Joshua Tree National Park Tour Guide: A Tale of Two Deserts - Paperback

by Paul Francis Stickles (Author)

DISCOVER JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK WITH OVER 200 FULL COLOR PHOTOS AND DETAILED INFORMATIVE TEXT. Enter a world that takes you back thousands of years. Walk on rock formations that were thrust up from the center of the earth over a million years ago. Learn about the ancient Pinto Man who first walked this landscape, and other Native Americans that called this place home. Walk back in time into the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s when cattlemen, miners, homesteaders and wild west "bad men" moved into the area. Visit ranches, mining sites, shoot-out sites, and grave sites. Take in vistas that look like moonscapes, stand on a ridge and see mountains as far away as 95 miles. Look down into the Coachella Valley, identify the famous San Andreas Fault, Palm Springs, the Salton Sea. In a matter of miles travel from the higher, cooler, wetter Mojave Desert to the lower, hotter, drier Sonoran Desert with its own unique landscape and history. Marvel as this desert landscape explodes into bloom in the spring with wildflowers, flowering cactus, and a variety of hearty desert trees featured in a 42-page wildflower section. Glimpse a Bighorn sheep. Take advantage of one of the world's premier rock climbing destinations with over 4,500 designated climbs. Strike out on your own on a number of trails and hikes. End the day enjoying a glorious sunset...which, as it fades to black, will reveal a clear sky twinkling with millions of stars in a stargazers paradise.