On one of my visits to one of my best friends' house in Los Angeles, my little brother and I went south to Joshua Tree. It is an excellent climbing location, though the sandstone is a little rough on the fingers. Since it is pretty rough rock, it does provide for an excellent grip and I was able to climb a level or two above my ability. We usually try to plan a ten day trip, spend three or four days climbing. After significantly shredding our fingers, we head to the coast to surf, or to Tijuana for some shopping. Then hit Joshua again for a few more days on the way back. It seems to work out pretty well. For other activities, there are plenty of hiking trails and lots of open area to explore in Joshua, so you could just hike for a few days while the fingers heal. The climbing has quite a few traditional routes, a few sport routes, and very few top ropes. Plan accordingly. Here is a sunset photo taken in the Mojave desert.
As always, the picture does the actual scenery no justice.
Here are a couple of pictures of the airline trip over. The first one is over farmland.
This last picture is over the desert.
I like the air photos, it looks as if it is taken aboard a space shuttle flight. (Which I would be only too delighted to do, and have sent in my resume to NASA for a Mission Specialist position.)
For more pictures from California, look at the Wall of Fame page under camping, climbing, hiking, off-roading and surfing.