Temecula to Joshua Tree – 25 April 2022
We booked to stay at JT Sportsman’s Club an RV park said to be close to the Joshua Tree National Park. When we arrived, we were surprised to find a Sandy lot with a few dotted trees and a couple of RVs. It looked completely deserted. Turns out that the RV Park had recently been sold and they were in the process of transitioning it to the new owner. In the meantime, they were honouring any reservations that had previously been made.
We didn’t mind too much that there weren’t too many amenities, other than the fact that there really wasn’t any shade anywhere. We parked against the fence which separated the RV resort from a community sports ground where there were a variety of sports fields (sand), tennis courts, basketball courts etc. We discovered after a couple of days there was also an enclosed dog park which became quite handy when Jax was getting hyper.
The next day we set off for the Joshua Tree national park, not knowing what to expect. Unfortunately it was very restrictive in terms of where Jax could walk, so we started on a short walk near the visitors centre and then a road tour around the park on the Park Boulevard and lastly a stop at Keys View point where we could take Jax out again.
What a contrast to Yosemite park. This was pure desert with hundreds of rock formations, cacti and Joshua trees. It was very interesting and provided many photo opportunities. The best was the Keys View point where you could look out as far as the eye could see.
After a lovely morning in the park we decided to take a day’s break, catch up with work and then visit the park again (without Jax) and do a hike together. That evening we enjoyed the solitude around us and ate supper outside around a fire. After a little while, our neighbour came over and asked if we could please put out the fire as his wife suffered from COPD and was having difficulties breathing. That ended our stargazing for the evening and we retreated to our air conditioned RV.
The next day I came down with a terrible cold. I felt really ill and was concerned that I might have picked up COVID from the crowds at Disney. My nose was streaming and I was sneezing like crazy, and really felt off. This continued throughout the next day, getting progressively worse as the Cold took over my sinuses giving me terrible face pain, toothache and headaches. Derek went and got me a COVID test kit and it was negative. Thank goodness!
So unfortunately, we did not make it back to the park to do another hike. Maybe some other time in the future.
