I was very excited. I was going to Mojave National Preserve, the 3rd largest Natural area in the lower 48 states! We drove through the Antelope Valley to the Mojave Desert.We took a detour through the snowy mountains. There were many rocks there.
I never have a chance to see snow, and I knew that Mojave National Preserve sometimes had snow. We continued on through the desert to a town called Barstow, where my mother learned of an abandoned water park nearby. We wanted to stop there, but we didn’t. Instead, we drove to Baker, home of the world’s largest thermometer. From there, we drove on the dusty desert roads all the way to the volcanic cinder cones. We drove our car all the way to a place that I knew had a lava tube. There was snow!
There were some rickety metal stairs to help us get into the tube.
We walked into the lava tube and I found a swallow nest. The tube was so dark that we needed a flashlight.
We walked into a chamber with a man and his dog, but the most striking thing was a shaft of light that fell through a hole in the cavern ceiling. 
The man asked us what campsite we were going to and we told him we didn’t know. He said we should go to the Granite Mountains. We said OK and we walked out of the cave because the sun no longer shone in the tube. We were lucky to catch the last glimpse of it. The cinder cones were covered in snow and I saw a cactus! 
We stopped at the visitor’s center to get our junior ranger booklets and drove to the Granite Mountains. There were amazing mountains on the way.
We accidently drove our car up a hill that almost broke down our car,and we found a campsite. The next day, we got up early to climb to the top of the Kelso Dunes. we crossed a wilderness boundary and trudged through the sand.
The sand dunes were a tan color that made it easy to see footprints in the sand.
The sun began to rise and we were rewarded with a magificent morning.
Sam and I ran across the low dune fields and ran up the crest of the high dunes.
At the top of the dune, we could see the granite mountains and other sand dunes
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On the Kelso Dunes, you can run down the sand dunes and make them boom. We could hear the booms because Sammy and I ran down at top speed like we did in Namibia. 
When we got to the car, we wanted to fly the drone. But Daddy said we shouldn’t because it might get lost in the sand. We went back to the campground and began to take down the tent, but Sam and I wanted to explore. Here is what we found:
When we left the campsite, we found a jack rabbit.
We drove to the visitor’s center. While we were waiting for the video to start, a train went by since the center used to be a train station. Then, Sam pretended he was in jail. We 
wanted to go to a place called Hole-in-the-Wall. To get there, we had to drive through a burned forest and a strange volcanic place. 
We drove to the Hole-in-the-Wall visitor’s center where my parents bought me a hat with a gila monster on the front. Then, we walked on the Rings Loop Trail. There were petroglyphs at the beginning, and there was a barrel cactus as well.
Then we came to a huge canyon. It is called Banshee Canyon because the echoes sound like the noises of a banshee. The place is called Hole-in-the-Wall because there are holes in the walls. The trail is called the Rings Loop because there are rings helping you climb. 
We drove back quickly so we could go to the Cima Dome Joshua Trees. These are the densest forests of Joshua Trees in the world. 
I decided that we should go back to the car and drive to Zzyzx Spring, on the edge of the preserve. We didn’t make it in time for sunset, so we turned back before we reached the spring. But, there were California Date Palms.
On our way back, we tried to eat at a Méxican place, but it was closed. There was another Méxican place as well, but it had a crazy name. The name was “Del Taco,” which is español for “Of The Taco.” We ate at a restaurant called Red Robin instead.
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