This is the third and final post of our southern California trip, this one covering our time in the Joshua Tree National Park, on January 15 and 16, 2020. For an overview of the trip, and a map, see here.
After spending the morning at the Salton Sea, we decided to head to Joshua Tree NP to get there in time for some afternoon photography, with the sun lower, providing more interesting lighting. We also thought we might take some pictures of the night sky, but that didn’t work out due to the overcast skies.
We headed first to the Cholla Cactus Garden in the park. On the way, we saw a Desert Bighorn Sheep ram. He wasn’t as close as we would have liked for good pictures, but I was happy to finally get a picture of a ram (I’ve only seen ewes up until then). We also didn’t have a lot of time to try for closer shots, because we didn’t want to lose the sun for taking pictures in the park. After we spent some time at the Cholla Cactus Garden, we headed further into the park to higher elevations where the Joshua trees became more dense. We were very fortunate to get a beautiful sunset as a background to Joshua Tree pictures.
The next day, we went back to the park, and spent the morning exploring. Around 11:00 AM we headed back home, stopping in Blythe for lunch, and Ehrenberg in Arizona for gas. We were home by dinner time (about 5:30).
It was a great trip. Thanks to Mark for planning it.
4 Comments
Sounds like a good trip! Great photos!! I have a good friend(one of my seminary class mates) who lies in 29 Palms and their property backs right up to the boundary of the Joshua Tree NP.
Thanks, Tony! Sounds like a nice place to live. We were close to 29 Palms, but went south to the I10 instead of going north to 29 Palms.
Wow. Some magical scenery here — very surrealistic. Lovely shots.
Thanks, Tiki. We were happy to get the sunset for our Joshua Tree shots.