Joshua Tree @ Halloween

I went hiking in Joshua Tree National Park today, out of Cottonwood Cove. It was an illustrious and windy afternoon, hiked in about 2 miles on the trail to Lost Palms Oasis and then back out. Yes, this is the type of stuff I have spent many many hours, days, weeks, months of my life since I was 13 years old doing - sifting out into the open Mojave desert. It may look remote to some, but to me, in a place like this, I feel incredibly centered, calmed, unafraid, and at home. Besides, the well-marked and well-worn hiking trail wasn't far...though I only saw a total of four hikers on the trail (about 100 yards up and down wash and horizon behind me...somewhere...) on my way in, and they were all hiking out.


self portrait in the wind....I could see the north end of the Salton Sea from my high rock/ridge perch, and across to the Santa Rosa Mountains from here. I did check the deep cracks in the rocky ridge I sat on, because one time, years ago, as I sat atop a desert rock peak, I suddenly heard terrifying, loud, asthmatic breathing. I jumped aside, then cautiously traced the noise to....a giant Gila monster, puffing himself up in a rock crack, as these big desert lizards are wont to de, when they feel threatened. No enemy, animal or human, can pry them out when they are puffed up with air! No repeats today, nor mice nor rattlesnakes; just the breezing of wind.


I am very pleased with how the lighting came out on this picture, right as the last of the sun's rays met with the rise of near-full moon. Halloween Night, 2009 just before darkness, or a sort of off-whiteness tonight, set in. And yes, I got to the car before it got really dark! Good girl!