Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree National Park: desert, rocks and coyote howling Where to watch sunsets

Located in the United States, California. Its total area is 3196 sq. km. The park was founded on October 31, 1994, when US President Clinton officially designated the Joshua Tree as a national park.

The park soon became widely known due to its proximity to Los Angeles. However, three-quarters of the protected area currently remains inaccessible to visitors.

Joshua Tree Park has the status of a desert. It is located at the point where two giant deserts of North America intersect - Mojave and Sonoran Desert. The southern and eastern sections of the national park resemble the Sonoran Desert in their vegetation - creosote bushes and "jumping" cacti grow here. cholya.

The western sections of the park are located higher, so they are more humid and cool. There are a lot of sprawling trees here. yucca. Stunning rock complexes are located in the central part of the protected area.

Joshua National Park Three has a developed network of hiking and horse trails. Their total length is 100 km. For this reason, numerous lovers of walking, trekking, horseback riding come here every year. Despite the fact that every year the park is visited by 1.25 million people, protected lands remain underdeveloped - there are no gas stations or hotels in the park.

Here you will not find any souvenir shops, restaurants or museums. Whole territory Joshua Tree Park includes paved and unpaved roads, horse trails, tent sites.

Attractions in Joshua Tree National Park

There are five oases in the national park - they are impressive bird cities. During the spring migrations, flocks of birds fly here from the Pacific Ocean. Oasis of Lost Palms is one of the biggest. The trail, which is seven kilometers long, connects it to an oasis called the Spring of the Cotton Tree. In this area you can see plants such as yucca, jojoba, as well as a variety of cacti.

blooming desert- an amazingly beautiful sight. With the onset of spring showers, a colorful carnival of flowers begins on its territory: sand verbena, primroses, indigo bushes, desert lavender, and ocotillos bloom. Choli cacti, calico cactus and many other beautiful plants are pleasing to the eye.

Famous for its amazing lilies. Seeing their dazzling white flowers is quite difficult, because their flowering time varies from year to year. Typically, the Joshua tree blooms between February and April.

Address: 74485 National Park Drive, Twentynine Palms, CA, USA

Many people dream of the stunning nature of US national parks, and for some, these dreams come true. This summer, Dmitry Sosnov, a television director from Minsk, was lucky enough to make such a dream trip: from Las Vegas to the Canadian border, through California, Utah, Arizona and Montana, through the scorching desert, the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Indian lands, a real flood, mountains and glaciers. Read the story about an exciting road trip and get ready for what you urgently want to do after it.

We drove out of Las Vegas at noon in a southerly direction. My companions (my brother and his wife) did not tell me anything about their plans, it was a surprise trip - I only knew that something grandiose and dangerous was ahead of us, for which mining lanterns were purchased on the forehead, special plastic bags with a straw for water called Camelback and closed clothing. The journey has begun.

Joshua Tree National Park

Just past the fantastic Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, we turned off the highway onto a narrow local road and plunged into the Mojave Desert. Classic landscapes from movies about the wild west floated past: endless expanses, cacti and succulents (the desert was not so deserted), mountains. Somewhere around here, Heisenberg and Pinkman could have been brewing meth, I understand that it's in a different state, but it's very similar! We drove without stopping, and in the evening we reached the Hidden Valley Campground in Joshua Tree National Park. It costs $25 to enter the park (this is a one-car pass valid for a week). The campground itself is a path along which you drive by car past numbered places, when you find an unoccupied one, you can stop and set up camp. But within an hour you need to return to the beginning and pay ($ 15 per day), they will give you a receipt that you need to hang on a sign with the number of your site. It is forbidden to stop outside the equipped places. Each site has a table, benches and a fire pit with a built-in barbecue grill. It is only important to know: you need to bring firewood with you.

Joshua Tree is a place where rocks are heaped here and there in the desert, to which weathering has smoothed the corners and given soft outlines, and strange joshua trees grow everywhere, silhouetted like primates dancing with maracas. They gave the park its name. And there are also a lot of squirrels living here, who unceremoniously hang out among people in the hope of grabbing something from their table - which, by the way, is better not to allow, otherwise you can earn a large fine - feeding wild animals in the park is prohibited.

