We decided we wanted to see what Joshua Tree National Park was all about as we have never heard of it and it was supposed to be within an hour from Indio. So we punched it into the GPS and off we went. It took us through the windmills that we had seen earlier in the week from I-10.

As we approached the park (according to my roadmap), "Tom GPS" had us take a right turn, showing 10 miles to our destination. We figured it knew a better way than the map, so over the dirt roads we ventured.

We entered the Park, but it just wasn't what we expected. There was no admission gate, no visitor center, no ranger handing out maps of the roads and trails, but we continued as "Tom" said we had several more miles to go -- and we were seeing the Joshua Trees.

Well, the road got narrower and narrower, we never saw another car or person, the GPS announced that we had reached our destination, so we continued a bit more looking for the visitor center -- until we hit a dead end!!! So back over the 10 miles of dirt roads we went until we got back to the main road and decided to follow the old-fashioned paper map.

And then we found what we were looking for.

Notice the paved roadways when you travel the right road.