Two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together in Joshua Tree National Park. A fascinating variety of plants and animals make their homes in a land sculpted by strong winds and occasional torrents of rain. A rich cultural history, and surreal geologic features add to the wonder of this vast wilderness. We started by hiking the Hidden...
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We have been on the road for almost two weeks and hadn’t made it to the beach yet. In our family, that is like a crime, so when the schoolwork was done, we set off to see the beaches of the stars. We drove by Adam Sandler’s house and although the beach is public we opted for a nearby surfer beach in Malibu. The locals were very friendly and shocked by...
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We started the day picking oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit. We had fresh squeezed orange juice and lemonade with breakfast. It was delicious. After that we tackled some schoolwork and then headed to Ontario California to visit Uncle Ryan and Jessica. When we pulled into the complex, Kaatje found it hard to fathom why Ryan and Jessica would be moving. The...
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We woke to a warm sunny day. The girls complete their schoolwork outside ont he picnic table in shorts and had to keep moving into the shade because the sun was too hot. What a nice feeling! We heard there was an ice storm at home 🙂 When Daddy wrapped up his meetings, we set off to explore Hollywood. We purchased our map t the stars and set out to find Taylor...
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We woke early this morning and were on the road by 7:30am. The storm clouds were all around and it made the sights beautiful. The kids commented that it looked like the highway to heaven.
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Vast salt flats that cover nearly 200 square miles at the lowest elevation in North America. Too harsh for most plants and animals to survive, yet are quite fragile. Delicate crystals are easily crushed and the relatively thin upper crust of salt can break through to the mud layer below. Not quite as impressive as the salt flats we saw in Bolivia but still among...
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From the Death Valley Website http://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/historyculture/scottys-castle.htm Hidden in the green oasis of Grapevine Canyon in far northern Death Valley, the Death Valley Ranch, or Scotty’s Castle as it is more commonly known, is a window into the life and times of the Roaring ’20s and Depression ’30s. It was and is an...
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From the Death Valley Website http://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/historyculture/rhyolite-ghost-town.htm Her birth was brought about by Shorty Harris and E. L. Cross, who were prospecting in the area in 1904. They found quartz all over a hill, and as Shorty describes it “… the quartz was just full of free gold… it was the original bullfrog rock… this...
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NO surprise…this was Kaatje’s favourite place in the park. Artist’s Drive rises up to the top of an alluvial fan fed by a deep canyon cut into the Black Mountains. Artist’s Palette is on the face of the Black Mountains and is noted for having various colors of rock. These colors are caused by the oxidation of different metals (red, pink...
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What existed before Death Valley? Therocks of Golden Canyon provide evidence of an older basin. The tilted layers surrounding us were nearly horizontal when they were initially deposited. Movement along the major faults of Death Valley has created a large fold. In the process, these basin sediments have been uplifted and tilted, and erosion now carries sediment out...
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