Joshua Tree National Park: Geology Road Tour

Both of us wish we had retained more of the geology courses we took in college. On the other hand, that was a long time ago, and geology has changed much. "Plate tectonics" was the merest conjecture way back then. Perhaps it's not too late to learn a little more. But I digress.

The kind of formation in Joshua Tree NP that interests us is something we have seen, we think, in a few other places...Brittany, New Zealand, and, mostly, Homestake Pass, near Butte, Montana. Wildly piled and eroded rocks, big rocks, rounded in some dimensions, and not something one can easily explain by glaciation, wind and water, etc. The formations here are something called monzogranite, igneous rock that formed of magma and fractured mostly below the surface. In Joshua Tree NPs' case, the monzogranite formed and eroded, in uplifts, some 15 miles below the surface gneiss, which over some hundreds of millions of years, has mostly eroded away. What one sees in JTNP are humongous rock piles, or insel bergs, island mountains, which, seen from a distance, look like they must be sandstone, but which are really granite, the kind of rough granite favored by rock climbers everywhere. Joshua Tree attracts more than its share of climbers.

Anyhow, we drove the "geology road tour," an 18-mile partly 4WD drive, which, via pamphlet and signage, explains much of the geology of the area and more.

Rock piles at Joshua Tree

Thus

Thus

And thus

What the stuff looks like close up; hard as a rock, too

More piles

Ditto

Ditto

And ditto

Blue gneiss eroding off the monzogranite

Up closer

The road ahead

Shifting into 4WD now, heading across washes and a dry lake

Lots of mining around here in days of old; and target practice
(Ken, note)

The road goes ever on

But we take the one marked "exit"

A bit later, back on the main road, we are exploring the Hall of
Horrors and other rock-climbing areas

Thus

And thus

Joshua Tree National Park: Jumbo Rocks

We did not have high expectations of Joshua Tree National Park: we had seen a few (million) Joshua Trees en route to Laughlin and did not find them interesting or attractive. Indeed, the Joshua Tree is not even a tree. But JTNP is a vast place, encompassing much of two major desert systems, the Mojave and the Colorado, and there is much to look at and do apart from the Joshua Trees. They're only in the Mojave part of the park anyway.

This is a Joshua Tree, one of the bigger and
healthier specimens...seen one...

We were rather taken by the rocks in the park, the Mojave part,
and conversations with a ranger led us to camp first at the Jumbo
Rocks campground

Thus

Our campsite

And the next morning we explored a bit more of the ground
behind our campsite

And I'll just let the pix take over...

Ouch!

Across the loop, campers included a young couple from
Australia, a party from Big Timber, Montana, and a guy from
Ontario

Looking back across to our site

Thus

We had already resolved to spend a little more time in this
park, to see all the interesting formations

Getting Our Kicks

Our next stop was Joshua Tree National Park in California, so we headed south out of Laughlin on route 95 and then Interstate 40 and then some other roads, and, eventually, found ourselves on The Mother Road, as Steinbeck called it, old Route 66, now, in these parts, San Bernardino County route 66.

The scenery is stark+++; Vicki singing "I've been
through the desert in a camper with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain..."

We were not impressed with San Bernardino County route 66
until, at length, we crossed some of the old markers

Approaching the Amboy crater, deep in Mojave country

Unlike most establishments and settlements along old route 66,
Roy's still shows vital signs, just barely

Not so, the Amboy School

You leave route 66 en route to 29 Palms and cross Bristol Lake,
a dry lake that has been mined for (sodium) chloride for a
century or so

What contemporary chloride mining looks like to low-flying
extraterrestrials

The 50 or so miles around 29 Palms and the entrance to Joshua
Tree National Park  are studded, so to speak, every 5 acres or
so, with little cabins or huts or hovels, such as the above, mostly
boarded up or burned down; certainly one of the more interesting
sights along this otherwise, um, stark, drive; a park ranger later
explained to us they are vestiges of a homesteading act in the
50s, and some thousands of people, mostly southern Californians,
eager to build and prove up their five acres for free; sic transit,
Gloria

A Farewell To Laughlin

We had never heard of Laughlin, NV, until Vicki cut a coupon out of Trailer Trash magazine, entitling us to a week's stay at the Riverside RV Park (and Hotel and Casino) at half price, plus the equivalent of three free buffets, which we extended to four. At the time, we thought a week of doing nothing in a warmer climate might be great after a couple months' active traveling further north. As it turned out, the rest was good, we gained only a few pounds, and even made a modest profit in the gambling department. Very modest. I cannot say we left wiser. I struggled the whole time we were there to characterize Laughlin, especially in relation to its upstate rival, Las Vegas. Laughlin centers around Vegas- ("Nevada-") style gambling, entertainment, accommodations, eating, etc. It is all on a much, much smaller scale, with emphasis on the lower roller. Only a dozen or so casinos, at most. I'd say the average age in the casinos in Laughlin is 10 years older than Las Vegas. There appears to be far more emphasis on family. Less emphasis, if any, on prostitution. But a (relatively) huge population in Bullhead, AZ, across the Colorado River. And the river itself is actually scenic here, down from the dams.

By night; the RV Park is across the street

Thanksgiving dinner, for me, second or possibly third course

Bread pudding portion control

The seafood extravaganza was Friday night

Thus

For three consecutive nights we walked down The Strip to the Tropicana to hear
these guys--Little Elmo and the Cosmos--do their rock and roll stuff; they were
good, really good, especially considering they were our age or only slightly younger

But mostly we ate, and drank, and partially walked off the
effects of eating and drinking (Vicki set a personal best for
drinking; I'll never know what my personal best was...);
anyhow, above is part of the Sunday morning bottomless
champagne breakfast, served in little plastic flutes, two at
a time; as you can see, Vicki is mixing mimosas

Vicki's second plate or so

A table with a window view that Sunday morning, watching the ferry jet
customers back and forth to the casino over the Colorado

A panoramic shot, looking across the Colorado toward Bullhead, AZ...the IHOP,
the McDonalds, the Sam's, the Home Depot, and other fundaments of American
culture

Inside the Riverside..."Let's go bowling, Dude"; but we didn't

From the summit level of the RV Park, looking toward The Strip; there were a
couple pop-tops, so we weren't the smallest rig there

Last day, in the hotel parking lot; just one more spin...

The whole place is the work of Don (The Don) Laughlin

Better picture, off the web

Thus; a truly all-American story, at least as Wikipedia tells it

The monument to the Colorado River (driving by...)