Palm Springs: Joshua Tree National Park at Sunset

A gorgeous sunset over the mountains at Cholla Cactus Garden

I've been in Palm Springs for a few days and am enjoying the sun and blue skies, slow-paced lifestyle, not much traffic and friendly people. I'm still trying to get used to the massive American portions which are shocking and overwhelming. We've been taking home a lot of doggie bags.

An ex-colleague who happened to be in Los Angeles asked if I had visited Joshua Tree National Park and I hadn't. He was keen to do some night photography there so we gave it a shot. 

Around 4pm the sun started setting

From Palm Springs we went east on Highway 10 for about an hour before arriving at the south entrance of the park around 3pm. It took us another 20 minutes to get to the Cottonwood Visitor Center to pay the admission fee (US$30).

We asked the park ranger where to take pictures. He suggested Cholla Cactus Garden for sunset (at 4.38pm), and then two other places for night photos White Tank and Jumbo Rocks. If there was time he said we should check out Barker Dam.

But it was already around 3pm, and since there is only one main road through the park, we decided to head to the first stop, the cactus garden. The ranger warned us to be careful about standing too close to the cactus as the needles are not pleasant. He said they are called jumping cactus, but really it can be easy to stand too close to them.

Not many people were there to watch the sun set

It took us about half an hour to get to the destination where we saw lots of people parked along the roadside. And yes -- lots of cacti. We were so excited to take pictures that my friend howled in pain -- he mistakenly stepped on an old cactus ball and it was stuck to the bottom of his shoe. 

He had to take his shoe off and manually pick out the needles which was tedious to say the least. 

Then a few minutes later he yelped again -- stepping on another cactus ball that had fallen off a branch. 

Across the street was a mountain range where the sun was starting to set around 4pm. This place was safer -- there was a purposely cleared path to walk around in to ensure we would not encounter anymore prickly balls.

People were starting to leave then, but they were missing out on the real sunset across the valley, where the sky was starting to turn into a dusty pink glow. We couldn't stop taking pictures as the sky kept changing colours.

The sky constantly changed colours

It was a glorious sight being in an open space and watching the sky gradually become night.