Taking off a Friday for a long weekend in the Los Angeles area. This is our last stop in Arizona before hitting the Golden State of California.

As if the Arizona desert wasn’t enough, we are venturing into Joshua Tree National Park today for some more desert and cactus.

You know you want to hug this stuff, and even if you don’t it might just want you enough to find its way to attaching to your socks or even your leg. This is a cholla cactus, also known as the jumping cactus or the seriously cute-sounding teddy bear cholla.

Rocks, because a visit to Joshua Tree without seeing rounded, soft-looking boulders wouldn’t be the same. There are locations within Joshua Tree that are absolutely famous for their rock formations.

A few examples of Joshua Trees from where this National Park got its name. Our visit here today was for the primary purpose of traveling some back roads we normally don’t get to see when in a regular passenger car. What you can’t see here is that Caroline has been driving the Expedition while I am afforded the luxury of having her pull over while I jump out and snap a photo here and there.

From here forward, I took over the driving as the road got a bit sketchier and narrow, and Caroline didn’t feel like testing her off-road skills any further. Once back on the 10 Freeway, we headed into Los Angeles for the night.