Photography Notes from Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree
Nikon D610 + Nikkor 20mm
20mm / f/8.0 / 1/250s / ISO 100

I've gone through my shots from Joshua Tree National Park which I stayed at on September 3, 2016. I was there one night and took photographs with my DSLR from about 5:50 PM to  6:20 AM, a span of about 12 hours that included sunset and sunrise. I also got in some night shots for good measure. I was much more happy with my dusk and sunset shots than my morning shots for some reason.

I did find that it was helpful using my new Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G lens to get the trees in the frame. I like this image which was shot fairly close to the tree and because of the 20mm I was able to capture the entire tree.

I think this shot is nice and sharp and has good color. Yes, it was processed in Lightroom but what isn't?

My biggest complaint, and this was for the entire trip, was that there were about zero clouds in the sky the entire week. I think this shot works because I positioned the camera low, perhaps about 2 feet off of the ground, which caused the tree to fill up the sky area.

A shot of my lens hood

I did end up having a problem with the lens hood on a lot of shots. This lens uses a tulip type shade. When it's on properly it works fine but I knocked my shade so that  it was twisted enough to show up in the shots. What an irritant!

After I got home and saw it, I happened on a YouTube where the photographer (I don't remember who it was) was talking about composition and eliminating everything extraneous in a shot prior to taking it and one way he accomplished that was to make sure that he did a full view around the viewfinder by starting in the upper left and looking all the way around the viewfinder to ensure there was nothing he should get rid of before pressing the shutter release.

I am going to try to adopt that technique and it would have made me realize that my lens hood was in the way. Note that the lower left corner isn't as obvious as the upper right corner; if the entire shot had content like the lower left corner in this shot it might be harder to detect.

Labels for the 16-35mm and 20mm lenses

On the other hand, I wish the hoods had a more definite detent or lock when they were in place as well as when they were reversed for storage or carrying. I also wish they were easier to identify or else that the same hood could be used on multiple lenses. I found I'd swapped my Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E hood with the 20mm hood because they look almost identical. They don't lock down as well when interchanged though.

Update 9/18/2016: I decided to put a label on the hoods for the 16-35mm and 20mm lenses identifying which lens that they belong to. While doing that I found out that I just wasn't turning the hood with enough force to get it to attach to the lens properly. There's actually a very nice, positive detent that engages on the hoods if you turn it far enough. Cool!

Milky Way at Jumbo Rocks Campground
Nikon D610 + Nikkor 20mm f/1.8
20mm / f/1.8 / 2.5s / ISO 4000

Overall the worst time I had was, again, trying to focus my lens for night shooting. The Milky Way appeared over the top of some rock formations at the campground where there were campfires in the front of the rocks and I thought it'd be a cool shot.

I shot quite a few shots before I got the lens focused.

I was finally able to do live view on a star but it took a long time. The following night I had the foresight to focus the lens before it got dark but at Jumbo Rocks it became a crap shoot.

I really like my 50mm f/1.8D that has a stop at infinity focus and wish the 20mm did too.

In the past I'd been able to find something to focus on even if it meant shining a flashlight on my car which was some distance away but I couldn't do that where I was. There were no buildings with lights at a distance that I could use. Eventually I got a star to come up in live view.

In this shot there was a campfire lighting up the front of the rocks and the top was lit by car headlights turning into the campground. At first I wasn't sure how the headlights would turn out but I kind of like them.I did have a couple of shots where the headlights were too bright (it was surprisingly busy at the campground and I was right near the entrance).

Joshua Tree and a road

One other note I have for this park and in general, some of the cool trees I wanted to shoot that were right next to the road just didn't yield great shots. The subject was okay but I either couldn't get a shot I liked where the road was masked or couldn't get rid of footprints around the base of the tree.

This points out that to get good shots you need to get off the road farther than I did or had time to. Sometimes you can hide things by placing your camera so they don't show up in the final shot. I really liked this tree - it had a lot of branches and no decay or dead branches. Unfortunately it is right next to a road and I couldn't get rid of all traces of the road in the shot.

You really need to be able to walk a bit at this park to get the good trees away from the roads and footprints.

You can see more of my Joshua Tree National Park photographs on my site at http://RandallMorter.SmugMug.com site.

Yosemite National Park Day 1 - Tuolomne, Crane Flats, Hetch-Hetchy

Heading west on Highway 120 towards
Yosemite National Park

I turned west on to California State Route 120 just south of Lee Vining and was finally on my way into Yosemite National Park! I had been waiting for this, planning for this, wanting this for well over a year and it was finally happening. Yes I was grinning like a fool driving along the highway.

