Where the Streets Have No Name

A couple of weeks ago, Ching and I drove (more accurately, she drove, I fiddled with the map) to the Joshua Tree National Park here in Southern California.

It was an interesting drive through the San Bernardino mountain range, just missing Palm Springs into a sleepy town with a few provision shops, gas stations and the like. This is the kind of place where "How How Chinese Restaurant" stands out, but then again, which place isn't?

We arrived at our destination and was greeted by a Park Ranger who gave us a map and adviced us of the day's itinerary.  Basically, the park was a desert plain punctuated by wild flowers (thanks to the recent winter rain), cacti and the famous Joshua trees. It was like walking into a U2 album cover.  Joshua Tree was the Grammy Album of the Year in 1988, but what U2 fans probably do not know is that these yuccan trees are native to the southwestern North America and was named after the Biblical character who raised his hands to the sky to stop the sun at God's command.  The trees are shaped like a man with his arms up in the sky. At 90 degrees and no shade, I had my arms up as well.

We drove around streets with no names to see various points of interest.  We stopped at Skull Rocks and took pictures of those huge boulders naturally shaped like human skulls.  We checked out the panoramic view from Keys Point showing San Bernardino county with the border of Mexico beyond.  We took a short hike at Hidden Valley and saw typical rock formation and flora of the area.  Everywhere, there are Joshua trees of different sizes.

It was an enjoyable "green" day as we commune with nature in the Joshua Tree Park, then come back to La Mirada with a county-wide "blackout" in progress that lasted till midnight. Apparently, the first "air con"-day of the year caused an overload on the generator system.  We had a candle-lit dinner and gone to a tv-less sleep, just like the overnight campers in the park  ;-)