On day 4, we went to China ranch. In many ways, this was one of my favorite parts of vacation. A very good friend, who moved to Vegas and whom I don’t think I properly appreciated when she was in my life before, met us and was able to spend a day with us.
I had never heard of “date shakes” or that they were a thing in Southern Nevada, but apparently, they definitely are. The place we went was called China Ranch. It was cool and weird all at the same time, like a lot of things in Southern Nevada hahaha. Like, you turn off on this dirt road and literally, go down this winding road that you’re like “holy shit, we might die on this road”….and the oasis of China Ranch is at the bottom. Here’s some signage and pretty desert foliage:
While there, we took a small hike, and found long term parking:
Finally, it amazes me how life finds a way in the harshest conditions imaginable.
Day 5, we sadly departed Shoshone Park and also parted ways with my friend Cindi. The other person I was traveling with, this ended up being a super educational trip for me, and taught me a lot about myself. I am a very open person, and if I have something, I am generally willing to share it with others, sometimes to my own detriment. Like, if I had a sandwich and a friend arrived that needed to eat, I’d give them half my sandwich. This is the first time I had traveled with this person, and she was an okay friend before, but you don’t really know someone until you travel with them. She is not the same sort of person I am. She isn’t a sharing person, and she is very OCD about her space and her things. This caused some stress at the beginning of the trip, and being able to have Cindi there for a couple of days was super helpful. Someone who I felt saw me, and knew me. Here is a picture of the three of us, as we headed in to town to eat breakfast before packing up for the day:
We stopped at the alien jerky place on the way towards Joshua Tree and it was one of the most hilarious things I think I’ve ever seen or experienced.
And finally, we visited Kelso as we were heading down to Southern California. It was an interesting place, for sure.
Day 6 saw us in Joshua Tree. Man, it was kind of crazy getting there. We drove and drove, and then drove some more. We went through 29 Palms, I think, and it was sort of crazy. We stopped someplace where both of us were like “this doesn’t look like a hippy haven where they hold a super cool music festival, this looks more like a yuppy/boomer in town cheap accommodation for RV’ers who don’t know any better”….hmmm….so we kept driving and sure enough, there were totally at least two places that were apparently called the same thing.
This was an amazingly cute little town area across from one of the entrances to Joshua Tree, and had a little store. We ended up here a couple times, what a great area….and very obviously a place of privilege. That little store had EVERYTHING under the sun, I bought lots of stuff and spent a kind of obscene amount of money there, but they had cool clothes, if we’d needed ANYTHING for camping, they pretty much had it, from rappelling gear to cooking things to extreme first aid kits. It was kind of wild. It seemed like the probably had 10,000 items in this dinky building. It was like one of those Harry Potter places that you just keep finding stuff in….down a bit from this cool little town frontage, there as a “flower bed” heh:
Actual Joshua Trees:
One of the first things we saw in the park. Amazing:
I survived Joshua Tree! We were actually told we were visiting at the perfect time, that in general, a week later and it would have been too hot. They also told us that the most common visitors when Joshua Tree is 115 are German Tourists. Apparently, the like it extreme. Here is my somewhat shady pic demonstrated that, in fact, I survive Joshua Tree:
The beauty of the desert, how fleeting it is, never ceases to amaze me.
And another….
As we were leaving the park, we saw a very cool observatory with great metal art and a lifesize sun dial that could be walked around. I definitely need to come back to this place and explore more!
After adventuring in the park, we found an oasis in the desert.
This place was amazing. The food was great, we had shade, and the decorations were cool.
And finally, some camp mates. I was completely blown away that these little ducks were right by our camp spot. While we were there, eggs appeared! I was shocked and heartened. I asked about them to the staff at the park. “Oh, I’m sure they’re not fertile. Those ducks are so inbred, even if they were fertile, they’d probably be born with two heads or something. Just leave them alone”. Well, alrighty then.
Life, indeed, does find a way.
Peace.
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