Day 32 - From the City to the Desert

Even though we only spent 2 nights in LA, we woke up feeling like we had spent a week in the city and were itching to get back to some nature.
Before we headed out of town, our gracious host, Gerald, treated us to one more amazing LA meal.  We had brunch at Botega Louis' and stuffed ourselves on pancakes, eggs, granola and yes of course, pizza.  Gerald helped us carry our bags out to the old Subaru and laughed as he realized we really were living out of our car.  We convinced Gerald to pose for one photo with Squirrelly and we were on our way.

We had about a 3 1/2 hour drive ahead of us so we only made one stop in Redlands to get some groceries and for Dan to get a quick haircut.  We could already feel the temperature rising so we started to brace ourselves for the impending heat of Joshua Tree.

We arrived at the Joshua Tree Visitor Center moments before it was closing and were able to learn that there were plenty of campsites available (apparently nobody goes to the desert in the middle of the summer, who knew?)

This was my first trip to the desert and I was immediately blown away by the harsh landscape set against the expansive sky.

We drove to the campground and chose a site tucked against a huge boulder that would provide us some shade in the blistering heat.  We set up the tent, choosing to sleep with the rain fly off!

Thank god for shade!

 It was still extremely hot but the sun was starting to get lower in the sky and the temperature seemed to be cooling down slightly.  We decided to take advantage of the evening light and went for a walk to take some photos.

Fun with shadows

So that's what a Joshua Tree looks like

We wisely chose a dinner that didn't require cooking and was somewhat healthy (after all the eating and drinking we needed it!)  We made a spinach salad with strawberries, tomatoes and avocados and ate it while watching the beautiful desert sunset.  Even though Dan usually says "salad isn't dinner, it's what dinner eats" I think on this night, he enjoyed it.

Had we not been so exhausted from LA the heat may have made sleeping difficult.  But once our heads hit the pillow (after some stargazing, of course) we were out.