Joshua Tree & Salton Sea

Traveling to new places is one of the things that sustains my energy in life. It’s something to look forward to beforehand and unlocks experiences that that often inevitably leave their fingerprints on my life and soul forever after. Being stripped of any chance of a significant trip away during the pandemic is far from the worst thing that any of us have had to endure, but the toil of the times is manifold.  When the chance to feed a bit of the wanderlust by visiting a National Park in our state of residence we’d never seen before came together… we jumped on it.

Maintaining our COVID “bubble”, my traveling partner and I grabbed a healthy supply of masks and headed down south to Joshua Tree National Park – an ideal spot given our fondness for hiking.  The trails were relatively lightly populated during what otherwise would presumably be a heavy season, and the weather was not yet rising to the oppressive heat seen often during the summer.  On the second day of hiking the clouds cooperated quite well I thought – although my partner and I may have had a disagreement on this point.  She’s partial to blue skies, but give me a moody and dramatic sky anytime for photos!

Bombay Beach – 2012

On the way out of Joshua Tree we skipped over to the Salton Sea – always fascinating and changing.  My previous visit to the Bombay Beach area in April of 2012 largely offered an assortment of  and birds.  This time it seems things are trending more to art “installations”.

Oh and as if that wasn’t enough?  Ostrichland is a thing.  Poked into there on our way down south to do our part in making sure the emus and ostriches did not go hungry.

You’re welcome.