The Land of the Lorax

As part of the MLK weekend vacation that Joseph had planned, we stayed a night at a Hampton Inn after visiting Lake Arrowhead on Saturday, and headed to Joshua Tree National Park on Sunday. I have never to a national park before, and my initial thought when hearing about 'Joshua Tree National Park' was that there was one singular tree - the Joshua Tree - that we take pictures with, and then leave.

That was definitely not the case. The park was huuuuge.

Most of the Joshua Trees were located in Hidden Valley. Gorgeous.

We went to the a designated area at the top of a veeery windy hill that overlooks the San Andreas Fault. Beautiful.

We ventured on a one-mile trail in Hidden Valley, and we were surrounded in these breathtaking rocks for a mountain. 

Of course I had to do an outfit post in the field of Cholla cactuses.

A field of Joshua trees in the Hidden Valley. So surreal.

Close-up of the beautiful Cholla cactus.

I love looking at these white windmills. Too bad we only drive through them whenever we're out there. Took this during sunset on Sunday.

I hope the captions helped explain the photos. Obviously, we did more than take a photo of a Joshua tree and head out.

The weather was perfect to do a bit of driving around the park and hiking on the one-mile trail, which was also my first trail to hike. Boy, did my boots get scratched up! I joked that the hike should justify getting new shoes to Joseph but he didn't think it was so funny. Again, we were surrounded by bright mountains of rocks everywhere we saw, with Joshua trees and shrubberies in patches.

On our way to see the Cholla gardens, we stopped by a hill that overlooked the San Andreas Fault line, as I mentioned in the caption. I didn't think we would be that close to it! I also didn't expect to see what we saw. Another surreal moment, viewing the snake-like hills and trenches that basically created the mountains of California.

Our last destination before heading out (I was starving and there was, of course, no food being sold on the park grounds) was the cactus gardens. Entering the field of Cholla was so surreal, so beautiful. I wanted to just touch and hug them, but of course upon entering, there was a huge 'Warning' sign advising against just that. Sigh.

After about three to four hours spending the day in the sunshine and on the park, we decided to head out and rest over at Morongo Resort and Casino for the night, where I do what I normally like to do when we go there - get comfy in bed, browse the internet, and watch reality t.v. (I don't have cable). Oh, and eat. Mhmmm.