This is a view of the scenery we saw yesterday along CA Hwy 62 in San Bernadino County as we crossed the great desolate Mojave Desert on the last leg of our trip. Damsel took this photo after our departure from Twentynine Palms. We were just north of Joshua Tree National Park, which, in itself, is a very large chunk of real estate.
Other than a few lightly populated areas and the larger town of Parker, AZ, the trip yesterday had us looking at bare desert. The difference between the California deserts and Arizona deserts would be that there are saguaro cacti east of the Colorado River and not so much west of there.
Still, both deserts are amazing examples of geological variety and wonder, with scrub brush and jagged mountains. We enjoyed the crossing very much on a clear, calm and beautiful day.
My son enjoyed the drive from SoCal to Fort Collins. He’d never driven East of Vegas, so the scenery in Utah really blew him away.
And the drive on I-70 from Grand Junction over the Rockies and into Denver was quite a treat for him.
Yes – Utah is spectacular.
We may take the I-70 route sometime next summer. We took that route during the eclipse trip from Grand Junction to Rifle and then north to Craig KOA. Great drive through the Colorado River Canyon.