The setting sun created lighting for these already amazing landscapes that all photographers are in love with. Having set up camp, we climbed the rocks until sunset, admired and took pictures. At night, as many stars poured out in the sky as I have never seen before. It is at such moments that you begin to regret that you understand almost nothing in the constellations. I fell asleep, lying on a flat stone and looking at the sky. We woke up before dawn and again climbed the rocks and climbed into the caves.

Sequoias (Sequoia National Forest)

After Joshua Tree, we stopped for a few days in Los Angeles, and from there we drove north to the Sequoia National Forest in the Sierra Nevada mountains. In the town of Springville (Springville) we met with the owner of the house, where we were going to spend the night. He showed us maps and gave us directions to local attractions, which included a 3,000-year-old sequoia at a place called Sequoia Crest. Describing the diameter of the trunk, the peasant said something like “here and before that shed,” no one, of course, believed him.

The road there is a serpentine climbing to a height of two thousand meters, a mountain river running along the bottom of the gorge, huge mountains overgrown with forests, so unusual after the deserts of the south. Sequoia Crest is a cluster of cottages in the mountain forests where rich old people live for their own pleasure away from the bustle of the world. There was an ordinary forest around: perhaps among the trees there were sequoias, but they were too young to somehow stand out from the rest.

“And then a snake crawled across the road, and we immediately saw what, in fact, we were driving here for - two gigantic Christmas trees.”

I was struck not by the size, but by their proportions: thick red pillars, practically without narrowing, stretch upwards and get lost in the crown, as if chopped off. At the very tree, which is 3 thousand years old, the top is destroyed by lightning. Fortunately, sequoia wood does not burn well, and is generally not suitable for any use, otherwise they would hardly have survived to this day. The chief local aksakal soon showed up in the depths of the forest, and really matched the description of "from here to before that barn." There was a charred crack at the bottom of it, through which it was possible to freely exit to the other side of the tree.

As we were leaving this place, on a sudden impulse, I went up to the three thousand year old giant and put my ear to the trunk. Some inner feeling told me what to ask. "What's the best beer in town?" And the sequoia answered: "General Sherman IPA"!

The distances between other local beauties and wonders are rather big, and being in the dark on an unfamiliar mountain road in a place full of deer, elk and bears is not the best end to the day. So we went down from the mountains and stopped by the store, where they chose General Sherman from the entire assortment, and it turned out to be the best IPA that I had ever tasted in America.

“The day ended around the fire with hot dogs, beer and coyotes that walked around, eyes sparkling from the darkness and hunting for someone in the thickets surrounding the house.”

Grand Canyon National Park

Then we went to watch the Grand Canyon - this was the very Great Adventure for which we bought special equipment. We were going to go down to the very bottom and spend the night there. An application must be made to the National Park Service four months prior to the intended visit date to obtain permission to do so, as the number of people staying overnight in the Canyon at any one time is limited and strictly regulated.

All day we drove through the desert to the east, to. Mountain ranges, ridges, ridges and other geological formations of different colors, shapes and structures floated past. It was striking that there were no traces of human activity in such vast and beautiful expanses. No change houses, landfills, excavations and roadside garbage. Only a great road and service - if you come across a hypermarket in the middle of the desert, you can find everything there!

“Eight o'clock in the morning, around the red rocks, the tops of which are just the bottom step of the stairs called the Grand Canyon, we are cut off from the whole world at its bottom, there is a whole day of rest ahead. It's time to drink the beer you brought with you. But it's warm."

As it turns out, there is a bar here. Having set up camp and plunged into the red waters of the stream, we went there to explore. The beer in the bar turned out to be frankly cheap by American standards. Given that they deliver it here only by dropping it from a helicopter, and all the competitors are left in the outside world, 5 bucks for a 0.35 liter can is an incredibly generous offer, almost for nothing.

