Joshua Tree National Park This park rocks. If you like deserts, you will die and go to heaven. If you don't like deserts, well, whatever. Bring a squirt gun, and look more carefully. A photographer's wet dream, this park spans the transition between the Mojave and Colorado deserts of Southern California.
Below 3,000 ft, the Colorado Desert encompasses the eastern part of the park, filled with natural gardens of wiry creosote bushes and the very cool chola cactus--the deserts' answer to the bonsai tree!
The higher, more moist, and cooler Mojave Desert is the special home of the Joshua Tree, so named for early religious whitey pioneers; also the cover shoot location of U2's lucratively popular album, Joshua Tree.
My interest, by far, is the plethora of funky warts of granite that abound in this high desert. This collection of rocks is akin the City of Rocks, Idaho, and is the second most popular climbing destination in California. Most of the crazies in the early days of California climbing were doin' their thang here, including John Bachar; the craziest of them all (hats off to someone who can solo hard and keep poop out of his pants).
Although most people are smart enough not to be climbing in the oppressive heat of summer, both of my trips here have fallen into this season. Our climbing was found lounging about the Hidden Valley Campground.
rappelling from Old Woman Rock
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