Rocks

We decided on going to Joshua Tree Park.

To get to the park,
was around 2 and half hour.

When we were driving towards it,
we didn’t planned anything there.

So we were free to explorer it, on the go.

First we made a stop at the visitor center,
to check-out all the possible view points.

We decided on viewing as much as possible,
so we chose to visit all the things with the shortest walk.

When we entered the park,
we entered a desert again.

We saw a sort of mountain,
created with all kind of different sizes of rocks.

To have a nice view,
we decided to climb it.

Jan choose to take the mountain on the left,
and Marlise and I the one on the right.

It was a harder climb then we initial thought

It was worth it,
because we had a nice overview over the desert.

We took a lot of pictures,
of the surroundings and of each other.

After marlise climbed down,
Jan climbed to the same mountain as me.

In the meantime Marlise took some pictures of us.

After our ‘photoshoot’ was done,
we climbed down and started driving again,
towards the dam.

Our next stop was a dam.
The walk to get there was around 2 Miles.

Walking around in Joshua Tree National Park

From one side it had a rock feeling.

Here’s a picture of the dam,
but it contained almost no water.

Because that was one of the only places with water,
there was some animal life.

But they disappear as soon,
as they heard people arriving.

If you walk the other way back to the parking,
it had the feeling of a desert park.

After we saw most of that viewpoint,

we planned on going to a cactus viewpoint.

When we arrived at the cactus viewpoint,

We had a beautiful view over the scenery.

The sun was setting.

They were a special kind of cactus,
who loses a lot of funny balls.

Because the cactus park was located at the end of the park,

We chose to take the highway back to LA,
instead of driving through the park again.

Because there are no lights in the park and from the moment it gets dark,
you have to drive extremely slow in the parks,
because the wildlife comes out and walks over the street.

But before we left the park,
I took a picture the sun set.

After that it was time to drive back to Los Angeles

It was the second day for Marlise and we planned on going to Las Vegas,
but first we wanted to make a stop in Death Valley.

So we had to wake up early in the morning and start driving.

During the trip we made several stops, to enjoy the views and stretch our legs.

We also made a stop here, because of the incredible amount of windmills, in the middle of nowhere!!

We weren’t even in Death Valley yet and it was already 94 Fahrenheit.
So we had to make another stop, because Marlise wanted to change her pants.
It was just too hot for normal pants.

Because we saw an open road and we had the feeling we were alone on the road, we started speeding.
And when you drive with an average of 110 MPH, you get around fast.
But our fuel tank was thinking the same, so we had to make a quick fuel stop in the middle of our trip to Death Valley.

And I’m happy we did it!!

Not only to prevent finding ourselves without fuel in the middle of the desert,
but also when we left the gas pump and started speeding again, Highway patrol past us.

We were so lucky that we just left the gas station,
because we were only driving 87 MPH at that moment (and the speed limit was 60 MPH).

They can even track your speed, while they are driving themselves, in the opposite side.
So he made a U-turn in the middle of the road with his big pick-up and started chasing us.
It was quite impressive and shocking at the same time, because I didn’t knew what to expect.

What would the price be for driving 27MPH above the speed limit,
would I lose my driving license,
did they had a radar on another point,
how much time would it take to get it fixed, …

After we stopped, he walked towards us with one hand on his gun and the other hand on the car.

He asked for my driver’s license, papers of the car, and some extra information.
Then he asked ,with a poker face and those typical police glasses, why I was speeding.
So I responded that I wasn’t paying attention and he gave me a weird look and went back to his truck.

When he came back and he gave me the good news.
I would get away with a warning.

But he also told me from the moment they catch me speeding again,
I have to go to court and I would receive this speeding ticket ($400) an additional ticket and some other additional costs.
So like a good citizen, I promised him I wouldn’t happen again and thanked him several times for giving me a warning.

But if you have been speeding most of the time 60MPH feels soooo slow.
But I did my best to keep it as an average speed.

After driving 4 hours we finally arrived at the entrance, of Death Valley.
So it was time to make a picture again.

And of course take some extra pictures of the nice view.

When you drive through Death Valley there is so much you could go to and see.

You could go to the Sand Dunes

Or go to Badwater Basin

Where we took the time to make a “selfie”.

Or climb to high points, so you have a nice overview.

Or check out (like they advertise) the “incredible rock bridge”.
First time we just walked by it, because we couldn’t believe that was it.

Or the dried out waterfall.

But after a while I had to do something more exiting, so I started climbing rocks.
Going up wasn’t that hard.

But the getting down part, was much harder.

But eventually I made it down, without falling, breaking something or ….
That made me so happy.

So after “a little adventure” back to the sightseeing,

The views where breathtaking.

The sun was setting so I it was time to take the bull by the horns

But then she got the upper hand.

So I started running away and hit the camera by accident, but the self timer made a nice picture by itself.

Eventually the sun vanished behind the mountains, so it was time to drive to Las Vegas.

But first I had to made some extra pictures of the stars, because they are really visual in Death Valley.

After our last photo was taken, we were back on our way to Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Here we Come!

Joshua Tree National Park

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A day in Death Valley

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