I'll use the pictures to tell the stories of the trip. While the name of the park is about a kind of native tree - Joshua, I found the landscape and geology to be of my primary fascination. Rock formations are my biggest thrills. You'd find rocks of all shapes and sizes up to several story high. This park is also where two desert ecosystems met - Mojave Desert at the higher elevation where it's cooler and moister and Colorado Desert at the lower elevation. Joshua trees grow mostly at the higher elevation. Again, to learn more about the park, go to the sites you'd find easily by doing a search on Joshua Tree National Park.
I stayed at Jumbo Rock Campground. This was a popular campground since it's very scenic. However, do bring water along (and a portable toilet if you don't like sitting in one of those vault toilet thing!) Have you ever had to conserve water? Well, try to live with 5 gallons of water for 3 days (outside of drinking water). You'd find interesting ways of recycling water for other uses :) My campsite was nice and clean. It's nice in that my backyard was several hundreds acres of desert land with beautiful vista. Camping here is unlike most other parks since rocks make up most of the park, making it quite clean and a mecca for kids and those who want to go climb a rock :)
One thing I realized as I traveled the parks - someone's spare time must have been spent in dreaming up names for various locations or natural beauties such as Devil's Golf Course at Death Valley. Here, a lot of time was spent in dreaming up names for rock formations that resemble something. You'd find Cap Rock, Skull Rock, Split Rock, Seal Rock, etc. This can be contagious. After a while, I tried to come up with names for interesting rock formations. One that I liked was Motherly Love at the Hall Of Horror trail. Looking at it again, some might come up with more romantic interpretation. I'll have to go back again to recapture the image under more favorable light condition. If you come up with better names for the rock formations I posted, do let me know at tvo@patternsofnature.com.
While I've taken lots of pictures, I'll confine my pictures mostly on rock formations, landscapes, and some people I met so you can get a flavor of the park. Spending less than 3 full days, I could only see a few places. I used up over 5GB of memory capacity at the 2 parks before heading home. When I learn to be more selective, and more importantly, take higher quality pictures, I should not have to use as much.
As a guide to the pictures, they are grouped into a few categories:
- General park vistas
- Pictures taken around the campground.
- Pictures taken on the Geology tour road
- Some pictures at the Hall of Horrors.
- Pictures at Keys View
I'll put description in the picture captions to give context to the pictures. Enjoy!
Joshua Tree National Park (4/21-23/2005)
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Last updated: October 17, 2010
