February 2019 - Joshua Tree
We spent a weekend camping at Joshua Tree. By the time we decided to make the trip all the camping sites were booked, so we decided to do backcountry camping - basically you hike out a mile from the road and put up camp wherever looks good. Being February we were ready for some cold camping, but 30 mph winds made it _quite_ cold. Fortunately we were able to stay warm enough to sleep.
Overall the park was a nice mix of Joshua trees and very large boulders. Lovely desert scenery. Perhaps the highlight was on the way out where the valley floor was covered in wildflowers.
We spent a weekend camping at Joshua Tree. By the time we decided to make the trip all the camping sites were booked, so we decided to do backcountry camping - basically you hike out a mile from the road and put up camp wherever looks good. Being February we were ready for some cold camping, but 30 mph winds made it _quite_ cold. Fortunately we were able to stay warm enough to sleep.
Overall the park was a nice mix of Joshua trees and very large boulders. Lovely desert scenery. Perhaps the highlight was on the way out where the valley floor was covered in wildflowers.
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| A desert full of Joshua trees! | Our first hike, typical Joshua tree NP desert | A really big Joshua tree, just as promised |
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| The hidden valley | ||
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| Some nice rock stacks | A ladder-backed woodpecker | A true Joshua tree forest |
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| At the top of Ryan mountain | The view from the top | Snow-capped mountains beyond the valley |
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| Giant piles of rocks scattered across the plateau | A mini Joshua tree on the hike down | Looking down at the Coachella valley from the Keys View |
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| The mountains on the edge of the park | ||
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| Backpacking in for backcountry camping for the night | Plenty of Joshua tree forest | Our campsite. Under a Joshua tree, with noone else in sight. |
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| The sun setting | Trying our best to stay warm. It was a really cold night! | |
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| A layer of frost on the tent in the morning | The hike out in the morning | So many Joshua trees |
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| Back at the parking lot, signs of a rough night: Camped at the parking lot, tent collapsed from the wind, rain fly tied to the van, and steamy windows suggest they ultimately slept in the van and not the tent. | Skull rock | |
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| An interesting belt formation around a bunch of the rock piles | ||
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| More rock piles in the neighborhood of skull rock | Over by the Jumbo Rocks area | |
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| Some classic Joshua tree rocks | The whole area is a mix of Joshua trees and giant rocks | A classic Joshua tree shot |
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| Jelly bean rock | Hiking through the rocks | Funny shaped rock |
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| Face rock | What a place to grow! | Butt rock - the best of the rock formations at Joshua Tree NP |
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| A black-tailed jackrabbit | What fantastic ears! | Beautiful white cactuses |
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| An arch | The obligatory jay at the picnic area, this one a California scrub jay | Some ants doing their thing |
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| A female phainopepla | A male phainopepla | A cholla cactus forest |
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| A bud | Walking among the cactuses | |
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| Action shot | ||
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| The desert carpeted in wildflowers! | ||
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| Wildflowers as far as the eye can see | ||
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| Action shot |