Joshua Tree National Park, California

FEB 13, 14 & 15

Grabbed a quick meal at a place called Bakkers which doubles for a TexMex take away. I ordered about the only thing which looked palatable, a scrambled egg barito. The girl that served me had the same name as my girlfriend, Jolanda. The barito with the eggs actually tasted OK with the exception of an evil chilly flavored sauce which I discovered after the third bite!

Traveled south east to Joshua Tree National Park where we planned to camp for three nights. Stopping at the ranger station late in the afternoon to sign in, I wasn’t too impressed with the park service officers. They were unfriendly and not very helpful, and the park shop didn’t stock the t-shirt I wanted in size medium – there were stacks in size extra large though!

As we were camping in the park we inspected several of the camping sites hoping to choice a site off the beaten track amongst the rocks and away from the wind which had been persistent throughout the day. Whilst driving the loop road we sighted a coyote lying on one of the large rocks beside the road. Pulling to the side for a better look we were horrified when a huge ranger truck pulled up alongside us blocking the view to the animal. The ranger demanded to know the reason we had stopped off the road. He barked at us that stopping was not allowed and any offense would result in a penalty (infringement fine). I have observed this behavior with American Park Rangers in the past; they dislike vehicles stopping for people to see the animals, unless you stop in an authorized area (where there are no animals). I observed rangers in Joshua Tree booking several cars illegally parked alongside the road (their occupants no doubt bushwalking) and also noted that rangers patrolled the road and campsites day and night.

Eventually we found a nice camp site and after setting up the tent made our way to the Cholla cactus Garden in the hope of catching the last rays of sunlight backlighting the cactus. The cactus garden was lovely; hundreds of Cholla cactus covered a flat plain which receded into a mountain range. Unfortunately, the light was low required long shutter speeds and the persistent wing was moving the cactus about a little to much to facilitate a good photograph. The same windy condition persisted throughout the night causing out planned star trail work to be postponed. Instead of photographing the cactus garden we doubled back and found several Joshua Tree silhouetted by the sunset.

The next morning I awoke to the chattering and yelping of several coyotes as they traversed the campsite – probably in search of scraps left by other campers. A number of bird calls were also heard in the pre-dawn along with the raucous call of a couple of ravens.

Today we scouted the area for possible early morning and afternoon photographs. The Joshua trees are amazing and take hundreds of years to fully grow to a height higher than 20 feet. The trees are a member of the Lillie family, and evolved during the Cretaceous Period 144 million years ago when flowering plants evolved. The Joshua are everywhere and the plains are covered in trees of various shapes and size. Small mountain squirrels scurry in the underbrush around the trees and various birds alight in the trees such as jays. In addition to the Joshua trees there are a species of conifer that grew in the are before the climate favored the Joshua tree. The conifers are often stunted and dwarfed and grow with the prevailing wing making them appear bonzi like.

Spent the afternoon in an area aptly named Hidden Valley. Hidden Valley is a small amphitheater that was once enclosed entirely by huge boulders. The boulders are the eroded remains of a granitic batholith that has been chemically and physically eroded to form boulders of varying shapes and sizes. Within the amphitheater are several species of cactus, succulents, Joshua trees, yukka bushes, dwarfed conifers, and several other plant species. A photographer could spend most of the day in this location doing macro work.

The weather was very cool during my visit and after 2 hours messing with cactus and photographing some of the dead trees which make outstanding silhouette shots I became slightly hypothermic. Putting gloves and wool cap on, I noted that the very light rain had since turned to sleet and light snow!

The night was very cold and looking through the window I was shocked to see sleet rather than rain on the tent! Star trails had to be cancelled for the second night in a row due to cloud cover and wind.

The following day we scouted an area searching for a particular rock formation which I wanted to photograph. Hiking off the road the formation was easily sighted. The formation was granitic in composition and had several dykes cross cutting the base rock. It took sometime to determine the best area to photograph the rock from, taking into account sun, camera, lens type and angle. After working out the best location we hiked back to the car to prepare our equipment before returning later in the afternoon to capture the last light and sunset.

Returning later, I was shocked to see 4 people attempting to climb the rock I wanted to photograph! Two individuals (a boy and his girlfriend) were attempting to scale the rock without much luck. Two off duty marines came past and commented that they were foolish as the rock was slippery even when dry with hardly any hand or toe holes. The two marines left making comments such as “dumb ass”. Luckily for us, as the light became golden the two "wanabe" climbers had curtailed their climb and departed and we were able to secure several photographs.

That night the wind dropped and the cloud cover that had prevailed during the previous days had lifted allowing star trails to be photographed. The night sky was amazing with millions upon millions are stars able to be viewed. I still think the southern sky is prettier with the southern cross, but the northern sky is just as good! The night air was cold with the temperature hovering just slightly above zero Celsius (32 F).

After another very cool night camping, we departed south for New Mexico with a quick stop at the Cholla Cactus garden