Joshua Tree National Park- We went into Joshua Tree National Park and found out about a nice drive and a few hikes. We also found out about a ranger guided program all about Joshua Trees. Very informative! We're now on a first name basis with old Josh! We went on a few hikes thru lots of rocks and Joshua trees. One guided hike was to an area where someone who homesteaded there in the 1920's carved several philosophical and political statements in the rock. We joined a group from a local Community College of about 9 people and hiked about 1 1/2 miles out to a big piles of rocks (a natural occurrence here) where John Samuelson in 1927 had carved several statements in the rocks in a very neat and orderly writing, although his spelling was a bit off. We hiked to Barker Dam, a place that was a natural water catchment that was dammed and enhanced to a good sized lake in the past for water for cattle.  We hiked to the top of Ryan's Mountain before we left. It's about a 3 mile hike roundtrip with about 1000 feet in elevation gained. We saw some rock climbers on some huge rocks next to Ryan's Mountain. They looked really tiny on that big rock. We stopped at a place called the Hall of Horrors to take another hike, but found out that it's a climber's area, not really a hiking trail. We briefly talked with a couple of climbers there and found out Joshua Tree NP has something like 8,000 named climbing routes in the park.