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.