Views and Vistas

What makes Joshua Tree National Park so interesting, in my opinion, is the fact that it’s really the convergence of two big deserts—the Mojave and the Colorado.  The Mojave is the higher of the two.

The other thing I find amazing is that this place is surrounded by mountains.  In Oregon, we’ve always been so proud of our Cascade Range.  But California has so many more ranges.  And they are real mountains.  As we were traveling through the park, we would see all kinds of vistas and views.

  

I could spend hours looking out over the desert at the different mountains in the distance.  To me, the different mountain ranges each seem to have their own unique color.  Because they recently had so much rain here, the deserts are actually green and pretty, too.  I imagine it looks different in the dead of summer.

We traveled up to one of the highest peaks called Keyes View.  At 5100’ we could look down into the valley below.  And since it was so high, we had very high winds to contend with!  I lasted about ten minutes and it was a struggle to stay on my feet.  My intrepid husband managed to get a few photos before he finally gave up.  According to the information sign, the haze in the valley is pretty much there all the time.

On another day, we hiked a trail that took us up into the mountains again.  Less wind and we were able to see some pretty spectacular views as we walked along.  We didn’t make it to the end of the trail, but as I told H, it was still worth the effort just to see the views.

We’ve shared H’s photos of the vistas and views in his Gallery.  Check them out