The Mojave desert

Here are a few photos of the Mojave desert.  We were hiking to a lava flow- I'll have photos of that in the next post.  These are taken a little east of Baker, in the Mojave National Preserve.  It's around 3 hours northeast of Los Angeles on Interstate 15, and an hour an a half before you get to Las Vegas.

The Mojave reminds me a bit of the landscape of the James Bay lowlands- low weather-beaten shrubs, most plants seem to grow to about waist-high.  It is full of plants- it's not just sand.  There are clusters of mountains, with large flat areas in between.

I think these mountains below are volcanic- they were near the lava flow.

This area below where the ATV's or 4-wheel drive vehicles have been going is a wash, a dry waterway that gets filled with runoff when there is a heavy rainfall.

Stay tuned- the lava flow is next up, and I think it was pretty cool!