Joshua Tree National Park, California - Part 3

October 3-7, 5,354 miles and 81 days into the trip.
29 Palms RV Resort, 29 Palms - 3 Nights
Belle CG, Joshua Tree NP - 2 Nights

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We felt that hiking in the high desert sounded dull. But actually it turned out to be very interesting. We did consume more water than normal while hiking and we had to watch where we stopped to rest. We found many ant colonies and also plants which looked green and soft but were stiff, pointed, and even had hidden barbs. We did most of our hiking and touring while camping at 29 Palms RV Resort. While at the Belle CG we lazed around and only had a couple of hikes. It was so quiet and peaceful that we just sat in the sun in lounge chairs and read books or just looked at the scenery.

There was a trail which passed near the campground we decided to follow for a couple of hours. Our motorhome is in the background to the left of the rock pile.

These look like flimsy palm leafs, but they are stiff and pointed.

It looks like kids piled up the rocks.

Looking down from the top of the pile. Mom is resting and the trail is behind her.

I decided to hike to the top of the mountain about 3 miles away. I climbed up to the plateau to the left of the peak and tried to climb the peak but got to about 15 feet from the top and the rocks were too loose and steep so I turned around. Also, notice the horizontal line of boulders near the base of the mountain. I took a picture from there before going up the mountain.

While hiking to the mountain I found this shell from a desert tortoise. That is the end of my hiking stick next to it so you can see the size.

This is looking back at the motorhome from that horizontal line of boulders. The motorhome is that white dot in the center of the picture.

A picture from about 20 feet from the peak. The red vertical line is just above the motorhome. The plateau, which I mentioned earlier, is on the pictures right.

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