After our morning at the beach, we were headed north west to prepare for the next leg of our trip. But before heading to 4 more National Parks, we were in need of hot showers, soft beds, and a washing machine.
Enter, Best Western.
We hadn’t booked a hotel in advance because we weren’t exactly sure how far we’d want to drive on Friday… we knew we wanted to get close to Sequoia National Park.
Since marine life is part of Channel Islands National park, we woke up at 5:30am so we could visit some nearby tide pools while it was low tide.
The kids didn’t seem to mind too much though, because the promise of seeing “cool things” was all it took to get them up and at it. Even our late sleeper had a smile on his face.
This trip seems to be all about extremes and remoteness. Channel Islands National Park is a group of islands located off the coast of Los Angeles. A visit here gives one a glimpse of what the California coast looked like before it was overpopulated with humanity. You can find vegetation and wild life here that doesn’t exist anywhere else. The signature element of the park however is the rocky cliffs along the waters edge and the marine life.
After leaving Joshua Tree, we were headed west for the Pacific Ocean. We checked out the visitor center and checked in with the boat company about our day trip the following day. Then we stopped at Subway to grab subs for dinner on the beach.
We were camping at a State Park which had walking access to the beach. We all greatly enjoyed eating dinner overlooking the ocean and than splashing in the waves afterwards.
While we pack a lot into these trips, the over all plan is always pretty fluid. Scott and I had always left a second night at Joshua Tree as an option in our itinerary. After a great evening sunset, animal show, morning hike, and visit to the visitors center, the heat of the day had us thinking perhaps we should move on to cooler pastures. The kids however had so much fun climbing around Jumbo Rocks that they unanimously voted we stay the second night.
Our campsite was at Jumbo Rocks, aptly named being as the campground was nestled amongst big rocks.
As with any desert park, the key to hiking is to go early or late. Right after breakfast we set off to hike the Skull Rocks trail. The trailhead was within walking distance of our campsite. Since we were hiking in the early morning, we came across a few animal friends along our way.
We left the salt flats in Badwater Basin of Death Valley around 10:30am. After heading 45 minutes towards Joshua Tree we came across a road closure and had to turn around. This of course added about 2 hrs to our 4 and a half hour drive to Joshua Tree. I had found a restaurant online in Pioneertown that I had decided would be worth a little extra driving out of our way.
Don’t get me wrong. Death Valley is aptly named. It is hot. Like crazy hot. Like 95 degrees at 7am, hot. And it is desolate. Like, LITERAL MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, desolate. Not a soul in site for miles and miles. And of course the signs everywhere warning you of heat stroke and death and the need for water. I get why they call it Death Valley. And quite a lot of the park looks like this.
When we first began our quest, I assumed Death Valley National Park would be a mere checking off of a box. But, as we started planning and I began researching things to do there, I realized it really was a beautiful and unique park.
Sunday morning we started out with a relaxing morning at our hotel near the airport in Vegas. We woke up, took showers and took advantage of the complimentary breakfast.
After much saving and planning, the circus fam set off for another National Park adventure. Our mission: to visit 8 national parks (7 in California and 1 in Nevada).
Because we wanted to maximize our time at the parks, we opted to fly to Las Vegas and rent a van. We plan to camp for 12 of our 17 nights of vacation. The thing about camping is it requires the same amount of stuff for one night away as it does for 5 or 12.