Joshua Tree

No, its not the U2 Album, but the National Park. Last time I was there was back in 2004. I remember the time for two specific reasons: My wife and I were students and was doing a camping trip around California, and it rained and rained non-stop during the entire month we were there. Secondly, it was 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, we heard it in radio was we were camping in the Yosemite. We heard the news and thought okay, that is sad, and we were sick and tired of the rain! Where can we go to escape the rain? Well, Joshua Tree National Park. That was my first time there. I was positively surprised by the remoteness of the park while within 2 hours from LA. That didn't make sense at all. This time around in 2024, 20 years later, I thought, it is still not a very popular park, but let us take kids there, and they might like the granite boulders. They did!

This time around we didn't camp, but stayed at a condo around Palm Desert, CA, which is a nice little town by itself, if you haven't been there. It takes, just about 45 min drive to hit the Cholla Cactus Garden from there, a place that our kids enjoyed. Although the rail through the garden was closed, there was enough things were see along side the park highway.

Boulders

Joshua Tree will full of granite boulder. The deep monzogranite batholith that got slowly denuded and exposed created a lot of exfoliation joints and fracture. Over time with erosion and enlargement of fracture the landscape created numerous boulders, and it become one of the best bouldering/climbing destination of the world.

Not only for professional climbers, but also for kids, these boulders gives them ample opportunity to explore and just let them spend time outside without a care in the world. These boulders are not particularly tall, so if they fall, it is typically minor scratches with not broken bones, which is great for the parents!

Sunsets are usually gorgeous and the place commonly features beautiful lenticular clouds that we rarely get to see in Houston. All in all, our family had a great time to unwind and recharge.