howdy everybody. good morning we're about 1 mile from the
Joshua Tree National Park south entrance and we're gonna camp here on BLM land
for the day and the evening actually we're going to try something different
can I leave the RV and everything here and we're gonna take Angela's dodge
Class B van into the park we could take the bike but actually today in February
in California 90 we are expecting to hit 90 degrees in February to put that into
perspective where I'm from Olympia Washington the average high is in July
and August in the summer our 76 and 77 respectively 90 today February here so
gonna do my normal thing with all the fans and the windows and the alarm and
the security and everything I've got the dash set on high cool on AC with my
remote start checking the thermometer again if you haven't seen how I do that
I'll put a card up topic you're watching on your laptop I can remote start and
have air conditioning on demand for Jack's if needed it is a little windy so
I doubt I'll need to do that but I will be keeping a close eye on him well
you've grabbed all my camera equipment and we're gonna go in to Joshua Tree and
see it for the first time ever I'm really excited it should be a good day
well I'm gonna try and get as much use out of this America the beautiful pass
as possible so and there are a lot of national parks here in California so
Joshua Tree here we come
we're gonna drive and find the Visitor Center first and get a map and find out
what there is to see out here today nice blue skies though
you guys know you can rent truck campers did not know that
our first stop here is a cottonwood spring and there might be a little trail
down here get a load of these massive palm trees I love it I love it love it
love me some palm trees like a jungle palm trees Wow
they don't want you going off the trail though kidding look at that there's some
thick trees says Lost Palms Oasis Trail carry water 3.4 miles hmm
don't know we'll make it quite that far
when you guys think this squiggly line was 4 hmm hello a low low any creatures
in there jumping cactus don't that's it I know all about this stuff
jumping cactus is no joke
this sign says escalator out of service please use stairs okay so happy I could
hug a tree Amy none I think that's against the law
all right well now we just got about 38 miles of driving through the park on a
road until we get to the next exhibit it's a massive park
they make you drive a lot pull off the next turn and I'm still looking for the
elusive Joshua Tree well we found a field of interesting looking trees here
not sure if you call these Joshua trees or not but this is called the chola
gardens I guess you're not really sure how you pronounce that but I've got
these little yellow blooms on them that look like blackberries but yellow and I
mean just goes and goes and goes its massive
look at the field let's play a game let's let's race through this field
patch see who makes it out now they call Pass
anything go pass on that that's crazy right
just remember guys like gremlins do not feed these things after midnight and
this is what happens apparently mm-hmm careful I'll tell you what despite the
amount of driving you have to do around the park to get to everything this park
really does have a lot a lot of neat things to see like ginormous rocks and
we're up here at now 5400 feet a little windy and it is not even close to 90
degrees up here so good time of year to come I guess eventually there will
actually be Joshua trees at Joshua Tree National Park right actually that wind
feels good now one thing I learned about Joshua Tree that I'll share with you is
the Joshua tree itself is very elusive and it's not found very much in this
park but figured I could not leave here without finding and sharing one with you
this is a real one here that's what they really look like I would say this one is
about 18 25 feet tall
different it's very different it's cool-looking though you know if you can
see the flower bud type things at the end there it's got rough bark and then
it's also got this pretty cool alright guys the Joshua tree hey buddy
doing all right huh didn't even hit 75 in here while I was gone
good boy and so unfortunately they didn't have any 3d magnets that I
collect from all my state parks the arches Mount Rushmore now I wasn't too
pleased what they had but I did get one to add to my collection there so hey
something's better nothing filling up now on these uh I was gonna say hot
summer days on these hot summer February days one thing I will do from time to
time is I won't even turn the hot water heater on in the RV there's really no
sense because the tank inside is is gonna be naturally like 6070 degrees
just at least normal room temperature in there and so and it feels cold so I'll
take a cold shower even though it's really not that cold and then I don't do
it too often but if it's warm or if it's maybe I do it once every three months or
so but I give Jax a bath too so I've got special cat shampoo he has been rolling
around and enjoying the sand and dirt so much plus it gives him all afternoon in
a warm climate to air dry so that he won't be cold tonight and so we're gonna
tackle given Jax a nice bath oh boy Oh ain't that good oh that's so good huh
scrub-a-dub-dub how much do you love me Jax yes get that belly oh let's get out
Billy yeah
boy wait no we're not quite done dry that wet Kitty off oh man
get up Kelly oh hey there you go what do you think um you don't need to dry off
on my spot you know come here hey go try on your spot okay go and lick your
wounds okay you look so funny not talking to you dad not talking to you
for the rest of the day dad I know there's a million places to dry off dad
but I'm gonna do it on your seat instead so take that you look so funny buddy
you'll thank me later okay okay yep warm warm day out here today now he didn't
bite me or scratch me at all he just wiped some of his wet on me which is
fine feels good I'll go ahead and take my nice shower
I'll have a little fire out here hang out it's the perfect spot if you want to
camp well basically we're in Joshua Tree National Forest and we're in the the
green area of the BLM we're just on this side of where you pay right if you don't
have an America the Beautiful Pass it's $25 per car to get in and yeah I will
also put some GPS coordinates below for this parking spot here this whole area
where there's free camping which is totally awesome right
so um there's a few things that I missed there's a few things that well if you
only travel 30 miles a day you can't change it up much it's just one desert
after the other desert might change things up tomorrow or the next day we'll
see either way you guys will hear about it
here first so take care guys Jackson I'll see you soon
you