Monday, February 22, 2016
Starting about mid-morning, the winds began picking up out of the northwest. They came over the mountains and out of the Joshua Tree N.P. 25 mph with gusts over 35.
Luckily, I had positioned the MH so the door was pointing to the south. We could sit outside and the MH protected us from the majority of the wind. But finally, I had to pull in the living room slide and we stayed inside most of the morning.
This is the tree in our camp. The only tree. Maybe someone will know what this gnarly tree is. There are a number of them around the hillside. This one gives me a little shade when sitting outside in my lounge chair.
At around 2 P.M. the winds dropped to around 12 mph; much more reasonable. Yuma and I took a walk around the area.
This is looking at the mountains to our north and on the other side is the Joshua Tree N.P.
I think this area was used by the Army during World War II for desert training. The George S. Patton Museum is about 5 miles down the road from where we are staying and we plan to go there tomorrow. Hopefully, I will learn more about what they did and where.
I took photos of stuff I saw on the hillside near our MH as we walked. It appears to me there were camps here at one time. Probably, tents because there are no structures, only rocks and some concrete.
Got to have your old freezer with bullet holes to make a good desert scene. I was sure I would find a body in it, but there wasn’t. It was empty.
Here is rock formation. In my mind, there was a large Army tent here and the soldiers surrounded the tent with rocks. There were a lot of formations like this throughout the area. Gave a personal look to the tent area.
Looking over toward Indio, California, the sunset was pretty with all the wind blown dust in the air.
See you later.
The Patton museum is indeed interesting! We would like to take the grandson there one day. When we lived in Palm Springs, our apartment was just down the street from where he apparently set up his tents. I could walk by and still see the concrete. But, that was 40 years ago!
ReplyDeleteThanks Cheryl. We went there this afternoon. Well worth the time. Learned a lot about General Patton.
DeleteThanks Cheryl. We went there this afternoon. Well worth the time. Learned a lot about General Patton.
DeleteIf you go to website - desertusa.com - it has LOTS of interesting info - there are drop down boxes at the top with pictures of all kinds of desert plants and animals - tree might be an ironwood ? - under the NEWS section you can get the current wildflower reports and photos taken in last few days - looks like the Joshua trees are starting to bloom and Death Valley is having the bloom of a lifetime - scroll down on DV and the photos are breathtaking - you are in a great location - everything will be bursting into bloom in the next few weeks !!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI read Desert USA. It is a great site. But I didn't check it for the tree. You are right. It is an Ironwood tree. Thank you. I will check out the site today and see what is going on around here.
DeleteI read Desert USA. It is a great site. But I didn't check it for the tree. You are right. It is an Ironwood tree. Thank you. I will check out the site today and see what is going on around here.
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