Trip to Joshua Tree National Park

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I'm finally getting around to looking through the (many, many) pictures I took on a recent trip to Joshua Tree National Park in California. The Mojave and Colorado ecosystems meet in this spot which was designated a national monument by Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 and became a national park in 1994, according to the National Park service. 

This is where you'll find fields of Joshua trees (seen above), a garden of Cholla Cactus (seen below), and wonderful mounds of boulders reaching for the sky.

It's truly a unique place to gather some inspiration. The desert environment has it's own color palette. The first impression of this landscape is endless earth tones, dusty greens, sunbaked browns and greys. 

But the eye adjusts quickly and one begins to discern subtle color changes, a wider variety of tones including bluish greys and warmer browns. On closer inspection these color differences can often be attributed to a small flower or a berry. And then there are occasional and unexpected splashes of color. 

My traveling companion, (read hubby), graciously gave me a day to stop for pictures whenever something caught my eye as we traveled through the park. So, I want to share some of the textures that I gathered on my picture safari. In the interest of full disclosure, some of these pictures were taken outside the park, in the town of Joshua Tree.













I hope you find these textures as interesting as I do!
😉





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