A little Bible devotional to start this blog that connects to our location.

Joshua is an intriguing figure in the Bible. His leadership rose as Moses lead the people of Israel out of captivity to the “promised land”. Joshua became the key leader of the next generation to inherit the covenant land, and was even renamed by Moses. Joshua was to guide the nation into the promised land from their exile in the wilderness but it would require faith since the inhabitants were sizable and fierce. Joshua’s generation was raised in the desert and would have witnessed the consequences of a lack of faith in God resulting in a rough yet free life from slavery in Egypt. This 40 year wait was due to Moses and the older generation’s lack of faith and obedience to God, despite being delivered miraculously from slavery. So Joshua took the lead while waiting for the old generation to pass so the people could enter the promised land. Not a textbook assumption of power.

If you aren’t familiar with that Old Testament story it’s worth a read in the book of Exodus and Joshua. Joshua means “god is salvation” and the name is often representative of leadership, resilience and faith. Leadership and resilience was how Joshua was defined by the people but it was his utter faith in God that set him apart and truly defined him. A fierce warrior and man of faith, Joshua sought God’s blessing in battle and received it, even when it didn’t make sense. One of his more famous demonstrations of faith was at the battle of Jericho, where the Israelite army defeated a stronghold with music and not their sheer dominant numbers. Out of faith in God’s direction, Joshua and 40,000-ish soldiers led by musicians and priests marched in circles around the city for 7 days. They could have attacked and likely won. Jericho had vastly inferior numbers but the defensive wall would have led to costly losses; however, out of faith Joshua obeyed and God raised the city walls and delivered the city on the 7th day of singing and marching. If you think about this, it’s crazy. If you’ve ever led a group toward a goal and then, despite planning, superior numbers and tactical advantage you stop to march and sing for 7 days 🤔 It’s a testament to Joshua’s faith but also the people’s trust in Joshua and God’s blessing over where Joshua was leading them, a stark contrast from the peoples’ behavior in the desert. This picture of faith, even when we may not understand why but we know WHO is what makes Joshua worthy of song.

The Joshua Tree symbolized this faith and when Mormon pioneers saw these trees growing in inhospitable desert conditions yet thriving with its arms outstretched toward heaven, they recalled the songs and stories of Joshua. If you see the Joshua Trees (actually a type of Yucca) through this lens it lends a more profound revelation when you take in the desert landscape and see a field of thriving trees with arms outstretched.

Our visit to the park was limited by our time to get back to the dogs, who weren’t allowed on the trails but we made the most of what time we had. Numerous trails and boulder scrambles are mapped and unmapped (aka unofficial) with some requiring a high level of expertise to climb like a few spots in the Hall of Horrors. We stuck to lesser marked spots and started at Live Oak Picnic area and found some fun climbs and a ravine out past the first set of rock formations. Oh and we never saw a Live Oak 🤔

Our 80s rock aficionado Jayden wanted to recreate the classic U2 Joshua Tree album cover but we researched and found that the actual tree in the picture died AND it was in Death Valley, not Joshua Tree NP as we thought. 🤔 We did our best to make a ItDillerTime cover shot.

We did some quality rock scrambles and were all surprised at the rock composition compared to the majority sand stone and volcanic rock mountains from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Pictured above is Vince’s hand on a boulder highlighting the rough crystalline nature of the rock with an extremely course surface of monzogranite(yes Vince looked it up 🤔). Few scrapes from our scramble but well worth it 💪👍

We walked in a bit and found a ravine where 3-4 washes converged. It was a fun hike through and we even found a mini dam constructed to slow some of the wash during a flash flood. Jayden used it for a nap 🙄

On our second lap we got to a few different rock formations along Bigfoot Trail and while no Bigfoot, we did find a few Western Chuckwalla… lizards out so snakes aren’t too far away from emerging from winter hibernation.

We made it to Keys View after carving through the desert forest of Joshua Trees. Some were in bloom and after a look from the top of the mountain showing the valley and the San Andreas fault, we got some pictures of the Joshua Trees in bloom with Peyton scaling Mount Vinnie for a better view of the bloom 😏

Few in-door activities for the 2 day dust storm followed and some repairs and modifications along with school projects. The boys are each working on their term papers and projects this next few weeks for school. Shop class involved pulling the twin sofa bed out and converting it to added storage. As well as replacing and fixing a few vents and a cabinet door the boys have… been teenagers thus far on the trip. No way this RV is going to be mint when we get done with it 🙄

More from Palm Springs next week and we are valuing our time hanging with the McDaniel clan, it’s good therapy for the soul 😊