Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park was included early on as a destination during my 2019 trip due to a memory I had from visiting my aunt in Los Angeles in August 1998. Though the story changes depending on whether you ask her or myself, someone made the decision to visit Death Valley National Park and we took a wrong turn ending-up in Palm Springs way, way south of our intended route. From there, we drove north (looking at a map, I’m guessing Route 247) to Barstow to get on track. This story is relevant because I remember seeing joshua trees and signs for the park along the way, so I remembered it was in the area that I’d be traveling in 2019.
The drive through the park in 2019 has stuck with me as a high point from that road trip, which even now surprises me. You might say that, on the surface, it’s kind of a boring park: There aren’t any majestic views or epic mountains. Instead the landscape is dominated by massive piles of round boulders and the joshua trees themselves, the latter of which kind of lose their impact once you drive past a million of them. But, there’s something to it that had me yearning to go back some day for an extended stay, one that includes a bit of camping so I can enjoy the night skies which I’m sure are amazing.
Image Gallery
- Joshua National Park Collectors Pin
- Jumbo Rocks? Can't seem to figure-out exactly what this formation was part of, but I'm pretty sure it was Jumbo Rocks.
- Hall of Horrors While I was trying to make time, I couldn't pass-up seeing the "Hall of Horrors" now could I? I actually spent quite a bit of time here capturing timelapse video.
- Hall of Horrors (Rear View) Here's what you'd see looking away from the Hall of Horrors.
- Northwest Entrance Took this picture as I left because when I arrived at the southern entrance, there were a line of cars there.
- Passport(s) Stamped The first thing I do at a park is hit the cancellation station to stamp my passport(s).
- An Oasis These are impressive. Cracks in the rocks allow these oases to grow in the middle of the desert.
- Mastodon Peak Most of the hike was without much elevation, then I reached this point and it was scrambling-up to the peak.
- Sun-Kissed
- View From Mastodon Peak You can see the Salton Sea in the distance.
- Mastodon Mine This was sort of creepy because you could still see down into the mine.
- Tent + Moon You can see the moon is already pretty high behind my tent. I left the rain shell off the tent for the first time because it was so warm.
- The Moon
- Sunset At Camp
- Fire Got this going with a single match (and a fire starter).
- Loading the Bronica After shooting a bunch of moon and star photographs, I got obsessive and insisted on loading film for the following day.
- Dawn In My Tent Sleeping without the outer cover was a good move on my part. I could see the stars and moon all night long and it wasn't that cold at all.
- Shooting The Sunrise My GoPro shooting a time lapse video of the sunrise.
- Cholla Cactus Garden
- Veiny On my hike near Split Rock, I noticed a lot of veins running through the boulders.
- Goblin Face You can see all sorts of things in the eroded surfaces of the boulders throughout Joshua Tree National Park. I see a goblin face laying down in this one.
- Endearing Lines Part of me thinks I love Joshua Tree because the lines remind me of my own artwork. It's like it flows how my mind works or something.
- Cactus Blooming To be honest, I'm surprised I'm not seeing more blooms on this trip. It was mid-May three years ago when I visited and everything was in bloom.
- A Joshua Tree
- Skull Rock Don't know how I managed to get this shot without a million people in it.
- Return to the Hall of Horrors Spent a bit of time here my first time through and wanted to make sure I stopped today.
Video Gallery
- Live Oak Picnic Area View Location This bit of footage is a good example of my entire road trip: driving along, passing something of interest, should I stop... no... okay, YES... turn around, take a photo, get back on the road. (NOTE: The thumbnail of the video shows Skull Rock a little to the right of center.)
- Hall of Horrors View Location I couldn't drive past the "Hall of Horrors" without taking a closer look could I?
- Hall of Horrors Tour View Location Just a bit of my walking back to my car after shooting a timelapse bit. It was a perfect day.
- Mastodon Peak Tour View Location A tour around Mastodon Peak. You can see the Salton Sea from the top.
- A Kangaroo Mouse In Camp View Location Shortly after sunset and I lit my fire, this kangaroo mouse decided to hang-out in camp. He was really bold and made me wonder if he was used to people feeding it.
- Sunset + Sunrise In Joshua Tree National Park View Location Stitching together a time lapse sunset and sunrise at the Cottonwood Campground in Joshua Tree National Park.
- Cholla Cactus Garden Tour View Location
- Split Rock Loop Hike View Location A bit of my hike on the Split Rock Loop in Joshua Tree National Park.
- Skull Rock Panning View Location A quick pan past Skull Rock in Joshua Tree National Park.
- Driver's Side Tracking A bit of tracking out the driver's side window as I left the park.
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