It was a hard choice, but we opted to leave our Palm Springs lodging to take a weekend in Joshua Tree National Park.

This park was absolutely worth the trip over. There was so much to see and so many great hikes through two distinct deserts, the Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert. We saw a lonely live oak, inexplicably located in the middle of the desert. We saw vast swaths of joshua trees (actually yuccas), marveled at the dangerously beautiful cholla garden, gaped at the vivid ocotillo, and were absolutely astounded by an actual oasis. We saw fox or coyote scat, but no sighting of the animals. Neither did we see any rattlesnakes. We caught glimpses of jack rabbits and cotton tail rabbits, and various lizards. We saw canyon wrens, scrub jays, and and were literally escorted throughout the entire park by two crows.

Joshua Tree is a park that really warps your sense of perspective. Distance is hard to judge. True temperatures are hard to feel when the winds are so cooling. the mountains are hard to understand, and you don’t really appreciate the size of the giant mounds of boulders until you see a speck of a person on top or a building at the base. Even trying to wrap your head around the history and timeline of the park is difficult. It is ancient. And it is beautiful. Our last stop in the park was the Keys View and it let us look down on the San Andres fault, something I’ve always heard about but had never had a chance to see from above. It was wild.

One thing I am learning about myself as we explore this beautiful country is that I love deserts. I love the flora and the fauna. I love the feel of the open space. I love the cool nights and the hot, arid days. I love scrambling up boulders, and trudging through dry washes. I don’t know if it because it’s so different from what I’ve always known, but my heart really feels at peace in the desert.