Joshua Tree, Amboy, Kelso (California)

From Palm Springs, where we only stayed overnight, we continued to Joshua Tree National Park and then to Amboy, a gas station in the middle of nowhere where we stayed overnight, and Kelso, a railway station that used to be very famous and important, before heading to Las Vegas.

Joshua Tree National Park is a nature reserve in southern California characterized by rugged rock formations and barren desert landscapes. The park is named after the peculiarly shaped, spiny Joshua trees typical of the region. It also borders the Mojave Desert, which we drove through.

The famous Route 66 passes through Amboy, where we spent some time. Amboy is located in the Mojave Desert and the billboard of Roy's Café in Amboy is world-famous. Music videos, such as 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias, as well as parts of movies and a 2011 commercial for the new SLK-Class by Mercedes-Benz were filmed here. We stayed overnight with the owner's permission in the parking lot across the street, and the fee was to buy something in the gas station for $30. Amboy now only has 5 residents.

Kelso, where we made a brief stop, is a ghost town in the Mojave Desert. The restored freight depot serves as a visitor center. In the 1940s, tons of ore were transported by trains from the nearby mine. Shortly after World War II, the transports were stopped due to the high sulfur content, and in the 1950s, Kelso became a ghost town.