Joshua Tree National Park, Murals of 29 Palms, Pioneertown

I just had to post up a bunch of photos of this beautiful area. We motored up to Joshua Tree national Park, a drive of almost an hour from Desert Hot Springs. It was a pretty drive going through Morongo Valley on the way. Joshua Tree was awesome! Fantastic rock formations, dotted with several rock climbers all over the place.

These photos were taken at Hidden Valley, where cattle rustlers hid out with their illegally obtained beef. The hike was somewhat rigorous, with lots of ups and downs. The Valley floor was fairly flat with pinon and junipers, as well as a few Joshua Trees and agave plants.

We had a nice lunch after our hike.

Throughout the park there are tons of Joshua Trees, not really close to each other, but as the photo here shows, they are spaced but many especially on the flatter areas.

We were fortunate that many of the trees were starting to blossom. This bunch of white will become simply huge in a short time. The trees' greenery are spiky in nature, and at the end of each spike is a very sharp end, like a needle. The trunks become bark-like with age, but most of the trees we saw had a covering of straw-like fringes covering the trunk.

On the way back to the RV Park, we stopped at PioneerTown, a 'fake' western Main Street (They spell it 'Mane Street'). The structures were built in the early 1950s in a movement by Gene Autry to create a movie set for his many motion pictures. Its season opens April 3, so we were early, and there wasn't much to see other than the buildings.

When active, there are concessions and gunfight recreations, with many folks in period costumes.

A real gem was found at the town of TwentyNine Palms. This community has a great city arts and beautification project ongoing since the 1990s. There are over 20 huge murals adorning the sides of many civic and privately owned buildings.

The quality of work is very good!

The one on the left is a tromp'l'oile work of the artist who fell asleep at his job. Click on the image to see how the murals has been gridded out.

I liked this one mostly because I enjoy vehicles. This is a bus/taxi service from the 30s and 40s from town to the Park.

We move on Wednesday morning, traveling to Rancho Oso RV Park, just north of Santa Barbara. We are excited to see more of California, and we have enjoyed what we have seen here in the Palm Springs-Desert Hot Springs area.