Adventures in Life: Copy Cat

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Copy Cat

There is much beauty to be found in the desert

Yup, that's me! I was so inspired today by John and Judy's blog http://rvlifeonwheels.blogspot.com/2011/01/joshua-tree-part-deux.html that I had to go back and enjoy my memories of Joshua Tree National Park. Thank you so much for the inspiration and I hope you don't mind me sharing my own memories.

So here's my little story of that special place.
If you have read my blog about Bishop, you know that is where I spent most of my childhood vacations. Bishop is in the Owens Valley and, while it is surrounded by mountains, much of the landscape is sage brush and big rocks. We used to go to a place we called Fish Springs but there was one time we went somewhere else.

Every time Russ and I would go down Hwy 395 I would try and remember where this other campground was. I could remember big huge boulders and since there are many such places like that in the Owens Valley, that is where I always looked for this campground. I could even remember the name of the campground, Hidden Valley.

I went there when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I remember so well the big rocks and the desert setting. Our family went there with the Kirby family, and I had great fun with the Kirby kids. One thing I remember is hiking around the campground with Myra, Gene, and Stanley and seeing an unopened bag of potato chips on a picnic table. No one was around so we discussed it and decided Stanley should go liberate those abandoned potato chips. Well he did and we climbed up on a big rock to enjoy our booty. The problem was, we all felt so guilty and were so scared of getting caught, that we couldn't enjoy our ill-gotten gain.

In March of 2009, Russ and I took a trip to Palm Springs. We were exploring the area and decided to visit Joshua Tree National Park. To my knowledge I had never been there and was excited to see it. We got maps at the visitors center and began our explorations. Soon, things began to look familiar to me. Somewhere deep in my little 9 year old brain was a memory. I studied the map and saw a place called Hidden Valley Campground...and I knew. Fifty-some years later I KNEW: this was the place of the big rocks and the stolen potato chips!

We made our way to Hidden Valley and it was just as I remembered it. I had found that special campground. Oh how I loved those rocks. I still do. We spent a wonderful day exploring and, for me, remembering and we took a ton of photos.

One of the places we loved was the Cholla Cactus Garden. This is the "jumping cactus". The spines do not really jump but they come off so easily if you touch one, that it seems as if they do. You DO NOT want to get cholla spines in your skin.

I set some of those photos to music and have put that video on You Tube. Here's a link in case you want to watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ffSyxw2RsU On the video you will see the names 'William' and 'Carol'. Those are our middle names and there is a story behind why we used those names for that video...but that's a story for another time. Hope you enjoy!

P.S. My sister just read this post and reminded me of a photo of the two of us taken during this camping trip. I was able to find this pciture and although the quality is not the best I wanted it to be part of this post. This was taken around 1958 or 1959. I am the girl holding the dog.