My visit to Joshua Tree National Park, September 3-4, 2016

Leaving the Quick Trip gas station in Phoenix

I finally got to take off for some vacation on Saturday, September 3, 2016. I left home around 10:30 AM for my first stop: Joshua Tree National Park in California. 

I'm going to post some iPhone pics initially and as I process the DSLR photographs I'll post more about them.

Joshua Tree National Park is named after the unusual trees that are native to the southern-central California area. The park is north of Interstate 10 which runs east and west from Los Angeles to Phoenix. I had seen the signs for the park many times but had never ventured into it. This trip I planned to not only visit the park but to spend the night there.

At the Cottonwood Visitor Center

I entered the park from Interstate 10, about 4 or 5 miles west of the Chiriaco Summit. I asked about camping when I was at the Cottonwood Visitor Center and decided to try my luck at the "Jumbo Rocks" campground.

Jumbo Rocks Site #124

I had a weird experience there - I paid for a site and, per their instructions, placed the paper tag on the post at the site. I didn't plan to set up a tent so I just left to drive around the park and see what I could see. I didn't leave anything at the site other than the tag on the post.

I drove around most of the park and even in to 29 Palms to visit the McDonald's and the 7-11 next to it (Adobe Road and Twentynine Palms Highway). There were a good number of military hair cuts walking around!

My Explorer Accommodations

I visited Keys View, the Barker Dam parking area, Skull Rock, etc. I shot a good number of photographs. When I got back to my campsite after dark there was a group of young men that had set up camp in my site. There was no cell phone reception there to call a ranger. I ended up asking an  oriental family across the road if they minded if I parked near their site overnight and they said it was okay. I had planned to sleep in the back of my explorer anyway so I didn't really care whether I had access to the table or fire pit anyway (I never did build a fire during my whole trip). 

It was just kind of an irritant to pay for a site and then have someone else take it too. They said the tag wasn't on the post when they got there but they sure did try to appease me - offering to share the site with me. The bottom line was that I didn't really care about the site facilities since I was going to sleep in my trusty Exploder anyway...

While out shooting I tried to find a number of the spots in my "Photographing California Volume 2" book. I got to try the text first hand and it was pretty accurate (the only issue I had on my trip was when trying to find "Round Meadow" in Sequoia National Park - the park had changed a bit since the book was written evidently - I believe the parking lot referred to in the book is now the handicapped only lot across from the museum).

I wanted to see Barker Dam and went to the parking area. However, it requires a hike and I wasn't ready for that. The sun was going down and I wanted to try to get some sunset shots and wasn't sure I'd make it to the lake before loosing the sun. So I drove around a bit more and ended up shooting some of the rocks and Joshua trees near the junction of Park Boulevard and Keys View Drive before going to Keys View viewpoint for the sunset.

Coachella Valley from Keys View

Keys View viewpoint is apparently pretty popular. There is a fairly small parking lot there (perhaps 30 spaces) which were all full when I got there. I drove around it a few times until someone else left, opening up a spot for me.

On the evening I was there the view of the Coachella Valley was pretty obscured due to smog and/or haze. The sunset wasn't terribly spectacular in those conditions and I couldn't really see any city lights or much detail at all. I'm sure there are times when it is a nice sight and might offer some interesting sunsets if the light on the Santa Rosa and Santa Jacinto mountains across the valley turns red or gold. 

I left Keys View and stopped on the way down from the viewpoint for a few shots of the valley before heading to Skull Rock.

Skull Rock

Skull Rock is a formation that has a couple of features resembling eye sockets but the top of the rock is shaped like the "bad" ghosts in the old Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoons. The Photographing California book suggests it can be interesting if you place some light sources in the eye sockets and shoot the formation at night. I didn't have anything to use for that so ended up taking some long exposures there as well as of the moon.

I went across the road from Skull Rock to shoot the formation with my Nikon D610 and a different perspective than you get up close, and was up a short distance into the hills well after dark. I was also shooting the moon between some hills and Joshua Trees and became engrossed in the process.

It wasn't until I got finished and tried to leave that I realized I hadn't taken much of a flashlight with me. I could see where my white Explorer was parked but it was difficult navigating the brush with a small, single AAA battery flashlight that I had in my camera bag. 

A selfie while shooting near Skull Rock at Night

It was after that when I headed back to my campsite and discovered that someone had hijacked it. Once I made my other arrangements I took out the Nikon D610 to try some evening shots. 

I add already seen the Milky Way and wanted to try to take some shots with some of the rock formations in the foreground.

The entrance to the Jumbo Rocks campground worked out pretty well for that. There were a number of cars entering the campground which lit up the rocks in the foreground and provided a nice effect (photos to come...).

I crashed for the night in the back of my Explorer, and arose a bit before sunrise. Most national parks have a quiet time from 10PM to 6AM, and Joshua Tree National Park was no exception. I hate getting up and moving much before that, but I was up a bit before 5:00 AM, rearranged what I needed to in my Explorer in order to drive off, and left by about 5:20 AM (when it was 66 degrees Fahrenheit). I was trying not to wake up the family that let me sleep near their site.

Roadside shot of some Joshua Trees

I decided to drive out the entrance at the town of Joshua Tree, stopping along the way for some final sunrise shots in the park before making my way up to Yosemite National Park. 

I enjoyed my visit and plan to return since it's only about 4 hours from Phoenix (closer than the Chiricahua National Monument). There are more things to see and photograph that I didn't get to in my brief visit. I really want to see the Barker Dam area as well as do a bit more hiking to get away from the roads.

The Photographing California photography book mentions how the Joshua Trees are "Dr. Seuss"-like, and I have to agree. Their "bark" is very rough to the touch. But they make interesting photographs and I especially like them in the blue or golden hours. The bigger they are the more interesting they are, in my opinion. I don't think I captured the sense of a "forest" in any of my photographs, and there is a quite a concentration of these trees in some locations. I'd like to try to capture that better. 

And that is one of the main things that keeps me interested in landscape photography - trying to capture the essence of a place.