy overflow of the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, or Arcadia, beautiful though those places may be.