Joshua Tree Nationalpark

The national park is named after the twisted Joshua trees, which are part of the agave family, and is located in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. We had booked a pitch at the Jumbo Rocks campsite in the western part of the national park. We arrived in the dark, set up our bedchamber and built a (real) campfire under the beautiful starry sky. Sleeping in the car was pretty comfortable thanks to the air mattress we borrowed from Lauren's friends and the cozy (digital) campfire that you could set on the car's screen. So we spent our first night directly in a national park!

We started the next morning relaxed with a round of yoga and had breakfast on the really jumbo-sized rocks around the campsite. We didn't really do much research into the park in advance and had zero cell phone reception there. So we first took a short hike right at the campsite to the so-called “Skull Rock”, which looked a bit like a skull. Afterwards we continued driving along the bizarrely shaped Joshua trees, stopping here and there, quite leisurely. Among other things, we walked through the “Hidden Valley” where thieves used to hide stolen cows and cattle in order to then sell them on. At the end we took a short hike to the cute “Heart Rock” and then to the cool “Arch Rock”. Overall, it was a very relaxing day with short, strenuous hikes through the desert, which we really enjoyed.

In the afternoon we drove out of the national park to the desert town of Twentynine Palms, where Jana got her first Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks and can now understand why it is so heavily advertised every fall - so delicious! We then spent the second night on BLM land, which are public areas where you can park and stay overnight for free. It was just outside of Joshua Tree and was bone dry and super windy. At first we could hardly get the side doors open. So we snuggled up again in our little car with a campfire and when there was no wind we got out to marvel at the starry sky. That was a pretty cool experience, albeit a little crazy 😄

The next morning we got up early and headed back to LA, driving from one traffic jam to the next. After four hours of stop and go, we finally arrived at Manhattan Beach, where Jana was able to spend an hour at “Hot Yoga” with Lauren’s friend Kara. She is a yoga teacher there and invited us to try out this variant, which seems to be really hip in California. The room was heated to over 35°C - usually even to 40°! - This makes you sweat like in a sauna and the muscles are more relaxed so that you can stretch better. The “cool” 35°C was definitely warm enough for Jana and she really had fun! Afterwards we walked along the beautiful and super long Manhattan Beach and marveled at the beach villas.

We're now heading to San Juan Capistrano, a town south of LA in Orange County, where Lauren's parents live and they invited us over!