Dust, devil and desert

Joshua Tree

So a nice later start for us to day, with less of a distance to travel to Joshua Tree National Park in the Yucca Valley. We started off with a bit of Route 66 action in Seligman, Arizona where I picked up plenty of merchandise for me and others. But some solid and uneventful driving followed. One thing I noticed about Arizona was their odd road names having seen Devil Dog Rd, Happy Jack St and Proving Ground Rd on the way. What was amazing was the fact it was 5⁰C when I woke up at 7am and 36⁰C at our first stop at 10am.

But today was my first stint in the co-driver's seat, helping our tour guide Abby out with some menial tasks and being the DJ. DJ Killa was in da house! From Wisconsin and a big Green Bay Packers fan, Abby also studied journalism like myself and did a bit of work with her local paper before she found her true tour guide calling. She's so friendly and energetic and knowledge and couldn't be better at making everyone feel happy and welcome and informed and having fun. I might have to return the favour with the driving when she travels to Australia.

Much of our travels today took part in the lifeless Mojave Desert, but for several dust devils. Basically they spin like tornadoes but are just dirt. We saw about 15-20 during our drive between the magma-formed mountain ranges. And thanks to Abby's driving, I had my first dust devil intercept! I was always hoping for it and had basically given up before about 100m away we saw a 6-7m wide dust devil right in front of us! We drove straight through it and there was a little bit of a gust of wind and a shake of the van and that was it. But exciting stuff. Hopefully that's a sign of things to come next week.

Dust devil

The intercepted dust devil west of Twentynine Palms

Then on to Joshua Tree, a very rocky and warm place. Joshua Tree is in the same family of the Yucca some of you would probably know. The rock formations were pretty similar to those you would see back home in Australia, but no two rocks are the same I guess. There were a few interesting rocks which resembled horses and shoes and that. We had a bit of a walk around, which was a leisurely end to the day for most people who fell asleep during the drive. In the park we also got to see part of the San Andreas Fault, which runs parallel to the US west coast. It's probably one of the most widely known fault lines in the world.

The "Merv Hughes" Joshua Tree

Woah! San Andreas faultin the background right.

To celebrate our final night together as a group we headed bowling in Twentynine Palms, just a little down the road from where we stayed. We toasted Abby for her amazing ability to make sure we saw everything possible during our time and putting up with us all for a week!

On to our final destination LA tomorrow. We'll be having a little Hollywood tour and some of us will be spending the end of the day at Venice Beach, where I plan to watch the sun set.