When we planned our Los Angeles trip, we planned a few days of fun/sightseeing around Expo West, and Tuesday was our first fun day! So what did we do? Leave LA!

We went to Joshua Tree National Park! Which was 120+ miles away from where we were staying. So naturally, I had to break that drive up with some yummy eats.

I didn’t sleep great Monday night, and was up early – before 6:00, and got just over 5 hours of sleep. That gave me some time to work on things (blog posts, Instagram, etc.) before we left.

We left the Airbnb around 8:00 and headed to Plant Power in Riverside. I was very VERY excited about the fact that it had an all vegan breakfast menu and I could order anything I wanted! I rarely get breakfast out because the options are so limited where I live. I may or may have not mentioned how excited I was to Steven a few times… and to anyone who asked me what my plans were for the day. Ha ha.

We ordered a few things to try – a sausage, egg, & cheese croissant, a bacon, egg, & cheese muffin, a breakfast burrito, and a hashbrown.

The flavor on everything was really good and we both agreed that the burrito was our favorite! We also agreed that the sandwiches were a bit dry and not hot enough – I think that is why the burrito was our favorite. It was a lot of fun to try!

We got back on the highway (this restaurant was only a few blocks off of our route – so convenient) and I marveled at the mountains and hills while Steven drove. Since I grew up and still live in the Midwest, I don’t think that type of landscape will ever NOT amaze me.

When we got into the city of Joshua Tree we were both already hungry. Even though we’d eaten at 9:30 and it was just after 11:00! We think our stomachs were still on central time. So we stopped at The Yucca Tree Eatery.  I should note the food prices, because I was just teasing my dad when he complained about them on his recent LA trip. Our breakfast was over $40 and so was lunch. And for lunch we got a sandwich, a salad, and two drinks.

So basically, I should not have been teasing my dad! It felt steep to me too.

My chai was really good, and my salad tasted really healthy. Ha. That’s a good thing, right? That I actually craved veggies?

After our second meal, we went to the visitor center by the west entrance to the park. I had researched the park a bit and wanted to ask a ranger where some things were, and the best order to see them in. And we wanted to get some postcards, souvenirs, and gifts!

The ranger explained that most of the big rock formations are in the western part of the park, where we started, which is great – that was what I was most excited to see! He emphasized that the park had lots of pullouts (for cars) and cool sights indicated on signs so we’d know where to stop. Great.

We started driving through around noon. That would never work at a desert national park in the summer, but it sure worked in March. The day was beautiful – no clouds, and temps in the high 50s/low 60s. I wore capris and a long sleeve tee and felt great, and put on a vest at the end when it started to get chilly.

Here is what we stopped to see/do!

Random Rocks

There were several non-designated (meaning they don’t have an official name but have a pullover) rocks we stopped to see in the beginning, before we realized we better get to our agenda or we would run out of daylight!

Barker Dam (1.3 mile walk, easy)

Barker Dam is the only spot with water (beyond flash floods) in the park, and I thought it would be neat to hike to it and check it out. The dam itself was a little underwhelming, but the hike there, between and around rocks, was pretty cool!

Oh! And you can see petroglyphs on that walk.

I promise they’re there

We also did the obligatory Joshua Tree pic:

Wall Street Mill (2.7 m walk, easy)

There is a trail that goes to an abandoned gold mill right next to the Barker Dam trail. Steven is really into those gold digging shows and we thought this would be cool. And it kind of was? Just a bit of a boring out and back walk to get there. At least it was an easy walk!

Skull Rock (& Elephant Rock)

There are many rocks in the park that look like things from a certain angle – skull rock, elephant rock, penguin rock, heart rock – and Skull Rock is one that is right off the road. I was excited we were able to see it and there weren’t a ton of people there!

We also saw elephant rock:

And found our first slot canyon. I’m not sure if they’re called slot canyons in this park (a slot canyon is a long, narrow channel or drainageway with sheer rock walls) but that is what I’ll call it here.

I was filming footage of me playing peekaboo behind the rocks and this is the location where I lost my balance when I did it and landed my shoulder on a rock and got a few scrapes. Oops!

Arch Rock & Slot Canyons

Our next stop was arch rock, which was about a half mile walk from the parking lot. It took us a while to find the arch, and when we did, we thought it was super cool. This is where we had the most fun of the day, climbing around on the rocks and in the different slot canyons! Steven said if he was telling someone what to do when they came to this park he’d say to see the rock formations you can from the road that goes through the park (it goes by most of them) then to spend a lot of time in the Arch Rock (Heart Rock is near there too but we didn’t see it) playing around on the rocks.

Cholla Cactus Garden

This was our last stop of the day! This is just an area full of Cholla Cacti. The western half of the park is the Mojave Desert, and where we spend most of our day, and the Eastern half of the park is the Colorado Desert. This garden was where the two deserts met so it was interesting to see the landscape start to change!

We were in the garden near sundown, and we saw some pretty colors in the sky as we left, but did not say to see the stars in the park, which people have told me are mind-blowingly clear. I just didn’t want to get back to our Airbnb too late.

When we got back to the car from the garden we noticed the bumper had a scratch. Then when we stopped and got gas we noticed the driver said taillight was damaged – someone hit our car while we were parked and didn’t leave a note or anything.

Sigh. So I contacted our insurance copy to start a claim since we did not get additional rental car insurance (because our insurance covers it). That was kind of a damper at the end of a great day but the Geico folks are always so nice and helpful, so at least it wasn’t painful to file the claim!

And I started getting text messages in while we were getting gas (there was no cell service in the park) and saw that our Airbnb host gave us a giftcard to her vegan sushi place. How nice!

I had picked out El Patron in Palm Springs for dinner because I saw they had a vegan nacho plate (priorities). When we got there it was completely full and there was a line to get in. We realized there was a huge party there and they were all waiting to order. We waited in line, then they sat us (yay!) then came to the table and said we had to get back in line to order food.

What. The. Eff.

I was so annoyed I didn’t realize that before I left the line to get seated. Later I realized a sign out front said counter service only. Sigh. So Steven stayed at the table and I went back to the end of the line.

Luckily it moved somewhat fast after that (and I was able to tell the couple behind me to not make the same mistake we did). When I ordered they told us they hadn’t been that busy, even on the weekends, probably ever.

Anyway.

The food was good! We got the fried cauliflower, the tofu nachos, and a black bean & tofu taco and a sweet potato taco. I’m glad we stuck with it to try it all.

Then we left, near 9:00 pm, and still had an hour and a half to get back to our Airbnb. Eek! Steven did all the driving (gosh, we put several hundred miles on the car that day) and he was getting so tired at the end and we were both a bit slap happy but we got back safely, close to 11:00, and got into bed around midnight.