Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park was beautiful. The desert is so peaceful, so simple in some ways, and so open. Hiking in it felt more like you belonged by it's side than as a conquerer of it's peaks. Plus, we stayed the night there, saw the sunset, and were up early enough to climb to a peak for the sunrise. The sky in the desert is striking - it rests into the sunset not as if going to sleep, but as if opening up to night. And at sunrise, the sun must love shining long against the plains and igniting the rocks into forms, a three dimensional blooming from silhouette. It is the most quiet sunrise I've ever seen.

We had a good time, to say the least.


Brian peeks through some rocks on the first leg of our hike.



The backpacker's yoga: removing a rock from the hiking boot.



The moon and a big (and I mean BIG) pile of rocks.



A joshua tree and the moon.



Brian making efforts to communicate with this whimsically wicked old tree.





Climbed up a small rock hill to have a snack and choose a place to set up camp. This, I will say over and over again, was the best: surveying our surroundings and finally deciding on a camping spot on a slope that flattened out right below a peak in the near distance by pointing my finger and playfully declaring, "There!" Backcountry hiking is so cool. You just walk, and walk, and explore, and take care of your own darn self when it comes to sleeping in the wilderness. Couldn't be better.



Near the slope where we camped, I got a kick out of this silhouette, as it looked like a comical community of desert cacti staring out into the sunset.



The next morning, we climbed over the peak to start our hike back to the car.



We ended up following a dry creek down to the flatland, which provided for some great views.



Do you see all of the joshua trees below?



There were a lot of really cool cacti and plants, and this was one that always made me want to refer to it as the Old Man Cactus.



Man, I loved this cacti. I always remembered this kind of cactus being in our backyard wherever we lived when I was growing up, and here they were both yellow and bright red, short and quite tall. And what can I say, everything in the desert has a somewhat humorous quality, and I wanted to make sure that it was demonstrated...



We were proud of our scrambling with backpacks down what would be a series of small waterfalls after a heavy rain. It was fun to follow the dry creek's path and hop down giant boulders through a little cascading canyon ... you can see it in the background in this picture.



I made my best effort to disguise myself among the joshua trees at one point...



With the car in sight, we said farewell to beautiful Joshua Tree and looked forward to a hearty breakfast/lunch and some hot coffee...