Our
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Flora
Mojave
California
Cactus
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We were
ready to leave bright and early.
We wandered to Walmart to pick up a cooler, soda, and snacks., bread
and cheese. We planned to do some picnicing to stretch our
travel
dollar. We went to Arizona Charlie's Casino to have
breakfast. It was surprisingly good and definitely
reasonable. Then we checked out and left for the Mojave
Desert. |
| The desert was nothing like I had expected. I guess I was expecting Lawrence of Arabia and sand dunes. There had been a lot of rain recently, and instead, it reminded me of a vacant city lot, with scrub grasses and trees - but, of course, we don't get cactus in the city. |  |
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There are lots of Joshua Trees. Very primitive looking, or perhaps they were designed by Dr. Seuss. I will put more information about them at JoshuaTree |
| These prickly branches must fall off easily. I wasn't paying attention and stepped on one in my sneakers. The spines stuck in so hard that I was unable to pull them out without pliers. One got my finger, and the tiny barb broke off just under the skin. I was worried that there may be a problem with that - but nothing bad happened - it just worked itself out in a few days. |  |
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Off in the distance, as we were leaving the desert park, we saw a strange fog. That demanded exploration! We drove off down trails to discover the place where borax and baking soda were mined. The "fog" was the evaporating water. They no longer mine there because it became too expensive to separate out the chemicals. It is now an area used for studying the desert. |
| During our trip, we will be seeing many kinds of palm trees. I know nothing about them, so I guess if you want to know more, you'll have to do some research. We thought these looked like cousin It. |  |
| Some of the
cactus was in bloom. This color is startling against the dull colors of the desert.  |
Beavertail Cactus  |
We left the desert
and headed to Rainbow Canyon. The rock formations told us we weren't at home any more. |
 The painted rocks in Rainbow Canyon were remarkable. This is a little park with 8 miles of one-lane road through beautiful crags and cliffs. |