Joshua Tree NP

We reached 29 Palms late at night after our Las Vegas adventure , and ate take out tacos in the middle of the desert, with shooting stars erupting overhead every five minutes and with a myriad of rustles and squeaks everywhere. Unfortunately, my knowledge of the D70 at that point of time did not allow me to photograph such things.

Dawn in the Desert - Mon, May 30, 2005

Vikram and I get up at an unearthly hour to catch the desert dawn 

29 Palms sleeps 

The brown hills on the horizon turn red first 

Brand new day 

Dawn catches the hills behind us 

Dawn approaching 

Barrel Cactus in the sun's first light 

Shurjo-namoshkar 

A clump of wildflowers light up 

The picture perfect road snakes away 

The shadows recede away from us 

Snapping away 

The early morning shadow 

The sheer amount of wide open spaces can leave you bewildered 

Ocotillo 

A dead Cholla mirrors the landscape 

Vikram in front of an Ocotillo bush 

The daytrip into the NP

In front of the Super 8 Motel, where we spent the night 

Straight as an arrow 

It turned out that none of these interesting looking trees are Joshua Trees 

All set 

The cool windvane 

A welcoming clump of creosote 

Datura or Jimson Weed in bloom - it is still early morning - the Bengali "dhutra" 

Our first Joshua tree, with creosotes around it and a scenic byway to boot. The roads inside the NP are AWESOME.