mike & rhonda's latest adventure: Countin' the hours till I get home......

All the campgrounds in Joshua Tree National Park were listed as "full" but we drove through them all just to make sure (it has worked for us in the past), but to no avail so we spent the night in Twentynine Palms, close enough to return to the park the next day. It was close to a Marine Corps Land Base Camp which resulted in a plethora of barber shops advertising 'marine style' cuts and several tattoo parlours. We resisted the urge. They also have some nice murals on the sides of buildings reminding us of the town of Chemainus on Vancouver Island.

Joshua Tree NP, in the Mojave Desert is 3,000 feet above sea level, populated with rounded granite rockpiles and Joshua Trees, which really stand out in the high desert landscape. There are lots of rock-climbers active in the park.......a good place to learn and practice your skills (rather than the extreme conditions in Zion NP). On our first day we did a short hike in Indian Cove and scrambled up a rock pile. The next day we did a 5 km hike up to Ryan Mountain (5500 feet) which offered magnificent park views following a well maintained trail with lots of steps. The Keys View Road drive ended with wonderful views of Palm Springs and the Salton Sea. We capped off the day with an excellent ranger-guided tour of Desert Queen Ranch where Bill & Frances Keys were early homesteaders. Not sure how Bill talked city-girl Frances into staying and raising a family in this remote area but it probably started with Bill agreeing to go shopping with her on a Black Friday in the early 1900's (it involved a 2 day wagon ride back then).

We then drove on for a return visit to Las Vegas, a decision made following the Stampeders Western Final win over B.C. It was the only place we could be sure that the Grey Cup game would be televised in the U.S. Our X-friends (Dave, ex-Cottonwood and Annie, ex-Xerox) called a Vegas connection to hook us up with a 'comp' room (thank you Dave) providing the option to have our own Grey Cup party in our room.....the Sportsbooks were also showing the game but because of the ongoing NFL games there wasn't any sound so we preferred the all-Canadian atmosphere of our room. Unfortunately, no one else showed up for our party, including the Stampeders who played poorly in the loss to the Argos. We still had a good party anyway!

Yesterday we drove 2 hours north to St. George, Utah where we will get the camper van prepared for the colder weather further north. Today we played our final golf round of the year at Sky Mountain, a nicely maintained course with beautiful views of the surrounding red rock canyons. The golf gods even presented the birthday girl with a birdie on a par 4 hole. A hot tub and a birthday dinner celebration followed.

Tomorrow we have an early morning appointment to get the van 'winterized' and then we will drive one hour north to the NW corner of Zion NP for a 10 km hike in Kolab Canyon, an area we haven't visited yet in one of our favourite U.S. National Parks. After that we will begin our drive back to Alberta. The weather forecast looks good so we expect to arrive back home sometime on Friday. Time to put the flip flops away.