the quirky desert

on the way to arizona to visit my sister and her family and my brother, the boy and i stopped in joshua tree national park for some exploring. we arrived at black rock campground about 1:30am after a long drive straight from work, rolled out a tarp and slept under the stars. waking up to the shape of a joshua tree’s jagged branches and swollen white flowers against the blue desert sky was wonderful.

we spent the day adventuring through this quirky wilderness. we drove the entire length of the park, stopped at all the points of interest along the way to soak in the simultaneously desolate and luscious scenery. we walked trails and picniced and scrambled among the boulders and talked and listened to a lot of u2.

i really loved joshua tree – it’s just such a unique, cool place! it feels like a different planet. very whimsical and zany and peculiar and neat.

 
campsite ^^ and morning view ^^

excuse the boy’s closed eyes…
 
crazy cool joshua trees as far as the eye can see…

once again excuse the boy’s closed eyes…
 
those red wildflowers ^^ were really, truly that red!

my favourite part was the cholla cactus garden. so gorgeous, right?!
the road along it was under construction so we couldn’t explore much there :(

a desert oasis ^^