SRT18: Day one Los Angeles to Joshua Tree 157 miles

      We started off our road-trip around 3:30 pm on Monday March 26th. Neither one of us is sure why we left so late, we had the whole day off of work and our bags were packed, but we took our time hanging out with neighbors and enjoying our apartment after cleaning it all weekend (nothing beats coming home to a clean place!). When we finally hit the road we were relaxed and ready for whatever the road had in store for us. 
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Packing Props

Stickers on the ceiling of the Jeep

Our first destination was to revisit the Cabazon Dinosaurs! We were trying to make it in time to actually go inside but apparently they close at 5:30pm on Mondays. No biggie though, it's still a great place to stop! We fueled up, filled up the cooler, and headed straight to our campsite from there. 

Entering the park at sunset

This was our first time staying at the Jumbo Rocks Campsite at Joshua Tree National Park. We've stayed at the Black Rock campground the past three years and were ready to try a new location. Jumbo Rocks is further into the park than Black Rock (much further) and ended up being a great "middle ground" between all of the hikes we wanted to try out the next day. Compared to Black Rock, Jumbo Rock is much quieter and secluded. Large boulders separate most of the campsites from each other (ours had a sand hill that had another campsite on the opposite side) turning each site into a private desert sanctuary. 

Picture of our campsite taken the day after we arrived (we got in after dark)

We got to camp when the sun had already set; so we set up the tent as fast as we could and made some Mountain House meals for dinner. We used the biolight stovetop so we could charge our phones while cooking a speedy dinner!

While we were cooking dinner (aka boiling water) we suddenly noticed strange metallic streaks across the sky. The sun had already set and the shades of pink and turquoise didn't seem natural. We had fun making up stories about what caused it, but later learned the actual cause was a rocket/jet launch from the nearby area had left some fuel residue in the sky....

The wind started to pick up while we were eating dinner, forcing us to pack up the kitchen, move our picnic into the tent, and attempt to get some sleep soon after that.