Joshua Tree National Park

With grad school almost over, Emma and I made a spring break trip to Baltimore and California.  In California we spent almost a week in Joshua Tree and then traveled south to the Salton Sea and then northwest to the Santa Monica mountains.

The parks namesake – Joshua trees are actually in the lilly family and closely related to yuccas.

Looking out towards Mount San Gorgonio (off shot on the left). The sprawl of LA is just on the other side of the ridge.

Being my first time in the desert it was time to take cactus pictures – in this case barrel cactus.

Good shadows on the way back to camp from Willow Springs.

Joshua Tree is a mecca for rock  climbers – really good rock climbers – even though, I managed to do a little bouldering.

Twilight view from the Ryan campground.

J Tree is home to many palm oases – had to google that plural form – the California Fan Palm here is naive to the state.

Hanging near Jumbo Rocks.

Inner wood from a Cholla (choy-ya), another type of cactus.

Joshua trees live in the Mojave Desert, and above 3000′ in elevation.  Lower down in the separate Colorado Desert, plants like the Ocotillo take over.

Coming to Joshua Tree in the spring is a good time to spy flowers.

South of the park near the Salton Sea we searched out Salvation Mountain the project of outsider artist Leonard Knight.  The mountain is formed from a painted adobe covered hillside and is designated by Congress as a national treasure.

We got to meet Leonard while we were there and he showed us part of the mountain.  Leonard has lived at Salvation Mountain in the desert for over 30 years, he is now 78.

Out of the desert and off to the coast, we spent our last few days in California backpacking and camping in the sometimes foggy, sometimes sunny Santa Monica Mountains just an hour north of LA.

Advertisement