Day 4: A most intriguing landscape

We slept in until 7:00 and had pancakes and some slices of ham-ish loaf for breakfast. We were reluctant to leave our place in Desert Hot Springs. There were so many nice seating areas in the yard. But we headed out around 9:00 for Joshua Tree National Park.

We entered using the West Entrance and had to wait in line about 15 minutes. Once in, John chose Hidden Valley Loop for our trail run. It was a one-mile loop that we did multiple times. Lots of families and little kids. Scenic but crowded.

From there, we grabbed our peanut or in my case almond butter and jam sandwiches and headed for a rock in the sun to eat. Then we drove further into the park. John took me to Jumbo Rocks Campground where he stayed last time he was here. We parked the car and walked out into the rocks. You don’t have to follow a trail, which seemed weird, but it’s allowed. It was great fun. The rocks are granite and incredibly grippy. I started noticing the many different wildflowers, and that quickly became the focus of my hike. California has finally gotten enough rain to end their drought, so the flowers are amazing. I found more than 30 different kinds and was also fascinated by the inside of a dead Joshua Tree. They are fibrous and don’t have growth rings, although you can kind of see rings. You can’t determine their age by them like you can a normal tree. Joshua Trees are actually in the same family as Yucca.

After the hike, we drove back to Yucca Valley so I could get a few items at a Health Food store, and then we found our accommodations in Joshua Tree. The house is quite nice but the yard has not been taken care of. It was so nice to unpack the entire car since we’ll be staying here until Friday.

We took a little time to walk to the Noah Purify outdoor art sculpture museum. Terrible stuff in my opinion. Conglomerations of toilets, old clothing, metal scraps, no kidding. After that, I made some hummus and we snacked while I made dinner. I grilled hearts of palm and made tacos with red cabbage-jalapeno slaw, chopped avocado, and salsa verde. They were great!

At 5:30, we headed back to Joshua Tree to the North Entrance to wind our way down, down, down to Cholla Cactus Garden for a sunset shoot. We had to be quick, as the light was going fast and the sun set earlier there because we were so low beneath the hills of the west part of the park. I was super excited to try the telephoto lens on the cholla backlit by the sun. Unfortunately, Bridge doesn’t recognize the RAW files and needs an update and we don’t have good internet here, so I can’t see them. Tomorrow I will shoot RAW + JPEG so I can at least see them.

Back home now, we’re enjoying some pinot gris and looking at our photos. Tomorrow awaits!

Ellen

Today started as vacations days should begin. We slept in, the Morning Dove actually woke me up, Beckham, the hosts' dog, joined us for breakfast, hot shower, and I finished the morning by sitting in a comfy lawn chair that had a view of the valley. Nice. Great place to stay.

We drove for about an hour to Joshua Tree National Park's west entrance. There was a cue of cars about half a mile long moving slowly through the pay booth. This is a very popular park for people living in the L.A. vicinity.

We found our first destination, Hidden Valley loop trail. We thought it would be nice to shake out the legs and the sun was way beyond good photography light.

So, we ran and then we had lunch on a huge rock and watched a 10 or 11 year old boy climb a 100' pitch as his dad belayed him. We left him just as he finished his climb.

The boy's mother is in the foreground videotaping him as he climbs up a crack.

We found a parking place near Jumbo Rocks to hike cross country. We crossed over rocks, walked through slots, and enjoyed the many and very splendid flowers. It was wonderful to see so much color sprouting out of the high desert soil. They had a very wet spring and the display of color is considered one of the best in the past 50 years. Ellen could not help herself looking for different flowers to photograph with the idea of making a photo collage. 

We then made our way out of the park and to our accommodations near the town of Joshua Tree. I was pleasantly surprised by the newness and the amenities that we have for three days.

After dinner we drove to the Cholla Cactus Garden located in the eastern section of the park. It took us about one hour to get there. Our timing enable us to photograph the Cholla near sunset so we could catch the sunlight backlighting the Cholla. They glowed in the light. Amazing lighting on a beautiful natural garden. Within 30 minutes of starting the shoot, the light disappeared behind a ridge. Everything went flat. The practice session in Lone Pine paid off. I felt comfortable with the equipment.

All in all, the day's experiences made for a great vacation day. It was a nice day.

John