Joshua Tree National Park

The wind and rain had settled during the night and we woke up to a sunny day with just a gentle breeze, so perfect weather for our trip to Joshua Tree National Park. It was just a 15 minute drive to the visitor center where we informed us on closures (there are none!) and nice little walks. Already on our way to the visitor center we had seen some of the iconic Joshua trees and after the entrance they were in abundance.
We did some interpretative walks among them and it was interesting to see how they shape and keep the distance from each other. There were also extensive explanations on other flora and fauna inhabiting this part of the Mojave desert. One stop had an amazing view down over the Coachella valley and the mountain ranges already bordering closely to Mexico. We spent the whole day in the park and stopped on the way out at the Cacti Gardens consisting of uncountable cacti beautifully and naturally arranged.
After leaving the park in direction of Imperial, a border town, we somehow managed to end up on a very scenic drive on a road winding through the canyon floor. For our last night in the US we drove closer to the border.

This is a good time to recap our USA trip... First some plain facts:
- 16 days
- 11 National Parks
- 2 National Monuments
- 2 flat tires (damn you Arizona!)
- Countless scenic drives
- 8000 km with Ruedi
- No roadkills caused
- Around 35$ in gambling loss
- Lotsss of burgers & friessss ☺️🍔🍔🍟🍟🍟
- Wildlife!! 🐏🦊🐈🐭🐰🦬🐿️🦆🐾

Even though it was a pretty quick fly through we enjoyed the time we could spend on the West Coast very much. We both hadn't been here a lot so it was amazing to experience this changing scenery together. There are a few spots we had missed (some because of winter closures) so we might come back again ☺️Læs mere