While we were lounging in the bar and playing board games with our camping neighbors (a Mexican and a Swede), the outside temperature rose to 50 degrees Celsius. When we got to our camp through this hell, we simply climbed into the shallow, but turbulent and cool Angel Bright Creek and wallowed there like seals in a rookery until the shadow of a rock fell on us. At three o'clock in the morning we were waiting for a new rise for the most unforgettable in this journey - the return from the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Loaded, with fresh water in pitch darkness, we again set out on the path along the Bright Angel Trail. Its advantage is that after sunrise most of the way you still walk in the shade, but this way is longer by 4 km (only about 15 km). We were overtaken by our acquaintances, a Mexican and a Swede: tapping with special sticks, they, like real walkers, briskly rushed past, arousing envy and respect.

The ascent took about 8 hours. Part of the path passed along the Garden Creek stream with waterfalls. There were places to rest (Indian Garden, Three Mile Resthouse, Mile-and-a-half Resthouse), but we passed them, preferring to just fall to the ground in any place where fatigue piled up. It was interesting to watch how you are overtaken by people whom you had just overtaken yourself, and then again pass them, lying exhausted on the stones. In a few hours, they all became almost family, and the exchange of greetings turned into a kind of fun that continued until the people began to run out of steam. After Three Mile Resthouse (that is, five kilometers before the end of the path), the shadow ended, the climb became steeper, and the trail went in wide zigzags. It was here that I appreciated my Camelback - no need to stop to get a bottle, no need to open and close anything, just put a straw in your mouth, squeeze it with your teeth and drink as much as you want without slowing down. The last one and a half miles were the hardest, especially irritating cheerful and cheerful people who cheerfully walked towards us, just starting their descent. At one of the turns we caught up with our acquaintances: the Mexican was sitting on a stone with a contorted face, his leg was cramping. In such conditions, it is recommended to eat salty food, because sweat removes salt from the body, and this is precisely what cramps and other unpleasant things can begin. We gave the poor man salted nuts.

The edge of the plateau was already very close, but the damned loops that the path made were squeezing the last of our strength out of us, and the sun had reached its zenith. We climbed to the very top with difficulty, any movement was given through aches and groans. But moral satisfaction compensated for all the costs - we did it! According to statistics, only 1% of everyone who comes to see it descends to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Navajo Indian Lands

Further, our path lay in the land of the Navajo Indians. There we had a reserved house in Shash Dine "EcoRetreat. No connection, no electricity, outdoor toilet, shower - a structure like a dressing room on the beach and a couple of buckets of sun-warmed water. Living in such close to natural Indian conditions cost us $ 150 per night The house itself looks like Ellie's trailer, but there are even more authentic options that look like a large anthill.Inside ours there was a double bed, a cot, a fireplace, a couple of chairs, rugs and mats with traditional ornaments.Alcohol is prohibited on the reservation, and modern Indians wear jeans and drive pickup trucks Our traditional Indian breakfast consisted of blue corn porridge, sliced ​​fruit, honey, coffee and cream.

"No connection, no electricity, toilet outside - living in Indian land cost us $150 a night."

The lands of the Indians are full of amazing places: Lake Powell, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon. There is also a place whose images are replicated around the world. You may not know what it's called or where it's located, but you've definitely seen it in pictures. This is Horseshoe Bend. It takes about a kilometer to walk from the parking lot to the observation point, but it is unlikely that anyone has ever regretted their deeds by going this way. From a great height you see how the Colorado River bends in a horseshoe in a deep canyon, enjoy the scale and colors. Here you need to come, sit down and contemplate. For hours. There are no fences here, everyone determines for himself the limit of safety. Every year there are cases of people falling into the abyss. More often it's suicide, but sometimes someone breaks down trying to take a cool selfie.

Zion National Park

We crossed the Utah border, and again mountains of all shapes and colors rushed past us, only the vegetation became more and more. The next target was Zion National Park. We drove into it through a tunnel under a mountain and immediately found ourselves somewhere in southeastern Narnia: a picturesque green valley surrounded by red rocks seemed to have descended from the pages of a fantasy novel.

A trail begins nearby, along which through forests and rocky slopes, over blue mountains and misty valleys, you can reach the neighboring peak. We never saw a bear or a cougar, but we did see a lot of chipmunks and attacked thickets of hackleberry, a variety of reddish blueberries.

“It is worth noting the most unusual experience on Cougar Peak - taking a gun with you when you go to the toilet at night. It's hard to forget that."

Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park, located in the very north of Montana in the Rocky Mountains on the border with Canada. As the name implies, the park is famous for its glaciers, which, unfortunately, are gradually disappearing, and the forecasts are disappointing. However, from September to July there are snows. Therefore, we dressed warmly, and the most beautiful and diverse Montana rushed before our eyes - forests, mountains, rivers, steppes, lakes, small towns, Indian ranches, cherry orchards, deer and bears (I personally saw it!). We entered the park through the western checkpoint, paying $ 30. Then the road went along the shore of Lake McDonald, began to climb up and over the very edge of the abyss along the steep slope of the Bishops Cap mountain led to the Logan Pass Visitor Center. We arrived in August and experienced a short glacial summer. Melted snowdrifts still lay here and there, streams ran everywhere, flowers were full of flowers, butterflies flew and chipmunks jumped. Here, at an altitude of more than two thousand meters, the trail to Hidden Lake begins. It passes through the alpine meadows of the Garden Wall and descends along the slope of Clements Mountain to the lake, on the opposite bank of which rises Bearhat Mountain, covered with patches of unmelted snow. It was quite possible to shoot the last part of The Hobbit here. Several more peaks are clearly visible from the trail, with a height of 2500 meters, some of which are shrouded in clouds.

“On the way you meet athletically built bighorn goats and big-horned sheep that can gallop on sheer cliffs.”

Having reached the lake, we, of course, swam. The water was cold: the temperature of the upper layers never rises above 10 C. Of all the places we visited on this trip, it was Glacier Park that turned out to be the most beautiful and exciting for me. It may not be as outlandish and incredible as the parks of southern California, Utah or Arizona, and more familiar to the European eye, but I have always been closer to the nature of the north.

info

Entrances to national parks by car usually cost $20-30 - the pass will be valid for a few days. For $ 80 you can buy an annual subscription to visit any US national parks.

You can spend the night in national parks in campsites, if there are free sites. Cost - an average of $ 10-30 per day. The receipt of payment must be hung on a sign with the number of the site. Near the site you will find iron boxes where you need to hide food supplies from animals.

Firewood is worth taking with you, as is a gas burner - in some national parks, due to the threat of fires, burning a fire is strictly prohibited. 6979

And then we went to another national park, Joshua Tree National Park, to once again communicate with the most creative trees in the world. We got into it just before sunset and instantly fell in love with this park. Since there was no time left to explore the sights, we decided to definitely return here, and soon we did! In this article, I will tell you where is the best place to meet sunsets and sunrises in Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree (Joshua Tree) is a yucca tree, the tree of Joshua, or yucca brevofolia. The name of the tree was given by the Mormons who crossed the Colorado River, and when they saw a tree-like yucca, they decided that it was the prayer of Joshua embodied in the plant with hands raised to the sky. Like a prayer to the setting and rising sun, the high desert of the Mojave appeared before us when we first arrived here.

Joshua three are not just tall yuccas, but whole trees with real bark! This was the main surprise. And the biggest surprise was that huge blocks of granite, which are of volcanic origin, have mysteriously accumulated in this place. Climbers enjoy coming to Joshua Tree and training on the local rocks.

As I said, I fell in love with these trees at first sight when we arrived at Joshua Tree Park at sunset. Since then we have been there two more times, staying for a few days. Joshua Tree is the most visited park in ours.

Joshua Three Park in California has several trails for those who like to walk among the thorny Joshua trees, bushes and other plants that are still rich in the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Yes, the park is located in two deserts at once! For information on how to get there, what to see in the park, if you come for the whole day or for several, see our detailed. And now I will talk about sunsets and sunrises.

