Eric and Ken explore Joshua Tree National Park


Joshua Tree NP is in southern California, 240 miles west of Phoenix.
Eric and I left Phoenix early Saturday, spent the day in Joshua Tree, camped by some huge rocks, cooked dinner in the fire, and went home Sunday morning.
A Joshua Tree


Joshua Tree is basically just desert. There are some cool rock formations made of monzogranite. Monzogranite was formed by volcanoes and erosion. The rock often has layers of other rock in it.
Eric on some monzogranite rocks

Like I said, our campsite was on the edge of a patch of monzogranite formations. Here are two views from a rock next to our campsite. You can see our tent in the foreground of the north view.
Looking North

Looking East


Monzogranite has an interesting texture that rock climbers (both human and reptilian) love.
Old-school rock climber


Eric loves monzogranite, too. He worships it by doing funny dances on top of it. Note the Joshua Tree behind Eric.
Monzogranite Dance

A cool cactus near our campsite


Keys View is a famous overlook in the park. It's great because you can see all the pollution that is blowing in from Los Angeles, over 100 miles away.
Keys View, Eric's Pompadour


When the sun went down we made a campfire. For dinner we wrapped meat, potatoes, carrots, onions, and peppers in tin foil and put these packages in the fire to cook. They were good. Since 20 miles and a couple of mountain ranges separated us from the closest towns (and the park is over 100 miles from any metropolis), the stargazing was excellent.

And that's about all I have to say about that.