_: Adventures at Joshua Tree National Park

To celebrate a long Valentine's Day weekend, Joe and I took a short trip out to Joshua Tree National Park! It was a beautiful weekend filled with sunshine and warm days in the high 70s. We started out very early Saturday morning and enjoyed a scenic drive from the mountains out towards the Mojave Desert.

We decided to take a chance and bring our camping gear, almost all of the campsites in the park are first come, first serve. We drove through nearly all the campsites and had no luck, needless to say our first hour or so in the park was spent driving around looking for a spot with building frustration and desperation. Eventually Joe reached his limit and as a last ditch effort he asked a nice older couple if we could give them $20 for a $10/night site and camp on their site, as they were in a trailer and they had a large group site. Much to our surprise, they smiled and invited us over, saying that others had asked and didn't even offer to offset the cost--that he was more than happy to accommodate us at no cost since we were so respectful and sincere! So we ended up having quite a nice time with this couple, shared conversation over dinner, had a campfire, looked at the stars. It was one of those moments that reminded me that there are good people out there, it was heartwarming.

We probably did about 7 miles of hiking total, and saw an incredible landscape. It was a beautiful weekend getaway and definitely a visit to remember!

With the Jumbo Rock sign, pointing towards our campsite!

A beautiful picture of Jumbo Rocks, where our campsite was at! (Clearly not taken by me!).

Our tent set up at Jumbo Rocks!

Ready for our first hike of the trip at Ryan Mountain!

Joe on the trail at Ryan Mountain

We made it to the top!

As a tradition, we set up our alters at the top!

It was a long way up, but the hike brought some beautiful views!

After a long day, we settled in at Keys Point to catch the sunset.

The next morning we went to the Cholla Gardens and saw some funky cacti!

Driving to our next hike we saw some pretty awesome Joshua Trees!

For our last hike we trekked Fortynine Palms Oasis

Halfway through the hike we got a view of our destination--right in the middle you can see the tops of the

Palms down in the valley ahead of us. An oasis in the desert!

And what an Oasis it was! The palms provided a perfect place to get some shade and rest, have a snack, and enjoy some relaxation before the uphill hike back! There were huge boulders to climb and rest on, and below was a little swamp area with frogs and bugs of all kinds!