A Scenic Visit to Joshua Tree National Park

We saw lots of Joshua trees around the north part of the park

Two years after I first visited Joshua Tree National Park to do some stargazing, I came back again, this time during the day and to a different part of the park.

We drove along 123 to Highway 10 west then 62 north to get to the west entrance of the park. Along the way we were very surprised to see some towns with large shopping malls, while others were very sparsely populated. 

At the Visitor's Centre we paid our entrance fee (US$30 per car, good for seven days) and drove to the main entrance. There was a queue of cars waiting to go in, as some people don't pay the entrance fee at the visitor's centre, or have questions... 

Curious rock formations are all over the park

Keep the ticket with you, and don't leave it on your dashboard, because it can get very windy there and the ticket could fly away -- and you need to show the ticket to the park ranger upon leaving the park.

The northern part of the park has a lot of Joshua trees, which can conserve a lot of moisture and yet still grow 2.5cm per year, up to 12m in total. Interesting fact -- the Joshua tree can typically live 150 years.

They are related to the yucca, which looks like a large shrub with long narrow leaves. The trunks of Joshua trees don't have rings like most trees because Joshua trees are actually made from fibres, as it is from the Agave family. 

What's also intriguing is that it is believed in the last ice age, giant ground sloths ate Joshua tree fruits, and spread the seeds, thus helping the trees cover a greater area and survive the change in climate. Since the ground sloth is extinct, Joshua tree seeds don't fall far from the parent tree now.

And with climate change there is a concern that Joshua trees may not be able to adapt to the warmer temperatures and could die at lower elevations! A good reason to see Joshua trees!

The park ranger gave us a suggested route on the map and we pretty much followed it. We went south along Park Boulevard until we reached Quail Springs. 

An amazing view of the area from Keys View

We were immediately struck by the fascinating rock formations, giant smooth boulders bunched together. They were formed from volcanic activity, where magma rose up and flowed over the rock and then the granite cooled and crystalised, forming horizontal and vertical cracks. 

Afterwards chemical weathering caused wide cracks and rounding edges and erosion resulted in the giant rocks looking like toy blocks.

We saw some people practicing mountain climbing with ropes and pulleys, while others brought food to eat on picnic tables, and some antelope ground squirrels nearby to pick up crumbs! There are some charcoal grills at many of the sites if someone wants to barbecue...

Hidden Valley is another place where people can do a relatively easy hike for an hour, but we took some pictures and moved onto Cap Rock. and then Keys View, a definitely good place to stop.

There you are in the middle of the park at a much higher elevation, several degrees cooler (and windier) where you can look down on Palm Springs in the distance, and Coachella closer in front. It' was quite windy there, but amazing views! 

People scrambling up Skull Rock

From there we went back up north to Cap Rock where we went east and passed by Skull Rock that people were climbing before going north again to the north entrance of the park. We showed the park ranger our entrance ticket before exiting the park and ended up on Twentynine Palms highway.

By this point we hadn't had lunch and stopped at a Starbucks for a quick sandwich before heading back to Palm Springs. A pretty good day visit and hopefully not the last! 

Last time I was at Joshua Tree, I went to Cholla Cactus Garden, but it is closed at the moment to improve conditions on the trail there. 

Palm Springs: Night Photography at Joshua Tree National Park

Capturing the night sky at Joshua Tree National Park

My friend and I stayed on in Joshua Tree National Park after the sun went down, waiting for the sky to turn pitch black before attempting some night photography. When it finally did turn really dark we looked up above us and saw a whole sky filled with stars. 

He said it was the Milky Way and got really excited.

We waited for the sky to get pitch dark

We headed to the two other points the park ranger had told us about, White Tank and Jumbo Rocks, which we did in about 20 minutes and found the two places, but 1) there were lots of people camping in these two places during the Thanksgiving long weekend 2) they had fires going to cook and keep themselves warm.

That meant there would be too much manmade light from people's flashlights and the campfires, not to mention noise (a dog was barking at us). The smell of the smoke from the fires was unbearable too. So my friend decided we should go back to where we were earlier -- Cholla Cactus Garden.

By the time we got there before 7pm, hardly anyone was around. We walked back to the area we were at earlier and set up the tripod and started to experiment, and with 15-second exposures he was able to take pictures of the night sky.

A few experiments with lighting and timing

It was amazing to see him able to take pictures of the stars, though there were lots of airplanes up there too,  with their flashing lights. In his pictures they look like red or white lines due to the long exposure.

We did many experiments, using our mobile phone lights at different brightness and length of time until we finally settled on a formula. One time he used my mobile phone shining my home screen of a pink flower, which resulted in the cactus in the foreground looking reddish-pink. We finally settled on using a white screen for a quick second.

While we were taking pictures there was a group of people wearing headlights and walking around where we were... strange of them to do that while it was so dark -- and surrounded by cacti! Not exactly the safest thing to do late at night. 

But they finally got out of our way and left us alone.

A marvellous sight to see the Milky Way

After a slew of pictures, my friend was very satisfied with what he was able to achieve on his first attempt and I was thrilled to hang out and see the Milky Way shining above us, uninterrupted by any kind of light pollution. It was stunning, amazing and profound to witness it.

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.