Traveling with Katydid: Scenic Desert Drive

It was a bright, beautiul day in the California desert. Perfect for a drive and a search for those bloomin' cacti and roadside colors. We turned onto Dillon Road; the flowers along the road were a profusion of yellow intersprinkled with purples-the mountains speckled

green. Our actual route was to skirt around the edge of the Joshua Tree National Park. We had been thru the park previously and were really looking for blooms, cactus and otherwise as well as new roads to travel.

On both sides of Eagle Mountain we viewed the water pipes which draw water from the Colorado River for use in California.

We turned up Eagle Mountain Road, due in part out of curiosity and mainly because of a sign indicating a mine was that-a-way. Highest hopes were that the mine might be open to the public allowing us to search for ge

ms. Turns out the mine looked closed and there was a small community complete with a school and a correctional facility (otherwise known as a prison) there. The coloring in the mountains (left) are the tailings from mining. There were numerous tailings of greens and yellows. But no personal mining looking for gems.

Failing the opportunity to mine for gems, we turned our attention once again to the beautiful colors painting the desert landscape. These were our first cacti blooming so Don had to stop often for me to take yet again another picture of the same type cactus, but in a different spot. The man is a saint!

While the cactus are bright and beautiful in the desert floor when they are blooming, I thought you might like to see pictures of some of the other flowers we saw and I was able to capture. Eventually you will realize, if you did not

already know, I am a flower and bird person...

The road stretched out before us, farther and farther through the desert and around the hills (too small to be called "mountains") until eventually we wound up at the Visitor Center at the Joshua Tree National Park. And we were lucky to find a