First, though, I had to stop at a rest area to brush my teeth after having a breakfast burrito from the Mono Market in Lee Vining. And, at the risk of being gross (not that it will stop me), I had to irrigate my sinuses. That was the first occurrence of this process on my vacation where I got to use very cold water. The overnight temps had got down to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit and my distilled water was close to that. Nothing like squirting that up your nose at 8:00 AM in the morning!

Then, after my procrastination, I climbed back into my Explorer, got my grin back on, and headed towards the park.

As my camping partner from the night before told me, the highway climbs fast once you get on it. Lee Vining is at an elevation of 6,781 feet, and by the time you travel the roughly 13 miles to the East Park Entrance at Tioga Pass, you're at 9,941 feet elevation - most of which is gained very quickly along the road.

Along the way you start getting into the mountains. You start seeing the granite that Yosemite (and the Sierras in general) are known for. You, if you're like me, start grinning even more. 


I have lived in Oregon and Washington a lot but the mountains there are not like these. One reason I like Arizona is because I can see something besides trees, which is about all you see in western Oregon and Washington. I enjoy seeing the dirt and rocks - the ground. In the Sierras you see what the mountains are made of but you also see a lot of trees. A great mix!

There are some cool viewpoints along the highway that allow you to turn off and enjoy the scenery. I hit a few of them even though I was torn by the desire to see where I was and the desire to get in to Yosemite National Park. As my visit unfolded I found that I had that problem often.

I wanted to savor the moment but I was anxious to see more. I'll say it now - my overall thought of Yosemite National Park was that I loved everything. When I saw something amazing, something that I just wanted to look at or photograph, I would end up turning my head or walking 20 feet and there'd be another amazing or beautiful view. 

Wide vistas or close under forest cover it didn't matter. There is always another wonderful view waiting. I spent 3 nights there and all it did was whet my appetite for more. I'm jumping ahead, I guess, but as I write this I have an overwhelming desire to be back in the bosom of Yosemite. 

I know I'm not the only one but I believe it affects people deeply, especially if you are in tune with nature and the beauty of that area. I suppose there are some people that could be more like Clark Griswold when he visited the Grand Canyon in "Vacation", but I couldn't and can't get enough! 

And I was still outside the park, experiencing the need to both linger and venture and wish I had at least two weeks to spend in the park.


I did continue on, driving to Tioga Pass where the park entrance is located. I drove past the various lakes and campgrounds and Tioga Pass Resort. I then made it to the park entrance.

Tioga Pass - East Entrance to Yosemite National Park

I had purchased an annual pass to the National Parks at Joshua Tree National Park. At Yosemite they asked to see some ID along with the pass. The ranger squinted at my ID and my signature on my National Park pass. I assume she was trying to ensure that the signature was the same on my Arizona driver license as it was on the pass. I don't get it - the passes are not replaceable if you loose them - they're basically like cash. 

Whoever has the pass can present it, as far as I know. And, as I'd find out a Sequoia National Park, not every park asks for an additional ID. I find it strange that different National Parks operate differently at basic levels such as how they indicate whether a vehicle has paid the entrance fee to the park. All three parks I visited did something different. 

Once I got through the park gate I felt like I'd finally made it. I was in Yosemite National Park! 

Driving along highway 120 was, as I've already alluded to, a never ending scenery fest. I had my iPhone on the windshield suction cup mount and kept clicking it. I didn't want to have too few photos!

I wonder if a better approach would be to walk the highway instead of driving it. You'd have more time to enjoy each and every detail. I wonder why I don't feel this way about the other places I go to, or why I didn't feel this way about the Hoh Rainforest in Washington. The two places have a lot in common - natural, trees, etc. I may need to revisit the Hoh again to see if I can be reset properly.

A lone Sequoia along Highway 120

I started seeing a sequoia now and then. It was relentless in the assault of beauty. I found myself hoping that the road went forever. My only regret was that my wife wasn't with me to share it. This was another thing I found I wished for a lot over the rest of my trip. I don't remember what movie I saw that had a line like that - but it sure does make an experience more profound if you're sharing it with someone you care about. 

Before I knew it, and before I wanted it, I found myself at Tuolomne Meadows. I wanted to see the meadows but I wanted the park to be more expansive at the same time. If you look at a map you'll see that the meadows are actually quite a distance from the west side of the park. I just was hoping to prolong the foreplay before arriving there.