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To see spectacular sunsets at the Joshua Tree Park, it is worth spending the night here. However, unlike other national parks in California and other states, like, or, there are no lodges inside the park in Joshua Tree. And there are only campsites.

We spent the night both in the territory of this park both in campsites and in hotels located in the cities at the entrance to the park. A hotel near Joshua Tree can be booked in Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree or Twentynine Palms in the north, or in Indio or Palm Springs in the south of the park ( direct link to Booking). Of course, it is better and more comfortable to sleep in a hotel, and you don’t need to carry camping equipment with you!). Based on our experience, we recommend an inexpensive decent hotel Super 8 in Yucca Valley.

But for sunsets, and especially sunrises, it’s easier to be already in the park in order to pack up in just five minutes and arrive on time to the desired point. From the nearest cities to the best points of observation of the setting sun - 15-20 miles. That is half an hour on the road. And driving in the dark is not the most pleasant experience.

Where is the best place to watch sunsets?

So, I’m talking about the best, in our opinion, places where it’s worth seeing off the sun in Joshua Tree Park. And coming here for the sunsets is a must! It's like being in and not seeing. Or do not go to the sunset at.

And in California itself, everyone prefers to be on the beach at sunset. We also visited the ocean on and on, and there is no doubt - it's wonderful. And yet we are always drawn back to the sunset in Joshua Tree.

The park has a road called Park Blvd that starts at the park's western entrance (Joshua Tree City) and ends at the northern entrance (Twentynine Palms). Or vice versa, depending on which side you come from.

Map of Joshua Tree Park (clickable)

Here are the best places to watch the sunset at Joshua Tree:

1. From Hidden Valley Campground to Cap Rock Trail the road (or rather its 1.5 miles) runs strictly from north to south. At the same time, the western side is open, while from the east there is a mountain, which is illuminated by the sun leaving the horizon. It is here that you should find a suitable place to meet the sunset with the most liked joshua trees or climb a rock. On our first visit to the park, we just passed here at sunset, and we were just lucky. But it was then that we noticed this place, and returned there more than once.
2. Hidden Valley Nature Trail. It starts at the picnic area of ​​the same name, where you can park your car and go hiking, choosing a convenient place along the way to watch the sunset.
3. Section of Keys View Road 2.5 miles from Cap Rock Park Boulevard turnoff to Lost Horse Mine turnoff. There, too, the west is open and you can admire the Joshua trees in all their glory.

And now I will show the sunsets in these places, as well as one sunset that we met in the part of the park where the Colorado desert reigns.

Sunset at the rocks of Hidden Valley

As I said, on the very first day we had very little time, we could only drive through the park by car. However, nature decided to show us all the magical beauty of Joshua Tree Park, and there were beautiful clouds in the sky. As dusk approached, the spectacle became more and more magnificent!

We still don't know what's ahead of us.

The rocks are gradually reddening

The mountains in the east are stained

And clouds filled the sky

By the way, someone climbed these rocks in advance and saw off the sun there!

And we even hung this photo on our wall!

There sit the lucky ones!

The second time we deliberately arrived at a section of the road on the park boulevard, which looks to the west and began to wait for the setting sun. And although this time the clouds were not so effects, but we still liked it!

Golden time

We enjoyed the view and went to spend the night at the Hidden Valley campsite. It is located very close

We also came to the same section of the road a few years later, and again saw off the sun there. With us there were guys from Los Angeles who were filming an amateur film. They needed a scene where the main character drives off into the sunset in a convertible. And as you can see, they chose the same place.

We also admired the joshua trees, trying not to disturb the young filmmakers.

And then the eastern mountain began to redden, like a whole mountain of sand, as we saw in a park in Colorado

We drove a little south towards Cap Rock.

Waiting for the lilac sky

Sunset at the Lost Palms Oasis trail

We also met the sunset on a hiking route to the Lost Palms Oasis, more precisely on the way back. This trail is located in the southeast part of the park in the Colorado Desert. It is quite difficult, but we managed to return just before sunset.

Joshua trees do not grow here, as they are typical of the Mojave Desert. But we admired other plants, such as jumping choya (Choya cactus), yucca and okotiyo.

