Joshua park tour

Today we check out of Chez Soliel, I would totally recommend it. I was awake at 7 again and let prince sleep in again making the coffee and serving it to him in bed once he woke. I sorted clothes and stuff to pack up all organized. After perusing the net then having a shower S got his stuff ready to roll too. We cleaned up the fruit and ate out left over Mexican for brunch.

breakfast of champions

 The last of the rotisserie chicken was packed in the cleaned yogurt container along with the last avocado. Our cooler is the best thing we brought along. It was loaded up with these yummies, string cheese and the rest of the beer and juices.

love the metal work sculptures

We dropped the key back at the host hotel after 10 and started out for the Joshua Tree National Park. It took an hour to circle around to the north entrance arriving at 11:30.

The drive thru the park took over 3 hours which included a 45 min hike thru Hidden Valley. A hike in flip flops :) We enjoyed the chicken, string cheese, spitz, pistachios and beef jerky along the way with a few cold refreshments of course.

hiking thru Hidden Valley

look at the rock climber up behind me

so many rocks and boulders the start to look alike

on top  of Keys View you can see lower Palm Desert, Coachella Valley, etc and behind Sheldon the San Andres fault and Palm Springs

The lower 2/3 of the drive is much flatter with less to stop and see so was more just driving. Cholla cactus gardens were crazy to see closer to the end.

ocotillo tree below, it is NOT a cactus variety

We left the park around 2:30 zipping down the interstate to our next hotel; Inn at Deep Canyon. Passing thru La Quinta was such a beautiful area. The inn is a quaint little hotel with large rooms, nice grounds and a pool and hot tub which S was in shortly after dropping off the bags. 87 in the evening, yes please. They also said to call directly for even better room prices in the future.

We were only feet from the pool. They also have a couple with a home cooked food business on site that S ordered supper from after we walked around the area before sunset. His supper was barbecued in sauce chicken thigh with beans, rice, bun and corn bread for $5! I made squished avocado served with chips for my supper.

Then we walked a few blocks to get some yummy ice cream at a local biz called holey scoops. I had salted caramel and S butter pecan and both were so good and but the price of one was almost the price of S whole supper plate LOL

Back at the hotel I had a warm shower to relax the crazy convertible hair then write today’s blog while S got his sports fix while planning our route tomorrow. Not long and he was asleep while I watched animal planet till almost midnight.