Arriving at Tuolomne Meadows

At 8:55 AM I arrived at the Tuolomne Meadows area. There were quite a few people there by that time. 

The parking lot at the road that head north to the horse stables was full but there were a few spots left for parking along the road itself. I had to stop and get out and walk around. I didn't take my Nikon with me at this point, I just wanted to get my feet in the famous Tuolomne Meadow!

I spent a bit of time in the area and took a number of shots with the Nikon D610 (which I'll post when I get them processed). I got some photographs of Lembert's Dome, Tuolomne River, the meadows, some boulders and pine trees. I enjoyed the area and could have easily spent days there. It's beautiful and peaceful. There wasn't a lot of water in the Tuolomne River but there was enough to allow you to think of it as a river instead of a creek.

After a bit I headed on, stopping at the Tuolomne Meadows Visitor Center. I went in but didn't stay long. It wasn't a tourist trap and didn't have any souvenirs - it had information and registration for hikers if you need it.

I came to Tenaya Lake, again it was too soon! 

Me at Tenaya Lake

Some granite across Highway 120 from Tenaya Lake

Me laying on the granite across from Tenaya Lake - wonderful!

I have watched a number of videos (mainly on YouTube) about hiking the John Muir or Pacific Crest Trails and when the people have arrived at Tenaya Lake or Tuolomne Meadows I had the assumption that they were remote locations you had to work at to get to. Here I was driving to them!

I took out my Nikon D610 and got a few photographs of the lake that I like, even for mid-day shots. I'm sure they'd be better at the golden hour but I never made it back after this brief stop. 

Tenaya Lake

From there I stopped at Olmsted Point where I got my first view of the iconic Half Dome! I had now seen three of the famous points of interest: Tuolomne Meadows, Tenaya Lake, and Half Dome! I still hadn't stopped grinning! I never wanted to leave!

Approaching Olmsted Point from the east

From there it was quite a drive to Crane Flat campground where I was staying. The drive was mainly in the pine forest. The traffic wasn't bad, and I eventually arrived at the campground.

When I checked in to the campground they had a sign on the booth saying "Bear Crossing". I commented that it didn't look like the crossing was very busy at the moment the range told me the bears had been through earlier.

I was really hoping that I'd see a bear, not breaking in to my vehicle or chasing me, but perhaps wandering through the park. It wasn't to be, unfortunately; no bear sightings the entire trip.

Campsite #410 at Crane Flat Campground

I got to my site, #410, and it was something else. It was a "pull through" type lot but it was on a hill side. The Explorer was probably at a 10 degree angle when parked. The tent site was level but the picnic table was probably at 5 degrees or more. Things rolled off of it quite nicely which does help keep it uncluttered!

Then I found out that my new tent was not a complete tent. It was designed to work with a separate canopy section which I hadn't purchased. Due to my recent viewing of outdoorsy YouTubes, I fashioned additional support out of my trekking poles and some straps I keep in my Explorer. What a bit of ingenuity! It certainly saved me from driving to a city to buy a real tent. And, there was no way I could sleep in the Explorer there due to the incline.
  

Heading to Hetch Hetchy

After getting the tent configured I acquainted myself with storing things in the bear vault, had a bite to eat, and then decided to take the rest of that day to visit Hetch Hetchy. It was about 4:30 by the time I started on my way there.

Hetch Hetchy is another valley north of the more famous Yosemite Valley. It was dammed in the 1920's after a battle to keep it natural between the city of San Francisco and environmentalists led by John Muir was won by San Francisco. 

This battle was the last major thing John Muir was involved in and he passed away while trying to preserve the Hetch Hetchy valley. It is still controversial, due to putting a dam in a National Park. I wanted to at least see it in person and this seemed like the best day to do it. I could spend the following day in Yosemite Valley proper, and the following day at Glacier Point before heading to Sequoia / King's Canyon National Park.

The road to Hetch Hetchy exits the park briefly and crosses private land. It is hilly and twisty most of the way and would be fun in a sports car. Before you get to the dam and lake you go through the Mather Camp area which surprised me at how busy it was. I hadn't heard of it, and you just kind of come upon it, a busy, large campground and cabin area with a large store in the middle of the woods. 

There was even a little lake near there with a gazebo that would probably make a great place for a wedding or summer concert series. They didn't ask me to play.

When I got to Hetch Hetchy I parked the Explorer and got out to walk around. I parked near the top of the hill in the parking lot. When I got out I could hear loud water so looked over the bank to see the outflow of the hydro-electric generator in the river.

I hadn't known, or thought to research it earlier, but the Hetch Hetchy is fed by the Tuolomne River.

