Day 115 Interstate 40 EB Milepost 23, Yucca, AZ-Joshua Tree NP Cottonwood, CA 11.23.16

Day 115 Interstate 40 EB Milepost 23, Yucca, AZ-Joshua Tree NP Cottonwood, CA
11.23.16
Drove Route 66 through the Black Mountains over Sitgreaves Pass.  It was a tight narrow road with no guardrails. In the 1930s, dust bowl migrants feared the steep, winding grades on this section of Route 66. Many migrants hired locals to drive or tow their cars over the Pass.  Once over the pass, we were in Oatman where wild burros run freely through the streets.  Of course, it helps that tourists are always feeding them.  As it was early in the morning, nothing was open but we did spot one lonely burro waiting for a hand-out. We stopped the van and I called to the burro and he trotted over.  Jo fed carrots to the burro from the van window trying to keep all of her fingers safely away from the burro's large teeth.  We headed out since it would be a couple more hours before anything would be open in Oatman.  Winding our way through the desert with lots of great free camping spots.  Eventually we crossed over the Colorado River into California.  In Needles, we attempted to find the gravesite of Kevin's great Uncle Ernest T Whitaker at the Needles Riverview Cemetery.  We were unsuccessful as the cemetery lacked plot markers and we were not up to walking through the whole place grave by grave.  Kevin bought his S10 Blazer from a friend who owned the Chevy dealership in this town.  It is no longer a dealership, but it looks like someone sells a few custom cars there by appointment.  Tried to take the National Trails highway toward Amboy but the road was closed. Kevin said he remembered hearing something about a big wash out in this area. So we continued on I40 which had its own road construction detours for new bridges across washes then turned south on Kelbaker rd to Amboy and 29 Palms.  Passed by the home of the National Chloride. The desert landscape is reshaped here by huge piles of dirt lining the trenches dug to extract the salt.  We entered Joshua Tree National Park knowing it might be difficult to get a campsite the day before Thanksgiving.  The visitor center said that Cottonwood campground still had a few spaces so we made a bee line in that direction which meant we missed going through the climbing area of the park.  Oh well, we'll be back. We made it to the campground and actually had a few spots to choose from. Ate a hearty meal of ramen noodles and enjoyed the sunset from the van rooftop.