We did a little more exploration of Joshua Tree National Park today. This place is too cool to see for just one evening.
This is a red barrel cactus. To me, it looks like a bird's nest made out of red zip ties.
I reluctantly put on some hiking shoes for a 3 mile hike to 49 Palms Oasis. In the middle of a desert, there are huge California fan palm trees by the dozens offering shade on a super hot day. This occurs because water under pressure within the earth moves to a fault line that is non-porous, so it ends up being pushed up to the surface, creating an oasis of lush vegetation. We finished up around 1pm and had to head back to our beast and sit in the air conditioning until about 5pm allowing me to catch up on blogging. I understand the meaning of siesta when you live in the desert...
I wonder if this is a joke?
Ryan scoping out potential climbing areas on the Flintstone rocks.
Some of the endless Joshua trees in the park. You may be surprised, I was, that they are not technically trees or cacti. They are a type of yucca plant, which is in the lily family. The name Joshua Tree came from Mormon settlers that thought its arms resembled Joshua beckoning them to the promised land. Hum, never knew.
This one is for you Leah, finally got a little use out of my 'instant weirdo' glasses :)
Another wonderful sunset in the park...the Joshua trees almost have an eerie quality to them after dark.
This is where I almost became coyote food. Misplacing your husband on a sunset-dusk hike through Hidden Valley that turns dark awfully fast without any light source, communication device, food or water, not our best performance. I panicked a little, but alas we found each other and the car. Oh geez. And then we saw a coyote (thankfully it was from our car).
Moral of the story: Avoid losing your spouse in the desert at night!
No comments:
Post a Comment