Earlier this week, Aimee and I camped for a few days at
Joshua Tree. It was probably the "hardest" camping I've done in that we had to bring in all our own water (so had little to spare for cleaning) and the fact that we were in a place where doing anything too long in the open from 10am - 6pm was to invite death. Still, we had a pretty good time and the place itself looks awesome. I've been doing a lot of studying in deserts lately, so it was also a good chance to see some of what I learned in reality. I think I'd like to go back at some point and see the place in the spring when plants are blooming more and the temperatures aren't nearing the levels of Que's apartment.
So, here are some pictures. I've also linked higher res versions of the pictures to the posted images, so click them if you're interested in seeing some more detail.
Joshua Tree is known more or less for its rock formations. Sites like this are pretty common where ever you go in park.
The park is named ofter, not surprisingly, the local joshua trees.
This was our first campsite. That's the moon up in the sky. We timed things just right to camp during a full moon.
The place was pretty nice, except for several small problems: bees. We discovered that they would literally swarm over any amount of water spilled. Even one drop of water would bring about a dozen or so bees out to drink it before it evaporated. Bigger spills would summon bigger groups of bees. The problem sorta came to a head when we failed to use all the water we boiled in the morning up within five minutes and bees found their way into the kettle. Neither of us were brave enough to try and pour out the water and within ten minutes then thing was covered. What you can't see here is the cloud of bees surrounding it and piled up inside. After that we decided to camp somewhere else. Sadly, the kettle had to be abandoned.
So, the next day we went to another campground and found a great site. We only saw a handful of people throughout the trip, so we really had the pick of the sites where ever we went. You can see our tent and Aimee in that little patch of trees on the right.
The place really was at its best when the sun was just coming up or just going down. This is because of the aforementioned heat, but also because the the shadows and colors on the rocks made a lot of pretty scenes (although these are both sunset shots).
Probably the highlight of the trip was a hike up one of the mountains Aimee and I took just as the sun came up one morning. From the top, you could see more or less the entire park (or at least most of the interesting parts). The haze you see is actually smog from Los Angeles. While we were about a hundred miles east of the city, LA puts out enough smog to do this sort of thing. It also doesn't help that small cities cover all the ground between the park and LA.
During our stay we came across some fun formations. Here's what we've named "Roast Pig Rock."
And "Angry Peep."
Just before we left, a bunch of rodents came out to see us off and probably scoured our site for any scraps left behind.
