The Wide Open Road

Sometimes life is just about taking to the road and seeing where the road will take you.  The desert road trip can be different in many ways.  Sometimes the paved road gives way to the dirt road. And the dirt road takes you off the beaten path.  There is always something special about hitting the road in the desert.

During the spring in the Mojave you just might find the greatest of all yucca, the Joshua Tree in bloom. The long stocks of off white flowers reach toward the sky. At night the yucca moths pollinate the yucca flower enabling the plant to fruit.

The off beaten path may lead you to bizarre rock formations such as this one in the Mojave. Colors of red, orange hues contrast against the chocolate brown mountains in the distance.

In the Autumn you may find yourself looking at the changing colors of groves of trees preparing for the long winter against the high mountain peaks of the Rockies that form the boundaries of the Great Basin, Colorado Plateau, and Chihuahuan Deserts.

If you are passing through Las Vegas you may see a grand Saguaro cactus out of its native environment in southern Arizona and planted in someone's front yard.

If you happen to be in southern Utah just outside of Kanab you may see the Coral Pink Sand Dunes and the State Park with the same name. These dunes are formed from the colorful Navajo sandstone that is the predominant rock of the area. These dunes are famous for their beauty and for their appeal to the off road vehicle enthusiast.

Or you just may be stopping over at an outpost somewhere along a state line such as this little area called Border which sits in both Utah and Nevada along US 6 between Delta, Utah to the west and Ely, Nevada to the east.  Wherever the road takes you may you have a new adventure each time and enjoy what is around you.

The Mighty Joshua Tree

Joshua Trees have long intrigued me. They are the largest of the yucca family and can live for hundreds of years.

The name for the plant Yucca brevifolia, comes from the Mormon Pioneers who described the yucca as the Biblical Joshua with his arms raised to heaven.

Joshua Trees define the boundaries of the Mojave Desert in Utah, Nevada, and California in the north, Arizona to the east and south and California to the south and west. They are commonly cultivated in desertscapes throughout the American Southwest outside of their

normal range with fairly good success. *Also, don't forget the joshua tree in Aurora, CO is THRIVING!* The only protection it receives is being planted against the house**

They stand as sentinels to an old west type of time when survival by your own wits was they way to go or die. What is interesting is that many of the older trees could have been well established as the pioneers made their way west to southern Nevada, California, and Arizona.

Joshua Tree National Park in California is famed for some of the largest Joshua Trees on record. They can be grown from seed, though somewhat tedious to do. I have one sapling that is a fluke of luck and survived the winter buried under snow.

They are commonly out of range found in cities and towns across the west. I have seen them in Salt Lake City, Utah and surrounding areas, I have one and a large yucca, not a Joshua Tree, but equally as tall growing on a ditch bank in American Fork, Utah. I have also seen them in Moab, Utah, Grand Junction, Colorado, Wendover, Utah and even Oregon.

Do not hug a Joshua Tree or you will bleed. Just appreciate the sentinel of the American Southwest.