Nasty Austrian🇦🇹 Conquers da 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦

[big oil]

Park Boulevard continues over Sheep Pass into Queen Valley and another Joshua tree forest. The 18-­mile Motor Geology Road runs south through the valley, with 16 stops along the way that explain how the park’s dramatic landscape was formed. Anchoring the valley’s eastern edge is eerie Skull Rock, a natural formation that looks like a skeleton’s head. Exiting the valley, Park Boule­vard makes a sharp turn to the north and a rendezvous with a lush palm grove, the Oasis of Mara, located beside the Oasis Visitor Center.

 

[big oil]

Alternatively, you can drive Pinto Basin Road into the park’s lesser­known eastern expanse where other iconic desert plants—cholla cactus, ocotillo, cottonwood trees, and California fan palms—over­shadow the Joshuas. Cottonwood Visitor Center anchors the park’s southeast corner and a hiking area that includes trails to Mastodon Peak (3 miles) and the remote Lost Palms Oasis (7.5 miles). Just outside the park, the General Patton Memorial Museum at Chiriaco Summit includes a large collection of battle tanks and mementoes of the gener­al’s military exploits.

 

[big oil]

Joshua Tree is an all-year park. Temperatures are most comfortable in the spring and fall, with an average high and low of 85°F and 50°F. Winter brings cooler days, around 60°F, and freezing nights. Summers are hot, with midday temperatures frequently above 100°F, and ground temperatures reaching 180°F. The Mojave Desert zone on the park’s western half is on average 11 degrees cooler than the Colorado. In winter, snow may blanket the Mojave's higher elevations.

 

[big oil]

Spring blooming periods vary according to winter precipitation and temperatures, usually beginning in February at lower elevations and peaking park-wide in March and April, although cactuses may bloom into June.




Skull Rock

 

[big oil]

The park’s premier attractions—forests of giant branching yuccas known as Joshua trees, massive rock formations, fan palm oases, and seasonal gardens of cholla and ocotillo—can be enjoyed on a leisurely half-day auto tour that includes both “high” and “low” desert zones—although most of your time will be spent in your car. Scenic paved roads lead to viewpoints, all campgrounds, and trailheads. Roadside interpretive exhibits have pull-outs and parking areas, and offer insights into the region’s complex desert ecology, wildlife, and human history.

 

[big oil]

If you plan to explore the park by mountain bike, you would be wise to avoid the main paved roads, which are narrow and without shoulders. You’ll find far greater solitude and safety cycling the park’s backcountry dirt roads, many of which, like those in Queen Valley, date from the area’s 19th-century homestead and goldmining era. Be sure to acquire reliable information from headquarters about your route, however, as soft sand and occasional steep climbs can make for arduous pedaling.

 

[big oil]

For a half-day visit starting from the park’s northern boundary, take the Park Boulevard loop either from the town of Joshua Tree through the West Entrance Station, or from Twentynine Palms, by way of the North Entrance Station. If the air is clear (ask at the entrance about haze conditions), take the 20-minute side trip to 5,185-foot-high Keys View, which overlooks a vast panorama of arid desert basin and range stretching south into Mexico. If you are starting from Joshua Tree, return to Park Boulevard and continue east over Sheep Pass to Jumbo Rocks, turning right (south) onto Pinto Basin Road for the drive down into long vistas in the Colorado Desert zone. Be sure to stroll the self-guided nature trails through the Cholla Cactus Garden and the Ocotillo Patch.

 

[big oil]

Backtrack to Twentynine Palms and the Oasis Visitor Center, which features a small cactus garden and superb desert ecology interpretive displays. It adjoins the historic Oasis of Mara (one of five spring-fed oases within the park's boundaries), where Indians once found water, shade, food, and game. If you are starting from Twentynine Palms and the Oasis Visitor Center, proceed south as far as the Ocotillo Patch, then backtrack to Park Boulevard and follow it westward to Joshua Tree.

 

[big oil]

 

[big oil]

The sun was dropping quickly upon the horizon and my low fuel light began glowing.

 

[big oil]

I was near Twentynine Palms, California, low on fuel, decided to not continue on to TP, California for fuel, I'd have plenty of fuel to ride back west along the paths inside Joshua Tree National Park towards Joshua Tree, California.



See the one hiker at the top of this rock formation?

 

[big oil]

Now you should be able to see the lone person up there admiring the view.

 

[big oil]

What a magical experience it was to visit this place.  I can't wait to go back and spend more time at Joshua Tree National Park.

 

[big oil]

 

[big oil]

I made it to the city of Joshua Tree, California spitting and sputtering as I coasted into the gas station parking lot.  I noticed the gas pumps had an odd looking thingamabob on the gas hose dispenser.  I'd not ever seen anything like this before.  I inserted my credit card into the gas pump, got cleared to pump, inserted the dispense into my fuel tank, pulled the lever to begin dispensing fuel, but it wouldn't work.

I went inside the gas station to ask the attendant to turn on the pump, she replied that it was on.  I explained my predicament to her, asked her what I may be doing wrong, she didn't have a clue and wasn't very helpful.  I figured it had something to do with the strict air pollution standards.  She told me to press the nozzle into my tank and the fuel would begin to flow.

I went back outside to try it again, no luck.  I thought there was something wrong with the pump, so I tried another pump, no luck.  I was like ****, I'm a long way from my hotel, the sun is down, it's dark and I'm out of fuel.

I saw another fuel station down the road a ways.  I started the bike, jammed it into gear and got going fast enough to where I could shut my bike down and coast to the next gas station.  I pulled up to the pumps, same kind of dispenser.  No luck at these pumps either.

A lovely woman asked me if I needed help, I explained to her my situation.  She told me, that she would drive home, get a gas can, drive back, fill up the can and then pour the gas into my tank from the can.  I asked her where she was originally from, I couldn't believe my ears when she told me Jackson, Michigan.  I grew up about 25 minutes from Jackson, Michigan and had worked for a company in Jackson for 18 years.  What a small world, here we are thousands of miles from Michigan and the woman saving my bacon is from where I'm from.  She knew some of my people, I knew some of hers.

I finally had 5 gallons of gasoline, plenty enough to get me back to my hotel.  We parted ways and she gave me her phone number incase I ran into any more trouble on my way back to the hotel.

 

[TVB]

That scull rock doesn't even need a name-board!  :thumleft:

Beautiful landscape, I would love to dwell in that landscape with my camera!

 

[Crankshaft]

:thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[Bikerboer1973]

Don't tel me he got banned again!?

 

[Crankshaft]

Don't tel me he got banned again!?

Lyk my so... dit raak nou ou nuus!!   Sal like om te weet wat doen hy dan nou elke keer verkeert dat hy so baie ge-ban word :eek7:

 

[mox]

Don't tel me he got banned again!?

Either that or he smoked some serious kush and went walkabouts for a while  :lol8: