Joshua Tree National Park

On Saturday, we had planned to meet up with friends in Joshua Tree, California, so, we decided to use the majority of the day to visit Joshua Tree National Park and meet up with our friends in the afternoon.

We decided to go in via the southwest entrance and drive through a large portion of the park before reaching where our friends were at the Sportsman's Club in Joshua Tree, CA. Google map here.

Where we entered the park, there weren't a lot of Joshua trees, but we started seeing some, and they had big blooms at the top.

Then we entered an Ocotillo grove...

Love Ocotillos!

They were blooming.

So pretty against the clear blue sky.

The information sign reminded us that Ocotillo are not cactus.

Don't confuse this unusual-looking plant, ocotillo (Fouquireia splendens), for a cactus. The thorny, multi-stem shrub is in fact a woody deciduous plant. Unlike other deciduous shrubs, which normally grow leaves in the spring and drop them in the fall, the ocotillo may grow and drop leaves as often as five times during the year. Its leaves aren't season dependent but rain dependent.

Following a sufficient rain, the ocotillo puts forth a cluster of leaves above each thorn, adorning the otherwise dead-looking canes with a flourish of green. At the same time red blossoms may appear at the tips of the canes. The leaves go about the business of photosynthesis -- converting light energy into food energy -- until the next drought; then the leaves turn red or brown and drop.

Our next stop was at the Chollo Cactus Garden -- they appeared almost back lit in the sun...

... and they look like they would be soft to touch, but they are quite spiny! We didn't walk through the paths in the garden, but looked from the parking area - while we were there, a wind came up blowing dust -- and also spines from the chollo! I got a small cluster attached to my arm but we were able to easily get it removed.

A bloom on another type of cactus that was near the cholla garden.

Blooms on a cholla

We stopped in this area to admire the huge boulders. I am standing next to a Joshua tree that has an interesting growth...

We are pretty sure that this is what the bloom area looks like after the petals drop.

Another view of the stones. We could see people on top of the stones - they looked like small insects. We decided that climbing on stones was not wise for us to do!

We drove up to Keys View -- it provides a view over into the valley where Palm Springs is located and where Gracie was parked.

We knew that it would be hazy because it was hazy before we left the RV park...

... but it was still nice to see.

Another Joshua tree up by Keys View.

We headed out of the park to the town of Joshua Tree and the Sportsman's Club...

... where our friends were participating in a rock show.

We got pictures of other folks' booths, but neglected to get one of Gary and Ines's booth!

Gary and Ines have beautifully mounted stones in jewelry (made by Gary) and beautiful gourd art and woven baskets (made by Ines).

We did remember to get a picture after we had supper together.

It was good to get to visit with Pastor Gary and Ines. We look forward to seeing them again in just 6.5 weeks for the Christian Fellowship Rally in Wells, Nevada!

Shields Date Farm

On Friday, we visited Shields Date Farm in Indio, California. We didn't actually see the farm, though we did see some date palms, and we enjoyed their store, date shakes and video.

We drove by their retail store on our way from one stop (Home Depot) to another (an Asian food market), and decided to return -- Nancy (Josh's mom) had told us to try to the date shakes!

In front of the building...

Can't miss that!

Walkway to the cafe (we did not visit the cafe - maybe we'll make a return visit!)

The sign at the road that originally caught our attention.

When we saw the video, it became apparent that the date farms needed a "hook" to entice potential customers to visit and "Romance of the Date" was the one selected by Mr Shields. You can imagine that in 1951, this was a pretty risque step!

We each got a date shake!

Lots and lots...

... and lots and lots...

... and lots of date options!

If I understood the information in the video, dates do not grow with consistent character from seed, but rather they propagate from shoots from the original plant. I think the video also said that dates do not pollenate well in the "wild" -- they have quite a process to pollenate the female plants.

Entrance to the theater. I found the video on YouTube if you want to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSHPQWyxZds&feature=emb_logo

We would recommend a visit to Shields Date Farm if you're in the area!

Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, Part 2

We've been so busy that I did not get part 2 of our visit to the Ostrich Ranch posted until now!

Part 1 can be found here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/03/rooster-cogburn-ostrich-ranch-part-1.html

Part 2 of our visit to Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch:

Next were the bunnies -- we paid for food with the supplied tokens -- they were so gentle!

... sweet bunnies...

... enjoying their food!

We had finished with all the grazing animals. We had a lot of food left, so the dwarf goats (the last grazing animals) got a lot of food from us. Maybe other folks are running low by the time they get to the last ones so we made up for folks who had been more generous to all the ones before!

We used coins to get duck food too...

They were kind of messy as they splashed water on the food as they were coming to eat it.

Then we went to the giant Tortoise area...

They were big!

The instructions indicated that you could hold the piece of asparagus in your fingers but to only let them chomp once or twice and then drop it... or... you could hold the asparagus in a spring clothespin (provided) -- we took that option!

Neither of us wanted our fingers "chomped"!

The next area, Lorikeets, was my favorite - though initially it was the least impressive. We had been given small plastic containers of "nectar". The lady who let us into the enclosure told us to hold it like an ice cream cone, and the birds would land on our hand, take the top off, and feed from it.

Well, when we first got in there, the birds in the enclosure were full and totally uninterested in feeding any more. There were others in a cage beyond that were screeching... as I indicated, initially, it was not much fun!

But then one of the keepers opened the door from the back cage... and lots of hungry lorikeets poured out!

Initially, it was almost scary as they all flew out!

...but then one landed on my hand, took the top off the container...

... dropped the top on the ground and proceeded to eat the nectar!

Carl was capable of taking pictures while feeding them...

... I was not!

A single one on Carl's hand.

The keeper had told us that if one landed on your shoulder, you needed to act like a pirate...

... we weren't sure what a pirate would act like...

... even after the cups were empty, and we had picked up the tops off the ground and put them back on the containers to throw away, the lorikeets came over to take the top off and look for a full container again!

They have a pool with stingrays that you can feed -- I remember niece Ginny telling me that the Sonoran Desert Museum had created a stingray habitat because the Sonoran Desert extends down into Mexico to the Gulf of California, so technically, the stingrays are part of the fauna of the Sonoran Desert....

We did not pay the extra to get Stingray food -- I had fed them in the wild at Stingray City in Grand Cayman and while on a "lagoon safari" at Bora Bora -- it was fun to feed them when I could be underwater with them, but I didn't think leaning over into the tank would be all that great.

The final animals were "diving ducks" - we didn't feed them, but there were 4 different tanks and evidently food was released once an hour into each tank at 15 minutes apart from each other (one tank at the top of the hour, one at 15 minutes after, one at 30 minutes, and the last at 45 minutes). We didn't see the food released, but two of the ducks were diving down in one of the tanks, so we enjoyed watching them.

That's it on our visit to Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch! It is definitely a tourist trap, but fun nonetheless!