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My friend from Germany, Ralf, told me
about Joshua tree last spring and about how rad it was. I was pretty
indifferent to what we did on the trip as long as we got to Joshua Tree.
Joshua Trees I can't describe, you will just have to see the pictures.
We arrived after dark and the map we
picked up at the gate described some of the life in the park. It said that
tarantulas live there. We were all pretty freaked that the place would be
crawling with them and we would find them in our sleeping bags in the
morning. The truth was, we didn't even see any.
I woke up early the next morning and hiked around and explored the camp
ground (jumbo rocks), which I discovered was freaking awesome. I hiked up
a hill and took a picture of the place. Can you see the van? It is on the
left side between the trailer RV and the big bus looking RV. Our tent was
nestled by those rocks behind the van.
Self portrait at the top of that hill I climbed.
A panorma from the top of that hill.
After the rest of the party awoke we went and hiked another mountain.
Joshua Tree is rad because of the Joshua Trees (you can see a forest of
them in the picture) and because of the weird rock formations (in the
distance) they are just like piles of boulders.
At the summit of Ryan Mountain.
On the hike we saw some lizards. They were posing so we took some pictures
of them.
Alright, enough blabbing about Joshua Trees. Here are some Joshua Trees.
I'm pretending to be one.
Heather taking a picture of a Joshua Tree in a Joshua Tree forest.
The van and Joshua Trees.
Jesse and I pretending to be a Joshua Tree.
There was a coyote walking on the street like he owned it so I took a
picture of him. He must have been looking for the roadrunner or something.
Me driving through the Joshua Tree forest.
We went on another hike to the only water in the entire park. It wasn't
good enough for swimming though.
The hike also went by some native American rock art. Here is Heather
examining some of it.
Heather, Jesse, and Stephanie among some cool rocks.
I clambered up that boulder. Real climbers would climb up that wall behind
me.
Another Joshua Tree. I can't get enough of Joshua Trees.
After getting burnt out from hiking we went back to camp and sat on the
jumbo rocks to play cards and watch the sunset. Here is the rocks across
our camp site with the evening sun on them. Notice the nice color.
Here we are playing cards on our personal jumbo rocks. Deserts are hot
during the day and cold at night and it was already getting cold.
Jesse and Stephanie. Awwww.
The sunset we waited for. It probably would have been cooler with some
clouds in the sky. We'll just have to go back.
A Joshua Tree silhouette.
After Joshua Tree park I drove 14 hours to Mt. Shasta where we spent the
night and then another 10 hours all the way home. I sat in the driver
seat, Heather in the passenger, Jesse and Stephanie in the middle, and all
our junk in the back.
It was a most spectacular trip that
exceeded all my hopes. I perfect vacation from lipids and the first law of
thermodynamics.
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