"JOSHUA TREE!!!"

On a not warm Memorial Day weekend, we headed up to Steve and Sheila's house in the Morongo Desert for a couple nights and to spend some time in Joshua Tree National Park. The Park is a favorite camping and climbing spot for us, but we knew neither of those were in the cards for us that weekend. We did want to go, though, before it got unbearably hot because we know the kids are into rock scrambling right now. It was nice to be able to hang loose at the desert house in nice weather.

After arriving, we took a hike from the house to the hills above Morongo Valley:


The boys took lots of photos along the way...
And used some very old, very big binoculars to watch the clouds:


They let us take some pictures, too. This one is from Kevin:

Kevin, too:

The next day, we headed to the Park. Despite warning, "What goes up, most come down...." Holden got immediately stuck:








We told the boys about Joshua Trees on the drive up, but they couldn't picture what we were talking about. When we hit that certain elevation where they start to grow, they got very excited. Despite being surrounded by millions of the fuzzy, prickly cactus-like trees, Riley kept pointing and yelling, "JOSHUA TREE!"
Barker Dam Hike:

Bonus Photos from Denise's iPhone Camera Roll

To get to the house in Morongo, turn on the dirt road next to the cow on the roof: