Enunciate

Okay! I'm back!

I know that I said not to expect that we'd go off on any big adventure. We sure weren't expecting to, but as it turns out, we did get away for some camping and scrambling. After talking about it for years, we finally visited Joshua Tree National Park. Since the park is easily the closest to us (2 hours), you'd think we'd have gone eons ago. The best J had been able to describe it is that there are 'piles of rocks that you can climb'. I don't know what exactly I was imagining, but by 'climbing', I was expecting, you know, technical climbing. There was this place, he says, called Jumble Rocks, and even that, in my very visual imagination, did not sound all so impressive. It might as well be MishMash Rocks, jagged rocks strewn randomly here and there. Never mind that I never did research on the internet to get a better description. Silly me.

Still, we had a few days off at the same time, so we figured, what the heck.

Hey! There are Joshua Tree forests! Hence the name of the park! (y'think?) After seeing so many scrawny joshua trees all across the U.S. Southwest, how amazing is it to see them, all so healthy; trees in fields all the way to the mountains? Joshua Tree forests! Don't they look happy?!



We got into the park and got our map and guide. I searched the map for the campground we were headed to and discovered that the name is JUMBO Rocks, not Jumble.

Oooooooh. JUMBO.



That's where we want to be, J says. Yes, I can see why. The rock formations are much more orderly than 'jumbled'. And there's lots of scrambling to be done. And look at how round they all are!

We later overheard that that weekend was the busiest for the park, but we managed to secure a campsite. We survived the crazy strong gusts that threatened to blown down our canopy and buffeted our tent all the first night, survived the hot days (90F), and cold high-desert mornings (down to about 34F). We were there for the full moon. We'd hoped to hear coyotes, but as it turned out, not even the neighbors were howling at the moon. We drove through 29 Palms, Morongo and Yucca Valleys and scrambled across lots and lots of rock formations.

Lots of fun. What an important reminder to always get an accurate understanding of a destination you've been avoiding. Or to take better care to enunciate. Or to do your own research.
Sometimes you really should just go.

 
Can't see the slide show? Click here to see it over at Flickr.