Day 14 – 13th August San Diego to Twentynine Palms

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After checking out of the Best Western Plus Island Palms Hotel and Marina, we drove from San Diego to our next hotel in Twentynine Palms.

We left San Diego on Highway 94 and headed to Lemon Grove where we picked up highway 125 to Grossmont and Highway 8 to Alpine and then onto Highway CA79. We stopped by Lake Cuyumaca and took some pictures of the lake. We then drove the 79 to Salton Sea, an abandoned town by a smelly lake (the reason it was abandoned!). Developers thought it would be a good place to build a resort, but due to the lack of changing water the lake became increasingly saline and all aquatic life died, With no fish for sport the resort slowly closed down.

From Salton Sea, we continued our journey around The Joshua Tree National Park to the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriot at Twentynine Palms. An excellent Hotel and very handy for visiting the National Park and surrounding areas for the next three days.

Lake Cuyamaca from the junction CA79 and Engineers Road California
The hill behind the lake. Notice the trees on top of the hill, have no leaves. This is due to the forest fires which raged in 2018..
Our wheels, Dodge Journey, parked at the side of Highway CA79
Panorama view from highway CA79
Valley detail from highway CA79
Highway CA79 is dead straight in places.
We came upon this wild watermelon patch at the side of highway CA79
The moon over Twentynine Palms, taken from the hill next to the Hotel.

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