Joshua Tree National Park is a wilderness park in California. Even in Russian there is a variant of the name " Joshua Tree", causing me to associate with some Arzamas-16. In fact, this is just a tracing paper from the English name: Joshua Tree. It takes its name from a species of tree that grows in the Mojave Desert. For hundreds of miles along the road to Las Vegas, there is nothing but desert, hills, and Joshua trees. And in this national park there are an unprecedented number of such trees - a real desert forest. The best time to visit it is winter and spring. There are two cities nearby: Palm Springs and Palm Desert. These are resort towns where the rich, who do not want to travel far, choose from Los Angeles (and not only) in winter. In winter, in these cities, the temperature is even more or less tolerable +25 ... +30 degrees Celsius. In what hell they turn in the summer, I'm even afraid to imagine.

From San Diego to "Joshua Tree" 250 kilometers with hook. It seems to be not very far, but in between times you can’t go any more. Nat has to travel to different cities for work, and when she needed to go to Palm Desert, we decided to use this opportunity - while she was working in the city, I dangled into the park.

The road passes through the San Gorgonio Pass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gorgonio_Pass) - the windiest place in Southern California, where a strong wind always blows. To harness the power of the wind, an array of windmills with a capacity of 615 megawatts has been built on the pass. (The truck at the bottom of the picture gives an idea of ​​the size of these windmills)

And since this is not just a windy place, but also a very arid desert with rare rains, here, among the windmills, there are solar power plants. All of these alternative energy sources reminded me of our trip to Sequoia National Park as we drove through other wind and solar farms. Apparently, alternative energy is an important part of California's energy supply.

Although in the valley the temperature had exceeded 35 degrees of heat, in some places in the mountains the remnants of snow were still white.

Mojave Desert

A road passes through the park from south to north, along which it is convenient to drive through it and see all the sights. The park itself is located on the territory of two deserts at once: Mojave and Colorado. Moreover, this is not just a separation from the lantern when a line is drawn on the map. This border can be easily determined even with the naked eye from the landscape and vegetation. It seems that just now there were Joshua trees around and, suddenly, they disappear and are replaced by yuccas, choya cacti and octoiyo bushes.

The northern part of Joshua Tree Park is replete with heaps of boulders and rocks.

These boulders are a favorite training ground for rock climbers. When the weather is good (and it is always good here, except during the summer months, which turn the desert into an oven), climbers are visible on almost every rock along the road.

There are low boulders, the size of a two-three storey house. And there are rocks that go somewhere into the sky and people climbing them seem like ants. These "climbing" places are concentrated mainly in the northern part of the park - in the Mojave Desert. The farther to the south, the lower the piles of stones become, and the higher monolithic rocks are less and less common.

In mid-March, the Joshua trees were in full bloom with greenish-yellow, fleshy flowers.

And at the end of April, among the thorns, whole bunches of either unripe berries or green nuts were already visible.

A little away from the through road is the Keys View point. When you travel through the park, you do not notice that this flat desert is located at an altitude of almost one and a half kilometers above sea level. And when you stop at Keys View, the mountains go down sharply and from a height of 1581 meters a view of tens of kilometers around opens up. At sea level, an endless valley stretches south and southwest of this point, and in some places it lies even lower. There are the cities of Palm Springs and Palm Desert. If you arrive at Keys View after dark, the cities look like a scattering of sparkling diamond dust scattered across the black blanket of the night desert. And above this scattering shines another diamond dust - stars scattered over the black veil of the night sky. The night on Keys Vew is dark and impenetrable, and the glitter of the distant city does not obscure the stars. Here is such a rare opportunity to see the stars above your head and the night city below at the same time.

The satellite towns of Palm Springs and Palm Desert from Keys View are clearly visible even during the day, and 50 kilometers to the south, the Salton Sea shimmers with a gray stripe, especially noticeable in good weather.

In the very center of the park there are places with a desert as smooth as a table, which is diversified only by the intricately twisted candelabra of Joshua trees.

