Up early again but a bit later than planned. Out to see Joshua Tree Park. We drove to the Barker Dam and did the one mile walk out. Water was way down, barely any there, and so very little wildlife. We did see a cottontail bunny and birds, but otherwise it was just a nice walk. Lots and lots of different vegetation. We then drove to Keys View and looked out over the San Andreas fault. On the way back to the car we saw movement and ended up watching a bunch of antilope squirrels run about on the rocks. They even posed for photos. We then drove through the park back to Twentynine Palms and had breakfast\/lunch before heading off to Mojave.<\/p>\n
We took back roads and, of course, got on the wrong one. Easily fixed and had a lovely drive. Went through Amboy, which included driving over a dried lake bed where they are mining. Interesting. Then along Route 66 for a few miles before turning off and into the Mojave National Reserve.<\/p>\n
We went to the visitor’s centre which is the old train station. Very interesting and an interesting history. Looks like the rail line is still used. Very different from Death Valley or Joshua Tree. We spoke to a ranger who suggested we go out to the dunes for the light, so off we headed. We didn’t walk far into the dunes; Joe found a nice vantage point looked at a lovely ridge up one of the higher dunes and we stayed there so he could get photos as the sun set. Tomorrow we’ll go climb to the top and slide down to hear them sing.<\/p>\n
We decided to stay in Primm, which appears to be Vegas for people who can’t afford Vegas! We’re in a Casino hotel.<\/p>\n
Later: Definitely wouldn’t recommend Primm as a place to stay. I did say, as we pulled in, that staying at a place called Terribles was probably a bad idea, and I was correct. It lived up to it’s name. Or down. Seemed ok, if a bit run down and was very cheap. We ended up in a room with a connecting door, so really didn’t feel very secure. Then went to have dinner and ended up in the cafe as we didn’t want anything too much. I noted that no one around us was getting correct orders; with every one something was wrong. Sure enough, I got a completely different sandwich than the one I ordered, we didn’t get the correct sides, and the food and service were generally indifferent.<\/p>\n
So we headed back to the room and got into bed and then the people in the connecting room turned up. Loudly. Turned on the TV. Loudly. Went to get ice. Loudly. Had people banging on the door. Loudly. Talked, well, yelled at each other. Loudly. They were told to shut up numerous times and didn’t. By midnight we’d had enough and got moved. To a room that was a lot quieter, until the delivery trucks turned up the next morning. Oh well.<\/p>\n
We checked out, deciding to head to Vegas tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Up early again but a bit later than planned. Out to see Joshua Tree Park. We drove to the Barker Dam and did the one mile walk out. Water was way down, barely any there, and so very little wildlife. We did see a cottontail bunny and birds, but otherwise it was just a nice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-5C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4278,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/05\/day-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":0},"title":"Day Five","date":"Friday, 5 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Changed rooms and got sleep! Disappointed to see the same cloudy damp weather. Headed back to the dam on the lower area, again stopping close to the entrance where we saw otters! Spent quite a bit of time watching the otters, walking along the river to follow them. Saw a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4183,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/26\/the-professionals\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":1},"title":"The Professionals","date":"Thursday, 26 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"For Boxing Day and the 27th Kathleen booked a land tour and boat tour. So Boxing Day was our trip around the island with a professional guide. (K: with Kangaroo Island Wilderness Tours.) We were picked up from the hotel after breakfast; while we waited for collection we watched the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":218,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/25\/it%c2%b4s-ok-we%c2%b4re-from-belguim\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":2},"title":"It\u00c2\u00b4s OK we\u00c2\u00b4re from Belguim","date":"Monday, 25 August 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Dutch keyboard! Nothing is in the right place! That\u00c2\u00b4s my excuse for any typos. We pulled in to park at the wedding party and met up with another group parking. They said \"so you\u00c2\u00b4re from Belgium!\" We said from the UK and they said \"so you went to Belgium and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":316,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/27\/canyons\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":3},"title":"Canyons","date":"Sunday, 27 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Up far too early. Had a wake up call for 4.30am scheduled but they rang at 4am. ARG. We rolled over, set another alarm, and tried to go back to sleep. Up at 4.30 and first thing is put on the coffee. Then get ready. Down to the front by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4276,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/04\/day-four\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":4},"title":"Day Four","date":"Thursday, 4 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As Joe snored all night I spent the day half asleep because for some reason I didn't link having two rooms with the fact that I could have switched rooms and gotten sleep! It was an overcast, chilly, rainy sort of day. We headed into the Sierra Morena with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":305,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/21\/snow-reprise\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":5},"title":"Snow Reprise","date":"Monday, 21 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Got to Lexington and more snow. Waited at the airport until midnight for Allison to come in, then drove through the snow to the hotel. Then sleep. When we got up the snow had stopped but we had a good bit on the car to brush off. Visted for most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}