Joshua Tree

On my birthday week the Hubby and I traveled south to check out a different side of California.
This National Park is located where the Colorado Desert and Mojave Desert converge. It is a place that is full of unique rock formations, hardy animals, and crazy Dr. Seuss-like plants.

 This is the oasis in the park and there are Cottonwood trees kinda growing out of Palm trees here. A very random site, it seemed 20 degrees cooler in the middle of these trees than it did 50 feet away.

 Besides the Joshua Trees (named by Mormons who were traveling from the Mexican/American War to Utah after the war was over), these were probably my favorite plant in the park.  It is an Ocotillo and is not a cactus. This is a close up view of the leaves that are just growing without stems from the branches.

 On the top of the long tendrils is a red flower. Some of these plants looked dead and were void of foliage, but were just dormant, waiting for another rain storm.

 Here are pictures of a different type cactus called Cholla. They say not to step on the little blown off bristles no matter how small, because they are tough, sharp and can penetrate the soles of shoes.
Be careful!

 The closeup shows the little yellow flowers that look like a berry.

 There were thousands of these in one area of the Colorado Desert.

 My cute hubby. It was 112 degrees and he just went along with my hikes and tours of this National Park without a complaint. What a nice guy!

 And,…. He takes great pictures too.

 The forest of Joshua trees, which are a type of Yucca, was remarkable.

 This little guy was not going to move a muscle. Maybe we wouldn't notice him at all.

 Hey there.

This arch looks like an elephant?

 The rock formations were as interesting as the flora and fauna. Mountains of rocks that appear stacked into formations.

We missed most of the wild desert flowers because of the late spring time that we were there, but we got to see a few of these gems.