My last post was Feb. 1. We have returned to Seattle and now that I have a functional computer I will recap the rest of our travels to California. While we were gone Seattle endured winter storm Maya that dumped over a foot of snow on the city and kept temps freezing for days. We have lots of downed limbs in our yard, our car’s battery had to be replaced, and the portable garage that protected Picasso (our camping trailer) is toast. It’s still in the mid 30’s, but we don’t anticipate more snow in the city today.

Overnight in Indio on Feb. 1 we received a huge rainfall that flooded streets. The next day we planned to visit a Whitewater Preserve near Palm Springs, but when we arrived the road was washed out and the trails were closed.

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With that option closed to us we decided to explore the west side of Joshua Tree National Park. The highway to that side was close to Whitewater Preserve. At Yucca Valley we drove over streets filled with water, sand, and mud from the storm, but made it to Black Rock Nature Center. After a brief stop for lunch and bathroom we drove with 4 wheel drive up a rutted track to a trailhead. This part of the park is at almost 4000 feet elevation. (Indio is at 0.) It was in the 30’s and the wind was about 20 mph…what were we thinking?

However, the scenery in this high area was interesting. The joshua trees were just beginning to bloom. They are a most interesting plant that genetically are closely related to yucca and asparagus!

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Paul