Journeys›Photograph

Clear Skies and Joshua Trees in Early May

·Joshua Tree National Park·#hiking#spring#desert#joshua-tree#nature photography
A Joshua tree's rough trunk and many spiky branches with green leaf clusters reach into a bright blue sky.

Joshua Tree today, and the sky did not produce a single real cloud until afternoon, and even then only a handful. Early May is supposedly the tail end of the wildflower season here, and it mostly looked that way — the flats were dry and grey-green — but a hedgehog cactus was still going, two magenta flowers open with a bee working the middle of one. Those bloom May into June, so we caught it right at the start rather than the end of something.

Most of the day was the same happy loop: drive a stretch of road through the joshua tree forest, stop where the granite piles up, climb around on the boulders until it was time to move on. The rock is rounded and stacked like it was dumped there in loads, and from the top of one pile you can see the trees running all the way out to the mountains. Stood under one of the big joshua trees for a while looking straight up through the branches, which twist in every direction like they can't agree on a plan.

The moon was out the whole time, faint against the blue over the ridge. A dirt road took us past one tree taller than the rest, leaning hard to one side.

Joshua trees cover a desert floor with rocky mountains in the background under a partly cloudy blue sky.Large rounded boulders in a sunny desert landscape with a bright blue sky and distant Joshua trees.A desert landscape with a Joshua tree, rocky mountains, and sparse plants under a bright blue sky with a faint moon.Joshua trees stand in a desert landscape with large rocks, a mountain, and a faint crescent moon in a blue sky.A tall Joshua tree stands prominently in a desert landscape with many other Joshua trees and a dirt road under a clear blue sky.Desert landscape with large boulders, numerous Joshua trees, and a prominent, flat-topped mountain under a light blue sky.A bright desert landscape with large, tan boulders in the foreground and distant mountains beneath a pale blue sky.A cluster of spiky cacti with two vibrant pink flowers, one with a bee, on sandy ground.

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