Visit Joshua Tree (22 of 40) Part Two

After walking around the town and lazing a bit by the pool back at Spin and Margie's, I decided to make my way into Joshua Tree National Park to catch some of the sights before sunset. It was stunning. I ended up finding a boulder that was carved out like a chair, so I perched myself there and read until the sun dipped below the horizon. 

Twilight is by far my most favorite part of day, but twilight in the desert? There are no words for this level of perfection. 

I woke up early on Saturday ready to take on the rest of the park. I had only seen the Cholla Cactus Garden and Ocotillo Patch the evening prior and I really wanted to drive the path between the North and West entrances. Can we all agree that this National Park takes the prize for most-literal-names-for-landmarks? Behold, Skull Rock:

Jumbo Rocks: 

Hall of Horrors:

and Hidden Valley:

This one may be harder to appreciate its literal interpretation by photographic evidence only. Let me assure you, said valley is hidden. Apparently outlaw cattle and horse thieves used to store their stolen livestock there because it was such a good hiding spot. There is a nature path about a mile long that loops through the valley. I found a secluded spot with just enough shade to sit under and wrote the following poem. 

The Hidden Valley, Joshua Tree

Alone in the valley

The sun looms overhead

casting small refuges from the desert heat

 

Fortressed on all sides

A jumble of stone

appearing, somehow, both intentional and haphazard

 

Time has etched

a thousand scars across her face

and yet, she is all the more lovely for it

 

Sprigs of green

reside in her jagged crags

Vibrant life brought forth in impossible places

 

She is breathing

Exhaling a cleansing breeze

that dances around and through me

 

A woodpecker taps

The ticking of a clock

that measures a different sort of time

Alone in the valley

I am unfamiliar

but not lost  

All in all, it was a great weekend away. As always, I found myself missing the kids and wishing they were there to see all the things I was seeing. Bittersweet is a feeling I have become intimately acquainted with over the past few years. I'm glad I went and now I can bring them back to experience it for themselves. After all, they are really going to want to see this rock butt in person: