Last week, as part of a larger road trip, I spent four days in Joshua Tree National Park. It was my first visit to this park, though I happen to know three rangers who work there. It was nice to get to see them again and have some time to explore a new place to love. There is much I did not see, but I did my best to get an overview of many areas. Day one consisted of a drive on the main road across the park with many stops along the way, also a trip to Key's View to see the San Andreas fault, something I was obsessively fascinated with as a kid. After coming out of the park at the town of Joshua Tree, I took the highway east back toward Twentynine Palms, stopping at Indian Cove for a late afternoon hike.

View from Key's View. The dark horizontal stripe in the
distance below the lighter area is the fault.

I was a little late for the joshua tree blooms, but this
one still had a few flowers.

Checking each other out.

A few days away from the full moon.

Indian Cove

Yuccas at Indian Cove.

Sacred Datura bloom, almost ready.

Death Valley is perhaps my favorite national park. I have visited several times, and was happy to have another stay, though it was short. For the most part I revisited old favorites, but for something new, I went down to Ibex Dunes at the southeast border of the park. It's a seldom visited area of the park, and a perfect place for some back country camping the night of a lunar eclipse. The area around Ibex reminded me of being in the south unit of Badlands NP, both have a history of military air training and visitors frequently find casings and assorted metal bits. I will have to come back to Ibex with a full day to explore. There are many more places to investigate here.