Temecula/Vail Lake KOA was excellent. Over 500 camp sites, each in various areas of the park. Rolling hills. Putt-putt. General store (with candy jewelry!!). Coffee shop. It truly was a sort of paradise.
We were able to look out over the rolling hills from our site. Mountain bikers are seen killing it over the hills and at the ramp park. Trails are apparently so nice that they are used for day use as well as by campers. Even our kitty Chester enjoyed the rays in his little cat dome.
With camp a little under 2 hours from Los Angeles and Joshua Tree National Park, we were able to drive to both the city and the National Park for day trips.

Our first early afternoon trip began with Los Angeles. We first headed downtown to see the stars at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the drive, I couldn’t help but notice the immense amount of trash in the city. The major beltways had so much trash everywhere.. Homeless camps were built along the beltway as well. Without us having seen this area prior to covid, I can’t tell if things have changed or if this area has always been rough.. however, it was a little scary if I do say so myself. Walking along the streets, there were so many buildings boarded up (likely reprocussions of covid) and we literally passed a drug deal on the main strip, just a block from Hollywood Walk of Fame. Walking along, we just didn’t feel safe. It was funny that when we finally reached our truck, inside a parking garage, we audibly sighed with relief. We literally felt safer inside a dank parking garage than we did on the public street. While we enjoyed seeing the stars, my main thought was that they would be all in one area in front of the TCL theatre. In fact, one must walk all the sidewalks throughout the area to view the stars. I definitely believe that this would have been a nice walk, had not been for the feeling of insecurity we felt walking with the kids. The artwork on the walls really emphasized the affect COVID had on the city’s people.

After viewing the stars, we headed to Griffith park. The kids played at the playground and then we checked out the observatory, which provided for the best views of the sunset over the city. Locals and tourists alike pushed into the area to watch the sun’s descent. Absolutely amazing views, including the Hollywood sign.

After our sunset view, we headed to downtown to ideally find dinner but instead ended up touring the downtown area. After recently watching the Netflix series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at Cecil Hotel, we just had to drive by and see where this place of doom stood. We saw two lights glowing in different parts of the hotel, which was shut down. Lights inside seemed a little weird, considering there were very few street lights outside…8 pm, dark outside, lights in a closed down building…CHILLS.

Stepping out of our comfort zone seemed to be the tune of the day, as we happened upon skid row. If you aren’t sure what that is, it’s an area of town that all the shelters for the less fortunate were placed. Not so long after, that part of town became a high area for crime. My husband had his window down and it was dark out. People were hanging out in the streets, sidewalks, and in their shelters built on the sidewalks. I ended up asking him to roll up his window and leave, because people were all to close to the truck and I was a little more than nervous after the entiriety of our day. We ended up finding the Last Bookstore, also featured in part of the Netflix series and had to check it out. We perused the aisles and enjoyed finding a few used kids books. Unfortunately, the area the bookstore is most known for, a wall of books with a hole to see through, was closed off due to the late hour.

For those of you who haven’t seen the series on the Cecil Hotel. I’ll avoid giving away anything other than many people disappeared and/or found murdered within the hotel. In addition, two infamous serial killers once lived there. Overall, it has a pretty gruesome history and definitely brought with it some chills. We finally decided to end our day heading back to our safe little nest of a camper. Here’s to Los Angeles. A wild ride for certain.

Disclaimer: this is not a wholistic view of the city, just the small area we were able to peruse in one day’s time.

Soooo… Long Story- short. From what we saw of Los Angeles, it was NOT the place for us.

However, we did absolutely love Joshua Tree National Park. Known for it’s joshua trees that look like something straight out of a Dr. Suess book, we greatly enjoyed all that the park had to offer. We always start each national park trip with a stop at the Visitor Center. They often close early and they provide us with maps of the park and of top importance for F, the national park stamp. We started with a book of the regions and he gets a new stamp with every park we visit. They also provide us with a kids booklet to complete. Once completed, we return it to a ranger and it will allow him to get a badge with the name of the specified national park. Usually, the booklets teach on plants and wildlife in the area or teach on safety and caring for the national parks. Overall, we use these books as our school lesson whenever we go on weekdays. Momma win!

F used the map to guide us through the park, points for him because he actually has a mental map in his head, unlike his mama. As you can see from the photos, the park holds a different type of palm tree than typically seen, the desert fan palm. Located at Palm Springs and a few other areas throughout the park, one can find a desert oasis with these palms surrounding the area.

Joshua Tree National park has two different ecosystems. Both desert, but varying in landscape.

From a layperson perspective, the park was split into two portions. The first is plain desert typical to what we saw throughout much of Arizona. The second is made of large rock formations and has much more plant life, including the joshua trees. In a nut shell, approximately half the park does not have joshua trees and was pretty desolute. However, the other half of the park, definitely made up for that portion of bland landscape. Skull rock was a favorite of our sights and literally looked identical to a large skull placed in the desert. Coming from a mama with boys, it was definitely worth the visit. So many rocks to climb and play upon, just look out for snakes. They are common in these desert areas.

Overall, we had a fabulous trip to the national park and enjoyed seeing a new city, despite it’s blemishes. Next up, well.. I already covered it. The Sequoia National Forest. However, I will touch on more sequoias in my next post on our stay near Fresno in the Sierra National Forest. Thank you all for keeping up with us and I look forward to your comments and questions.