Blog Update - Joshua Tree NP - Spring has Sprung!

On Tuesday evening, just as I cracked a PBR - my neighbor and resident Ranger at Joshua Tree NP came by with her IPad and showed me some pictures of a section of the park having a wildflower bloom, Ranger Judy was happy to share the location...which happened to be 35 miles into the park...

So yesterday, I decided to make the trek and find the flowers...

The entire hillside is alive with color!

I only made one mistake - see the rock pile in the above photo - in my infinite wisdom I figured that would be a good spot to shoot the upper part of the hill in bloom, so I climbed up on the rocks, just as I was lining up my shot I heard a bunch of hissing and looked down in the crack in the rocks I was straddling and was greeted by a whole nest of rattlesnakes...well needless to say I jumped off of the rocks, damn near killed myself and missed the shot.

But did manage this one...before my departure.

Then I stuck closer to the ground with a wary eye out for snakes...

On the long return trip of 35 miles, found an Ocotillo in bloom...the Ocotillo is a very interesting spiny desert plant that looks dead most of the time...but when in bloom they are wonderful.

In Bloom!

There are also numerous cactus in bloom everywhere!

When I got back to the RV - time for a couple PBR's and my last piece of Halibut!

I hope to get into the park one evening for some star shots before I leave in mid-April.

Stay tuned!

Capt. Jim - "The Wanderer"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest and Alaska!