Joshua Tree National Park

Before today, I thought that Joshua Tree was a rather random name for a national park. I wondered if it had maybe been named after someone. A Mr J. Tree. Perhaps a quite unfortunate name if there ever was one. It never once occurred to me that it was named this because of the type (and one of the only types) of tree that inhabit the park. The tree is called, yep you guessed it - the Joshua Tree.



The Joshua Tree

So as you can imagine, a large portion of the day was spent trying to get the perfect photo of a Joshua Tree. Tricky considering the number of things out to ‘get us’ and distract us from our mission. Kangaroo rats (we think), pheasant-y type birds, humongous beetles, prickly cacti and of course a large number of lizards - each demanding a portion of our time, attention and roll of camera film. Even the large, boulders and rocks that are scattered across the park - weathered into weird shapes and sizes - hindered us. Each cried out to be climbed or hopped across - or indeed to be sat on by a new lizard - one which we had not seen before so requiring excessive photographing and cataloguing by explorer Chris and his willing helper.


Joshua Tree National Park

Interesting rock formation


Lizard number 1


Lizard number 2

And so the day was spent in such fashion. We visited four or five different ‘points of interest’ in the Park and took a stupid number of photos. By the third stopping point Chris announced he didn’t need any more photos of cacti and we had to stop by the side of the road for a 20min sleep we were so exhausted. Nearing the end of the day, hope was beginning to fade of finding the elusive snake. I was devastated by this as you can imagine. Infact I celebrated with a rather large glass of Root beer upon our return to the motel and put my feet up (with a bag of ice) whilst Chris, dissatisfied with the days efforts decided to go out on the bike.

All in all a good day. Whilst the park was great, it was a little less spectacular than Yosemite or Death Valley national parks (sorry Mr Tree), however our furry and scaly friends more than made up for it.