Three Nights in Joshua Tree - Day 1

A few months ago, Bucci who lives on Joshua Tree Court in a far off land sent me a beautiful picture of a sunlit Joshua Tree in the California Desert. So on a sunny afternoon in early December we found ourselves driving a rented Toyota 4Runner the two and a half hours from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree National Park for three nights of camping in the desert. I-10 winds through the San Gorgonio Pass and just past the largest windfarm I've ever seen we turned off onto highway 62 which would take us to the park. We couldn't resist stopping to snap some close ups of the windmills, which is easier said than done. Upon exiting the car I was nearly blown over by the gale force winds and had a hard time holding the camera steady enough for a picture. I now understand why the wind farm is exactly where it is.

We arrived at the Joshua Tree ranger station a little after three pm. After picking up a map, paying an entrance, filling up the water jugs and getting some campgound advice from the ranger we headed off to the White Tank campground. The campsites all surround a big pile of large rocks (a tank?) and with few other campers we chose one with a nice view and what we thought was some shelter from the wind. The sun was about to set when we reached the campground so we quickly put up the tent then ran off to take some photos during the sunset. We hiked the short way to Arch Rock, wondrously bathed in the evening light with the moon just above. Back at camp we made a campfire to ward off the cold and dark of night then cooked up some guacamole burgers for a delicious end to the first day of our desert adventure.