Mona Visits Joshua Tree

Mona and the Tree

Back in 2017, Sharka got to visit Joshua Tree National Park. It took a few years, but I made it back for a sequel post.

My trip for the KINOD 15th Anniversary would take me past Joshua Tree again, so I figured why not stop? My first visit was so very magical and I’ve itched to go back ever since. It seemed like an obvious stop and something that could generate another blog post at the very least.

And Mona had never been to Joshua Tree.

An almost-cooked sunrise

A few words on the weather: Sweet Baby Jesus. It was insane in the Mojave and around Joshua Tree. 122 *F sustained temps. That’s 50 *C. That’s not a joke or something that lasted a few minutes. It was painful hot just east of Flagstaff AZ all the way to the coast in California. I’ve never experienced temperatures like that.

I washed a car in 122 degree heat.

No one in Twentynine Palms seemed to mind the heat. In fact, they seemed to be aggressively ignoring it. No one sayin’ nothin. I drove past a kid sitting in front of a gas station playing video games. OUTSIDE! He was at least in the shade, but OMG. I can’t even imagine how that console wasn’t melting in his hands.

At 4:30AM, the desert cooled to high 90s. I was brave and had the top down for these pix.

Almost there.

After 122, 95 degrees really felt cool. Not at all hot even. It was extremely pleasant zooming through the park to beat the sunrise.

Speaking of sunrise, we kinda didn’t get a real one due to that big mass of clouds hiding in just the right spot. However, we also got about five sunrises as it poked through the clouds and briefly lit the world up. And that wasn’t bad. It made for some fantastic photo opportunities.

There it is.

Drink it in.

Yeah. Worth the heat.

Creeping past 100.

Thank you Joshua Tree. You never disappoint. But maybe next time I visit, I’ll wait for some cooler weather.

My fav shot of the morning.

And lastly, all of the above pix can be clicked and tapped on to see in a larger format.