May 19, 2007

May 19, 2007

We wake early and decide to see what Yuma has to offer before leaving. We stop at the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park. Yuma was the site of Arizona’s first prison in 1876. It is only mildly interesting. It is situated on a short bluff above the Colorado River. Here the river is merely a large stream, just a miniature of what it used to be, before most of the water was diverted to the metro areas of Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson. A lot of it also flows to agriculture turning once barren deserts around here green. Yuma surprisingly has lots of wheat.

Across the Colorado west is California. We take a back road north towards I-10. This part of southern California is desolate and dry. It is too dry apparently even for cacti. In the distance west are huge sand dunes reminiscent of the Sahara. Finally at I-10 we head towards Joshua Tree National Park.

Just before the entrance we see a sign for a George Patton Museum. What is it doing here in the middle of nowhere? We decide to stop and investigate. The small museum turns out to be a good place to spend an hour. They have a very nice film about Patton’s life. In the opening moments of WWII, Patton was commanded to open a tank-training center to prep troops for the coming war against Rommel in North Africa. Patton was the only American officer with actual tank battle experience. He chose this site in the desert because California’s Colorado Aqueduct crosses nearby. In Patton’s typical aggressive fashion he tapped into the canal for fresh water before he received permission from California. The museum also has an enormous 3-D relief map of southern California made originally for the California water commission many years ago. And I do like relief maps!

A few miles farther down the road, we enter the southern gate of Joshua Tree Park. It is a long way to the northern side. The terrain is desolate and uninteresting. Strange place to preserve for posterity. An interpretative sign tells us that we are crossing the border from the low Sonoran Desert to the higher altitude Mohave Desert. The Joshua Tree grows only in the northern Mohave side of the park.

On suggestion of a park ranger, we spend the night at the Jumbo Rocks campground on the north side of the park. It is really unique. The campground is set amongst a bizarre collection of large rounded granite monoliths and boulders. Apparently they resulted when magma upbursts cooled before they could reach the surface. In the interim the soil around them eroded leaving them now exposed.

After dinner, Aimee and I make some popcorn, and drag our folding chairs atop the nearest monolith to watch the setting sun. So Cool!