Food for the Soul: Joshua Tree National Park - July 4, 2014

For the Fourth of July weekend the girlfriend and I spent two days and one night (sleeping under the stars) in one of our favorite locations: the hauntingly beautiful Joshua Tree National Park. I truly believe you could be dropped just about anywhere in JTNP and, without having to move more than a few feet, occupy yourself for days photographing from right where you stand.

The park "suffered" a major wildfire in, (if memory serves) 2012, so you'll see some shots of a charred desert. I put the word "suffered" in quotes because, as the rangers will tell you, burning is a part of the Natural Cycle of Things and keeps the landscape healthy in the long term. Joshua Tree is almost overwhelming in it's scope and beauty; so much so Jessica and I took numerous breaks from shooting so we could simply sit quietly and take it all in. It was an amazing couple of days.

All the shots shown below were taken with my D7100, and most with my "workhorse" lens, a Nikon 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom. Some might have been taken with either the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 or the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 OS HSM; the EXIF data should tell all. Except for a resizing, all are straight out of the camera JPG's because I just don't have the energy to do a lot of post processing yet. Select RAW files will get punched up as time allows.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I feel are some of my better shots from our trip to Joshua Tree.













































.....

The photos successfully convey what you say.
Drop me there

I've been near that area via motorcycle several times, but haven't stopped in with the time to look around. Looks like I need to add it to my list of places to go!

Thanks for sharing!

Spent a lot of time there in my youth and vigor -- great place for hiking and climbing and actually seeing stars

Great shots

Went to the Park a couple months ago. Couldn't agree more about the photo opportunities. I'll be going back later this year now that I know "the lay of the land."

Great images. It is like being in the Carlsbad Caverns or the sandstone caverns of the Southwest. In the days before digital you could shoot a quarter mile of film!

Great images. Is this a beautiful country, or what. One of the primary reasons I support the Sierra Club. All of us need to do our best to preserve such sights for future generations.