Sunrise in the Desert

There could be a certain symbolism to watching a sunrise in the desert. It's the beginning of "something"; it's the spring; it's the dawn of a new age. Whatever. Or it could be just the reality of everyday nature on Earth that we have lost touch with.

We took our annual camping pilgrimage to Joshua Tree National Park. In the coolness of the morning, I woke up early to make a run from the tent to the toilet, and ended up watching the beauty of the stars -- with progression of "sunrise".



The arms of the Joshua trees embrace the starlight and crescent moonlight. Eventually the stars fade with the brightening sky glow.



The Earth's shadow recedes in the twilight. Twilight is a special time when it's neither day nor night.



As the rotation of the planet brings the sun into view, the distant mountains and rocks light up in orange. Orange turns to yellow, and the darkness vanishes.



And as the sunbeams fall from over the mountains, suddenly there's a "flash", and it is "daytime" already. For some reason I was caught unaware. I was left blinking my eyes in the full intensity of the sunlight and unprepared. Life catches you by surprise.



Here is our family photo where we look like we just woke up (which is true).



On our camping trip, Hikaru enjoyed sleeping in the tent, and he's getting quite good at climbing up the rocks. He's also an expert at scaring (us) parents, so we need to keep a watchful eye on him as he takes off.



For the record, here is the view of our campsite looking below from the top of the rock.



And this is another photo of our temporary home. It was windy when we arrived, so we located our tent close to a rock, and needed to tie it down with a few extra ropes.



Besides the sunrise, it is springtime. In the lower desert of Joshua Tree National Park, the flowers are starting to bloom. This is the desert dandelion.



Yes, there is gold to be found here!

Camping at Jumbo Rocks

In the desert, springtime comes once during the year, so we did an overnight camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Through the eastern side of the park, the creosote bushes glow with yellow...



And the spidery ocotillo cacti blooms with red.



At the Jumbo Rocks campground, we pitched our tent. Hikaru called our campsite "home", and in many ways, shouldn't "home be where your heart is" -- as they say? Whether home is our tent or a wooden box, it shouldn't matter.



We spent our afternoon walking among the boulders. We watched lizards. We watched ants carry a caterpillar away. We saw flowers.

The cactus below is called a hedgehog cactus, but the beauty of its flower is better described by the photo.



And the desert marigolds are really golden.



Hikaru just likes to climb onto the top of a rock and sit there. It's difficult to capture a photo of a moving target like a 4-year-old kid, but this was a good opportunity.



And this bit of orange color is the desert Globemallow...



We found ladybugs on the flowers, so Hikaru is trying to get them to crawl onto his hand.



Unfortunately, they must have been the "wild desert" kind of ladybug. They just flew off into the wind.



This greenish-yellow flower is of a cholla cactus. I wish I knew desert plants better, since the flowers resemble that of other cactus.



Hopefully, I'll get a better identification on these desert flowers later. But just because you don't know the exact name of something, doesn't mean that you can't appreciate the beauty.



And of course, Joshua Tree National Park is known for the big rocks too, and the rocks here are certainly "Jumbo Rocks".



Finally, a "family photo" before we return "home" to our campsite for dinner.

Desert Moonlight

We made our annual "pilgrimage" to Joshua Tree National Park a couple weeks ago. The beauty and solitude of the southern California desert, is something we always enjoy. We often leave the car and the road at a random place, and just "walk" for a few miles.



When one is in the desert, it could be simply the clearness of the air, or the clearness of the mind, but it's easy to be content -- just watching. I can happily sit for hours just watching the rocks and the sky, and the shifting of the sunlight and shadows.



We only spent a few hours here in the park, but the timeless flow of life goes on, whether we're here to observe it or not. On this trip, we saw some quail and a desert fox, as the sun was setting; as the full moon was rising.