We woke up later today but not too bad. Our body clocks are out of sync.

We left after rush hour so that was better for coping with the mad traffic in LA. We went up towards Lancaster to Antelope Valley to see more of the Mojave Desert and the wild flowers. Many people had the same idea. In the news it said that the super bloom orange colours can be seen from space! We stopped short of the end of the valley as the cars were at a stand still but we still saw fabulous colours of wild flowers. Millions of poppies and yellow flowers were as far as the eye could see over the hills both sides of the road.

We knew there was a park 20 miles away with Joshua trees and buttes. So as we couldn’t get to the end of the valley because of the traffic jam, we travelled onto saddleback butte state park.

Saddleback Butte State Park was well worth seeing. It was so full of lots of different wild flowers, Joshua trees, creosote bushes and surrounded by snow clad mountains. The buttes are outcrops of granite and make interesting forms, there was a circular tour path around the area with a self guided tour. The views were lovely.

I hope my photos show the scale of what was there for the eye to see.

The creosote bushes are one of the oldest growing plants in the world. The original bush puts out young growth around it and these rings of bush clones from the same plant can live 20000 yes twenty thousand years! You could see the rings of connected bushes all over this area ..so interesting. The park is an ancient dried up lake. The Joshua trees cannot be age gauged as they are not true trees so not wood and do not grow with rings. They are sinews and used by the Indians for rope.

Last visit to LA we explored the city sights and the Queen Mary….3 months later we are exploring the desert and valleys and state parks and not the usual sights….. something completely different.

See you all soon lots of love xxxxxxx

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