Wednesday was the day set aside for camping overnight in Joshua Tree. Since Jani and I did not opt for the overnight, we spent the morning in the Big Morongo Valley Preserve, a local park with hiking trails. It turns out that Austin had taken to these trails earlier and we had a surprise meeting as he was returning from his hike. The landscape was significantly different from what we experienced at Joshua Tree, but was lovely.

When we finished up we treated ourselves to lunch at The Coyote Cone, which was to become our favorite ice cream, coffee and breakfast sandwich place.

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