And here, in the center of the park, lies a group of boulders - Jumbo Rocks. Jumbo Rocks - Giant Rocks are really huge. They differ from the northern rocks in that they consist almost exclusively of whole boulders of a rounded shape, many of which do not have a single crack! Only flies and small lizards can climb such boulders. Therefore, there are almost no climbers here. We wandered more than once in the stone labyrinths between Jumbo Rocks. You walk there, you walk ... It seems that you are about to go to the right place, and the passage suddenly turns in the other direction or ends in a dead end. Of course, you can’t get lost there - the place is quite compact, and it’s very interesting to walk through the labyrinths.

There are several camping sites in the central and northern parts of the park, which belong to the Mojave Desert. As a rule, these campsites are located among the picturesque stone ruins and for some reason are concentrated in the Mojave.

Colorado/Sonora Desert

The Colorado Desert is part of the greater Sonoran Desert that extends east into Arizona and south into Mexico. It occupies the southern half of the park. When you drive into this desert from the Mojave, you immediately notice the changes around.

The most characteristic plant of this desert is the cholla cactus. In Russian, the pronunciation of cholla is found, but in English it is pronounced in the Spanish manner - choya, so we also pronounce it that way.

Choya cacti look fluffy and soft. One of the varieties is even called "choya teddy bear" (teddy bear cholla). But it’s not even an hour when you touch such a “bear cub” ...

Choi needles are thin, sharp and extremely durable. They easily pierce any clothing and will have little difficulty in piercing non-leather shoes. More than once it happened that the choya needle went almost a centimeter into the soles of my sneakers like butter.

There are also less picturesque types of choya.

Inside the fleshy trunk of the choyi is a woody tubular "skeleton"

Ocotillo bushes (again the Spanish pronunciation of the word ocotillo) - often found in the Colorado desert. But for some reason, in Joshua Tree Park, ocotillos grow in only one place, which is called: Ocotillo Patch:

Of course, their trunks are also studded with sinister needles.

It is a pity that the winter of 2012-1013 was dry and there was no rain at all. If there were at least some rainfall, then in spring the desert would delight us with bright colors. And the trunks of the okotiyo would be covered with small leaves hiding the needles, and large clusters of bright red flowers would hang from the ends of the branches. (Photo of the blooming desert from previous trips:)

A typical landscape of the southern part of the Joshua Tree National Park:

in the foreground - Mojave Yukka (Mojave Yukka). Another plant with alternative ways of pronunciation. Some Americans pronounce it "ya-kka", and some "yu-kka". We prefer the yucca option, in our opinion it sounds somehow prettier - at least, it is not in tune with our “badass”.

Piles of stones are also found in the southern part of the park, but they are clearly different from the stones of the Mojave Desert - even the color is different, and they are not “climbing” at all.

At the southern entrance to the park there is a traditional information center, where they accept payment for visiting the national park, sell annual passes, postcards, souvenirs and other literature.

The park is definitely interesting and worth at least a day trip.

Information article about the most beautiful National and natural parks of California, photo, short background information.

1| Joshua Tree National Park - Joshua Tree National Park

This strange park is located in the Mojave Desert in the very south of California, 2 hours from Los Angeles. The site is located at an ecological crossroads between the high Mojave Desert and the low Colorado Desert. The result is an amazing desert flora, namely wonderful yucca trees called Joshua Tree (Joshua tree). Sunsets are especially bright here - at this time the desert is especially beautiful.

Joshua Tree park

Distance from Los Angeles - 200 km. or 2 hours by car.

2| Yosemite National Park - Yosemite National Park

Maybe, most beautiful park in california which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. Known for its waterfalls and granite monoliths, towering a kilometer above the surface of the park. 4 million visitors per year - the numbers speak for themselves, the size of the park is about 285 thousand hectares.

Yosemite is located on the Nevada border in northeastern California.

Yosemite National Park

Distance from Los Angeles - 450 km or 4.5 hours on the road

Distance from San Francisco - 265 km. or 3 hours on the way

How to rent a car while traveling in the USA?