The sun seemed to rise a little after 4 AM or at least that’s what I remember before going back to sleep until my tent turned into a little nylon oven a little before 8 AM.  Waking up was easy as was the accompanying campsite tear down.  Normally, I’d let the tent dry out in the sun for a few hours before folding it up but the climate was such that I only had to turn the tent over for 10 minutes while using the rest room for it to be dry.  I left to tour the park.

I can only describe Joshua Tree as breathtaking.  The part straddles the Mojave and Colorado deserts which I dismissed until I saw the utter change when I passed a range of hills through the park.

Compared to:

I’ve been accused before of blowing out the saturation on my pictures, I think this is partly because my monitors are calibrated which makes photos look flatter compared to how some manufacturers set their defaults.  The pictures above, despite their almost blinding blueness, the above pictures accurately depict the amazing vibrancy of the desert sky.  The final area that made my head almost pop off was the placcidity of Barker’s Dam.

Here’s a view of the actual dam:

Joshua Tree’s color palette of blanched whites, blues and strong moss greens made it look like someone had decided to design some sort of desert of the future.  If you liked these, enjoy the rest of the album.

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