I walked down to the dam and across it. I didn't take the Nikon D610 so the only images I have are my iPhone pictures. I just didn't see anything that warranted lugging the D610 and tripod around.

The dam and lake were not entirely ugly but they gave me a bad vibe just because of the history. And possibly because everything else I'd been seeing was pretty much natural and not man made. 

I walked across the dam to where there's a tunnel through the mountain. At the other end there was a baby stroller and I could hear an infant but couldn't see anyone else. That, too, was unnerving. I'd seen the people ahead of me going in to the tunnel but they were no where in sight when I got to the other end of the tunnel.

I have a few pics of the dam area here:

A view of O'Shaughnessy Dam

O'Shaughnessy Dam

The tunnel entrance from O'Shaughnessy Dam

A view of the Hetch Hetchy valley outside of the tunnel

Tunnel entrance from the lake side

From there I headed back to my campsite where I made myself some ramen noodles and sausages along with some Ritz crackers. And I had a "Half Dome" wheat beer from the Sequoia Brewing Company that I'd picked up at the Crane Flat Store. 

My first dinner at Yosemite National Park

It was wonderful and after cleaning up I crawled into my cobbled together tent and slept. With a grin still on my face!

California's US Highway 395: Kramer Junction to Lee Vining

When I left Joshua Tree National Park headed for Yosemite National Park, I was still undecided as to the route to take. From Joshua Tree you can just as easily travel up the east or west side of the Sierra Nevada range. From the map, it looked like there were a lot of cities up the west side and I'd heard of most of them even though I'd only driven up Interstate 5 and the 101 when travelling through California. I was a bit nervous about the availability of gasoline on the east side of the Sierras - I'm sure that it's available but what if I'm driving at night and the stations are closed?

On the other hand, it was Sunday morning, 9/4/2016, and I didn't have a reservation at Yosemite until Monday night. I had time to kill or fill. I opted for the east side route, looking for some adventure and to see places I'd never seen at all. Note that I didn't take many photos along this bit of the trip.

Near Barstow, California

My 2007 Ford Explorer at Jumbo Rocks campground,
Joshua Tree National Park

From the city of Joshua Tree I headed west on California State Highway 62 to Yucca Valley, north on Highway 247 to Barstow, north on Highway 58 to Kramer Junction where I got on the US Highway 395 which would take me to Lee Vining and my opportunity to enter Yosemite National Park from the East Entrance.

The roads from Joshua Tree to basically the Ridgecrest area, a distance of about 160 miles, is through the Mojave Desert and it looks like desert. I should know after living in Arizona for 15 years.

The trip was pretty uneventful. Most of the roads were two lanes but in good condition. There was very little traffic, perhaps due to it being Sunday morning on a three day holiday weekend (Labor Day). I spent some time in Barstow getting fuel, bags of ice for my cooler, a couple of gallons of drinking water, and coffee at a convenience store. It was a very pleasant drive, perhaps more so because I was on vacation for the first time this year, feeling physically good compared to the health problems I'd had most of the year. Woo hoo!

Desert driving is often somewhat nerve wracking but my wife had taken care of me by getting an oil change and checkup up at our Ford dealer. They'd even found a screw in a tire which my wife also took care of. I was pretty confident in my trusty Explorer (much more so than the Corvettes I've owned in the past).

Heading west out of Barstow I passed through Hinkley. The name didn't strike a bell at all until I saw a sign that said something to the effect of "Thank You PGE" and it dawned on me that Hinkley was where Erin Brockovich took on PGE.

When I got to the Ridgecrest, CA area, I continued up Highway 395 but stopped near the Inyokern junction. There were some hills there that stretched to the north. It is the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I had to take some photographs of them regardless of their more desert like appearance. After reading and dreaming about visiting the Sierras for over a year I was finally seeing part of the range and had to document it somehow.

Google Map of part of US Highway 395

Continuing north on Highway 395 the desert starts giving way to more grasslands as well as more people. Once you start hitting the towns, starting with probably Olancha, there is no issue finding gasoline, food, or water. In fact, there was more build up than I expected, and mostly pleasant looking small cities or towns that I would love to live in if I could find work. I ended up stopping in a number of them whether I needed to or not. I liked Lone Pine and Big Pine probably the best.

