It's a grand start to the day with our retaining-wall lizard wishing us a safe trip. (Does he look like he's wishing us a safe trip? I'm not so sure...)
Unfortunately, to get to California we have to "cross the river," and you know what I think about that! (http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/09/dont-cross-river.html) We submit to following Lil' Miss GPS instructions, but determine not to stop for anything until we clear the casinos. Turns out, someone is paying her to direct us through casino row because the next thing we know we're back across the river on the same road in Arizona that she directed us off of. Next time we're around casinos I'm gonna trust the old fashioned road atlas!
The next thing we come up on, once we are actually in California, is this historical landmarker for Freeman Junction.
It says: In 1834, explorer Joseph R. Walker passed this junction of Indian trails after discovering nearby Walker Pass. Death Valley 49er parties here diverged west and south after their escape from Death Valley en route to the California gold fields. Later this became a junction point where the bandit Tiburcio Vasquez preyed on stages and freighters traveling between the Kern River mines and Los Angeles, and the mines of Bodie and the Panamints.
Oh, good. We escape the casinos just to run a gauntlet of bandits!
I can just see them come tearin' around those boulders with guns a blazin' to stop freight wagons loaded with gold ore and stagecoaches loaded with passengers loaded with money and jewelry...
A bit further down the highway, Joshua Trees (also known as Yucca Brevifolia) begin to populate the landscape:
The only place on earth that the Joshua Tree grows naturally is in the Mohave Desert, and they are the largest of the yucca plants. They grow to between 15 and 40 feet in height and can be as much as three feet around. It might take them 60 years to do that, but they live up to 150 years! There's a symbiotic relationship between the Joshua Tree and a particular kind of moth - the Pronuba Moth. Neither will live without the other. This yucca moth has a special organ that collects and distributes the pollen of the Joshua tree, and she lays her eggs in the Joshua flower so that when her larvae hatch they can feed on its seeds. No moth, no pollination; no Joshua tree, no baby moths. Who knew? (Which came first? the chicken or the egg?)
Eventually we make it to Lake Kern ( Isabella ) which was created by a dam. The water is way, way down because of a two-year drought - only 2 inches of rain in 2 years!
Our campsite is just up the road.
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