From the Ocean to the Desert

From San Luis Obispo, we traveled inland towards Palm Springs, braving the outskirts of Los Angeles along the way. This drive was much different than the others, because it never really seemed like we left "the city." There were no stretches of open road and we simply went seamlessly from town to town, with a steady four to seven lanes of interstate traffic. Our destination campground was located just outside of Palm Springs in the Palm Desert. The weather was wonderful--between 70 and 80 degrees, sunny, and dry. The best part about our stay was that we were only a short drive away from Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree has an incredible landscape--unlike anything we have experienced before. We felt like we were living in a Dr. Seuss book with all the strange and uniquely structured plant life. Our first stop was at a short hiking trail through the massive rocks that spattered this desert landscape. Again, photographs do not do these rocks justice, but trust that we were absolutely dwarfed by them.

Along further down the road, we drove into a huge patch of Cholla Cactus and were intrigued to explore. These cacti only further rooted our experience in a Dr. Seuss story with their strange, twisty, gnarled branches. Their color was a gorgeous ombre from dark brown at their roots to an almost white at their tops. Beware of these beauties, however. We have never seen such a nasty and sticky set of spikes! They drop little balls of needles all over the ground, and if you are caught gawking like we were, it's easy to stick some in your shoes, pants.....or hands.

After our cactus adventure, we continued down a dirt road through the park. As the sun was going down, we passed huge piles of White Tank granite rocks. They contrasted with the perfectly flat desert landscape, and looked like they had been so carefully placed there by some giant thousands of years ago.

I'll leave you with this fitting image of our lovely Jeep under a Joshua Tree. We really look forward to returning to the park to continue our exploring!

Headin' Down South to the Land of the Sun

After almost two solid weeks of rain, we were definitely ready for some sunshine. On the 23rd of December, we packed up our home and headed for San Luis Obispo. I specifically mentioned the date because our route included driving right through Sacramento. Not only did we venture onto interstate with more lanes than we had ever seen before, but the traffic two days before Christmas was a spectacle to behold. For many, this is probably a normal sight. However, for us, one of whose hometown has affectionately named their only major highway "The Road," and the other whose home is a good thirty minutes from the nearest town, driving through the big city was quite an experience. But we safely made it through, and had the promise of sun and sand waiting for us ahead.

San Luis Obispo is a beautifully varied place. We experienced everything from rocky beaches and vast fields of sand dunes to rolling hills covered in luscious green grasses. One adventure took us on a 4-wheel drive only road up to the crest of those rolling hills. We had a 360 degree view, and could see all the way to the ocean.

On Christmas day, we took a drive up the coast to a place called Moonstone Beach. This was the first place on our drive that we were able to practice our rock hounding skills. What a blissful feeling it is to be searching through an entire beach's-worth of sand and rock, and to actually find beautiful little treasures! Below is a photograph of the sand we were looking through--it was pretty just on its own! Next is the collection of moonstones we found, which is actually a type of white agate. 

Our Christmas day concluded with a short drive up to an Elephant Seal viewing area. After an entire summer of viewing and learning about the Stellar Sea Lions in Alaska, I was very excited to see these guys. How fun they are! We were lucky enough be in the area during their mating and birthing season, so there was much to see. It's hard to convey the immense size of these creatures, even through photographs. Keep in mind that the males can weigh up to 2.5 tons, while the females are much smaller at about 1 ton. 

Many of the seals congregated in big piles on the beach, but some chose to escape the chaos and had a little plot to themselves. We saw a few dominance fights amongst the males, and even a couple tiffs between the females. These guys make hilarious noises, and their smell is certainly just as extreme!

 

Much of the seal's time was spent soaking in the warm sun rays, which seemed like a good way to spend your time to us!

First Stop: Northern California

    

After about a month on the road, it's surely about time for an update. Our first stop was outside of a little place called Oregon House, California. Our reservation was for 14 nights, so we had plenty of time to explore and get to know the area--or so we thought. We arrived just before a massive storm hit the area, dumping inches of rain for days on end. Most of our time was spent trying to stay dry, but a few days before our departure, we were blessed with some sunshine. We decided to take advantage of it and went to explore a nearby reservoir and national forest. These places happened to be higher up in the Sierra Nevadas, and as we ascended, we were enveloped in a shroud of fog--a photographer's dream come true! It was an absolutely beautiful day.

In our exploring, we found some logging roads that extended off of the main highway. We decided to see how our Jeep would perform doing what she was intended for, off-roading! As you can see, she not only pulls our home-on-wheels with grace, but she can dominate the Northern California back country as well.

Many of the plants we encountered were completely saturated from the days of heavy rainfall. I'm sure this made them all happy (and beautiful to photograph), but John and I were glad we had donned our rubber boots for the day!

 The campground we stayed in, Lake of the Springs RV Resort, was very charming. It was heavily forested, making each campsite fairly private. The campground sits on the edge of a lake, where you can boat, fish, and even swim on warm days. Activities from line dancing to horse shoes were offered, our favorites being pool, ping pong, and air hockey. The best part about this campground, in my opinion, was all the wildlife. Almost every morning we would wake up to three or four deer standing IN our campsite. Talk about getting up close and personal with nature!