Lone Pine was very pleasant and is about due east of Mt. Whitney which you can see from the city. I wasn't sure which mountain it was - I wish I'd found some sort of informational booth but I didn't. What I do know is that I've had my eyes on it. You can access Mt. Whitney from Lone Pine. Lone Pine (and other locations along Highway 395) have been used for the sites of many movies and there is the Lone Pine Film History Museum which I'd also like to visit. I plan to go back there - from my home it's about 500 miles or 7-1/2 hours of drive time, a bit more than the time to get to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

If you don't know, Mt. Whitney is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States at 14,505 feet high. Lone Pine is at an elevation of 3,727 feet, over 10,000 feet lower. When you're looking up at Mt. Whitney and the surrounding range it's hard to imagine that they are towering over you by that distance. I think it must have to do with the flat land that you drive through to get there.

At Mesa Camp you start climbing in elevation (Mesa Camp is about 5,000 feet) and you start seeing more pine trees. You'll continue through Tom's Place to get to the built up area around Mammoth Lakes, a large ski resort. June Lakes is after that, another decent sized ski resort. By this time I was seeing signs for Mono Lake and Lee Vining.

Lee Vining is the town near the junction of Highway 395 and California Highway 120. Highway 120 heads west from the southern end of Lee Vining into and across Yosemite National Park and was my destination. However, I didn't have a reservation in the park until the following night so I was looking for a place to camp out near Lee Vining. 

I pulled off of north bound Highway 395 into a view point that overlooks Mono Lake, just before it intersects with West Portal Road, 16.5 miles south of Lee Vining. That's where I met Gene.

I drove around the drive, passing a Ford Ranger, and continued to the lower RV parking area. I got out and walked to the edge of the pavement to get my first view of Mono Lake.

Mono Lake is a very large and natural, salty lake located near the California - Nevada border about mid-height in California. It's near Lee Vining (very near) and therefore the eastern border of Yosemite National Park. I had started hearing about it while reading about Yosemite and had decided I wanted to visit it too.

I started to get out my Nikon D610 to take some photographs when the driver of the Ranger approached me. We started talking and I ended up putting the camera down and drove up near where he was parked. I took some photographs while we continued to BS. He was very interesting - he is a year younger than me and has been a mountaineer since the early 1970s. He's been to the top of most of the peaks in the Sierras as well as hiking on some other mountains around the world including Mt. Everest. 

He pointed out the mountains we could see as well as features we couldn't see (for example Grant Lake which is hidden from the view point by a moraine). He explained how the Los Angeles water district owned a lot of the property along Highway 395 and wasn't permitting growth which helped keep the towns in pretty much the same condition he'd seen them since the 1970's. He pointed out that Mono Lake was used as the location for High Plains Drifter with Clint Eastwood. He was a fountain of knowledge near the fountains of John Muir. I really enjoyed meeting him!

He was headed in to Yosemite the following day as well, to stay at Porcupine Flat Campground. We ended up staying up until after the sun went down where I took some night photographs (at this time I'm still processing my milky way shot but it's not turning out very good). We both slept in our vehicles that night, and I got up a bit before him at about 5:30 AM to take some sunrise shots.

I was hoping to get the sun coming up on the eastern edge of the Sierras and/or on Mono Lake. The Mono Lake photos were better (I'll post them when I get them processed). The Sierras just weren't that interesting to me photographically without any significant snow cover. Perhaps because at that location they did not have many pine trees and appeared too similar to some of the Arizona mountains.

When Gene got up he made me coffee! What a great guy! We chatted a bit more then went on our ways. I stopped on the way in to Lee Vining to shoot some more of the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains so lost him and never did see him again. 

I made it in to Lee Vining, got fuel at the Shell station, and went to the Mono Lake Visitor Center but they were closed (it was probably about 6:00 AM). I walked around the property and read all of the information posts. I saw a rabbit in the parking lot. There were surprisingly quite a few vehicles there - I guessed that some had camped in the lot.

Heading west on Highway 120 from Lee Vining

I got a breakfast burrito, coffee, ice, and finally found the California Road and Recreation Atlas at the Mono Market. I'd been looking for that atlas since getting in to California and hadn't found it. I have and use and have started to wear out my Arizona edition. I REALLY like these atlases and REALLY wanted the California version. The detail is much better than any other atlas I've used (and I'm still old school and use and like paper atlases / maps). Gene told me this store had them. The people (I'm assuming the owners) were very friendly and made a great burrito and coffee.

I went back to my Explorer, parked behind a car with Oregon plates, ate my burrito and drank my coffee outside of the laundromat while looking at my atlas. When I finished I headed south out of Lee Vining to make my right turn on to Highway 120, the Tioga Highway, and in to Yosemite National Park!

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.