We slept in this morning. Sharon had suggested we visit the Mojave Desert Lava Tube and a Sand Dune. But both of which were difficult to get to. So we slept in until about 8AM.

The manager of the hotel was cooking breakfast including eggs and omelettes. The hotel breakfast room was small and crowded and Sharon convinced me that we should skip breakfast and eat our sweet rolls in the room. There must have been a misunderstanding with the manger who said he was waiting on me to place my egg order as we were packing up. Technically the breakfast ended at 8:45AM and I figured if we weren’t there it was a sign we weren’t coming. I said I was sorry. Later on we gave our keycard to the maid (who offered to take it) so there wouldn’t be an awkward conversation with the manager about the missed breakfast.

We drove a good two hours to 29 Palms. Along the way we saw towns and settlements remiscent of Perfection from Tremors. Honestly I don’t know how these people made a living if just on ranching cattle. As we got closer to 29 Palms the Joshua Trees became more and more frequent, dotting the landscape and in people’s yards.

29 Palms seems much bigger than it actually is. The downtown business section is a bit small. It is near a military base and also it appears to be a gateway to Joshua Tree National Park, with the park headquarters in town, a good 3 miles from the actual entrance. We stopped at the headquarters and overheard the ranger telling another visitor that parking lots were full and they should consider just finding a legal parking space at a less visited park attraction. Sure enough as we entered the park at 12 noon many of the parking lots were full. We decided to drive to the other side (and hopefully less crowded) part of the park.

We ate lunch at the southern end of the park. It was too cold to eat outside, so it was back to the car for us.

We managed to stop by Cholla Cactus garden after the crowd had died down and we found a place on the side of the road to park. These cacti are otherworldly. It would be something I would expect to see on Star Trek. Sharon and I wanted to go to Keys Point – the highest point in the park. As we were driving there we saw low hanging clouds and decided the view probably wasn’t optimal. We decided o drive back to the Cholla garden for some sunset photos of the cacti.

Our hotel is a converted apartment complex. We have a kitchen, den, and bedroom. Sharon and I bought ingredients to make spaghetti and had a nice meal before I did laundry.

Tomorrow we plan on seeing more of Joshua Tree National Park, hopefully timing our visit to avoid the crowds.