3 Nights in Joshua Tree

My first thought leaving our desert staycation was “why the heck did it take me so long to come out here?!” I’ve always found my most peaceful moments by the ocean, I suppose it’s because I’m a water sign, but leaving this trip I genuinely felt renewed. For my birthday this year, I knew I wanted to travel but with us all being in quarantine I wanted to be away from people. We started our search looking for a beach house, but the prices were out of our budget. So we randomly searched for homes in Joshua Tree, which was a place neither Bryan nor I have really explored yet. Bob’s Homestead was the first house that popped up and we instantly wanted to book it, so we did! (Overall I would give it 4/5 stars. The only thing that I didn’t like was the communication the owner had. Our tepee never got put up and when we asked he said that “his desert contact was unreliable.” We then asked if we could get the cowboy bath and we never received an answer. Unprofessional in my opinion.) We booked it for 4 days and 3 nights. We also rented a Jeep for our trip using the app Turo, just to complete the whole desert vibe we were looking to accomplish.

So heres the breakdown of our trip:

Tuesday

  • We picked up the Jeep we would be renting early that morning around 9 am. This was our first time using the Turo app and we loved it! I would definitely use it again, it was hassle-free and extremely convenient.
  • We packed up our car with all our luggage and headed off to the desert. We arrived around noon and stopped by the grocery store to grab some food for the days we would be out there.
  • After arriving at the air bnb, we began to unpack, made lunch, listened to some records, watched the sunset from the bed swing outside, and truly enjoyed everything the house had to offer.
  • The full house tour is on my IG stories.

Wednesday

  • Wednesday morning we woke up and went for a hike close to where our home was, about a mile behind the house there’s an entrance to the park. You can do a 4-mile walk around the rocks or you can do a simple trail that will lead you back, which is what we did.
  • I gave Bryan a much-needed hair cut LOL you can find the comedy on my IG stories as well.
  • We had breakfast, played some board games, and decided to take the jeep out for a drive to plan out our hikes for the next 2 days.
  • The rest of our afternoon was spent stargazing, this night my breath was taken away by the beauty of the stars. I’ve never seen so many in my life. The patio at the air bnb had lights, but as soon as you turn that off its pitch black and you can really enjoy the night. We made smores on the fire pit and just enjoyed the stars.

Thursday

  • Thursday was my birthday, 28! We woke up early and went on a hike by Jumbo Rocks. Apparently mid-July is Bee season at the park, at first, we didn’t think much of it until we saw just how aggressive they are. Luckily the park made it very clear which areas had the most trouble, so I definitely advise you to stay away from those areas if they have warnings out.
  • After our morning hike, we went back home to make some breakfast, freshen up and get ready to go back out into the park in time for sunset.
  • I loved taking the time this trip to really meditate, and get some quiet time on welcoming in another year. I’ve felt so much change this year, I truly have become the woman I’ve always wanted to be. With the understanding that change within yourself is a process every day that we need to be consistent with. I’ve learned to fall in love with myself in order to allow others around me to love me properly. I spent my day alone or with Bryan and I wasn’t missing one thing in life. I felt so content, relaxed, and truly happy. It was beautiful.
  • Once it was time for sunset, I packed my bags with a few different outfits, picked up a pizza for dinner and we were off to catch the best sunset view in the park.
  • We drove to a location that several blogs told us was the best view in the park for sunset, unfortunately, it was swarmed with bees. Not exaggerating, there were 200 bees around our car when we got to the location. So we decided to leave, drive around, and find a location that would be perfect for us.
  • We found this pull out in the road, it was quiet, no cars were around and it seemed like we were the only 2 people in the park. So we decided this was it. We put a blanket on top of the jeep’s roof, we ate our pizza, we took some pictures and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. Ending our night with a drive home, windows down, music blasting, and feeling so grateful for this trip.

Friday

  • Our last morning was bittersweet, I hated leaving. I had fallen in love with the slow pace and peacefulness of this place. We wanted to do one last hike that morning to end on a high note and boy, did we!
  • We hiked the highest location at Hall of horrors and it was the scariest thing I’ve done! No one tells you how much fun it is to get to the top but how frekin scary it is to go down and not feel like you’re falling to your death LMAO! Grateful for this guy who continues to push me!
  • Until next time Joshua Tree, we’ll be back!