Sunday, April 26, 2015

A Welcome Home-Base at Joshua Tree - Rock Reach - September 23, 2015, Day 9

At night the stars are just unreal, compared to our limited views in the East

After 3,620 miles, we came to rest for seven whole days at Rock Reach House, in Yucca Valley, just outside of Joshua Tree National Park.  What a relief to think about not moving for seven entire days, except to explore the local countryside. 


from the living room
On day one of our Joshua Tree adventure, I want to talk about the house! Rock Reach House is spectacular!  We found out about it from Dwell Magazine, although I'm sure we saw it in a later article than this one from 2010, it was sometime in 2013 we read about being able to rent it and had not stopped thinking about it since. 
You can see here just how close the house is to Joshua Tree National Park

The house is actually what started the whole road trip discussion and our trip plans eventually flowered around Rock Reach as the center point. 


That's me down there enjoying the lounge chair on the deck! 

It was the perfect place to experience the desert, immersing ourselves in the mesogranite formations surrounding the house and the beautiful landscape. You can see Rock Reach being built in this video by Blue Sky Building Systems. It is set on 2.5 acres in Yucca Valley, CA, and the only visible neighboring home is Black Desert House, an impressive black monolith that is currently for sale for $975,000. Check out the amazing images of this house here on the Crosby Doe Associates site!
Image from Crosby Doe Associates

Image from Crosby Doe Associates

Our view  of Black Desert House from Rock Reach

Needless to say, this part of the world is VERY different from Massachusetts on so many different levels. Firstly, it feels like there is no water, and in reality, there really isn't much.  There has been a drought in California for the past four years and it is evident as you move around the landscape. Even though I've never been in the desert, it's apparent that things are extraordinarily dry here.  


A panorama of the landscape
Jeff surveys the landscape from above Rock Reach

some plant material I gathered from the Grand Canyon
We finally had a chance to catch up with our thoughts about the trip so far, including writing in our travel journals that my sister & brother-in-law so thoughtfully gave to us. I collected some plants along the way and had fun sewing them into my journal. 










Sunset from Rock Reach



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