It was an other-worldly experience. Living in and around LA makes it difficult, sometimes, to remember that there are all of these natural wonders quietly existing without throngs of people, cars, buildings, and worries of city life. Welcome to Joshua Tree National Park. We can show you only the tip of the tip of the iceberg here, in just 10 photos out of almost 400 that we took over the course of a few hours.
After checking out the visitor's center and talking with park rangers about must-see destinations on a one-day visit, we drove into the park, and saw many views like those in the top picture here. Then, we stopped for a hike in a place called Hidden Valley, so named because the giant rock formations like those above completely encircled a large piece of land, making it isolated, unique, and inaccessible to humans and some animals and plants. We humans are pretty ingenious, though, and in 1936, Bill Keys blasted a hole through the valley wall in order to pasture cattle in its protected clime. We were glad for the opportunity make a loop around the valley and check out its cool features.
Cacti and other wildflowers were blooming and plentiful. Lizards sunned themselves on warmed boulders. Pinyon pine trees, unique because of their single-needle clusters, decorated the rocky areas close to the edges of the valley, while Joshua trees and other plants stood tall in the center of the valley. Rock formations looked like a gorilla's head, upside down boots, even arches of the Sydney Opera House.
It's a climber's paradise, with 360 degrees of challenges. This dude had a great view after his climb.
Jonathan and Daddy had a much more comfortable hike than the one at the Poppy reserve, because of a better-adjusted pack. Jonathan liked feeling the rocks as we passed by, and enjoyed seeing all the "wizards" (lizards, to you and me).
After our hike, we made a few quick stops to check out other rock formations, fields of Joshua trees, and funky desert plant life.
Then we came upon a place called Keys View, which had quite the view, indeed. Way out to the left in the picture above is the Salton Sea. The Coachella Valley is also visible from Keys View. From here, we watched as the sun highlighted all the peaks and valleys of the surrounding mountains. It was like watching a pop-up book in action, as the sun's setting lowered the furthest mountains with calming blues and raised the closer ones with bright yellow and orange.
"You see the moon, daddy?" Yep, I see it. Free of the Kelty pack, Jonathan did some exploring and running around at Keys View. We had to keep him close, though, because the peak on which we had our views had steep edges.
Jonathan's curiosity and constant chatter drew the attention of several admirers, one of whom was nice enough to offer to take a family photo.
The sunset was beautiful, and smog-free. We were refreshingly tired by the end of the day. If we have the chance again, we'd love to explore Joshua Tree National Park even more. A+
1 comment:
Such great reading...and I love the photos. The family photo was one of my favorites...you and Christine have been blessed.
I guess I'll keep this short since I love mornings so much and don't want to tempt anyone to hack into my computer and reprogram the toaster this early in my day! hehe!
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