Most people, when they think of California, think of beaches, palm trees, famous bays, movie stars and glamor, and California has all of those things, but it also has a great deal more… desert for example. 90 miles from downtown Los Angeles is where the Joshua trees live and where I recently caught up with them in the Antelope Valley in northern Los Angeles County. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley some 50 miles south in the City of Los Angeles, and to be perfectly honest, I never thought much of the Antelope Valley; so desolate, but that’s where my Mom retired and where I had to go to visit her. While we were there, She Who Must Be Obeyed, a native of Iowa, wanted pictures of Joshua trees, so we found a large vacant lot filed with them, and off I went with a camera while she remained in the air conditioned car.
It was not a nice lot, filled as it was with dirt, dead grass and nasty creatures. I saw the slither tracks of rattlesnakes, holes in the ground made by tarantulas, more than I’ve ever seen in fact. There we also lots of ant hills, some more than two feet in diameter… oh yes, and Joshua trees.
When I was a kid growing up not far from here, I always thought Joshua trees were kind of ugly, yet some people planted them in their yards; I don’t think I would ever do that. Even so, they do have a certain exotic look. As I walked around this field, feeling the hot afternoon sun, if I looked in the right direction it seemed as though I was way out in the desert, even though I was surrounded by suburbia. I kept exploring…
…and I came across the remains of a camp. There were several sleeping bags, quite a bit of clothing and a bunch of trash screened by the brush. Kids? Vagrants? Illegals? I don’t know, I sure wasn’t going to go poking around in the stuff, and if somebody is coming back here, I hope they know better than to climb back into those sleeping bags!
Why would anybody want to camp out here?
Desperation maybe.
That’s been going on out in the desert for a very long time, hasn’t it?
In the old days, they used to film Westerns nearby, I’ll bet you’ve seen some of them, you know, the ones with desert, lots of rock formations and of course… Joshua trees. Yes, the more I think about it, they do have an exotic element to their appearance. Yes, exotic with a touch of desperation as they struggle to cling to life in a hostile environment.
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Great photos Don! Bless you for walking out in that desert with all the critters you mention being so close by! Hope you had on good boots! lol I agree with you about the trees–kind of ugly but beautiful and exotic as well. I wonder how they got their name.
Well, no, I didn’t have boots with me, but those critters don’t come out in the triple digit sunshine. Now at around sundown, look out!
I would hate to run into any of those critters! PTL when I
lived in Texas I never saw any of them, despite the sign on the rest room door at a rest stop on the TX/NM border saying beware of rattlesnakes! ewwww trust me–my eyes were darting everywhere! lol
Yes, I bet they were! 🙂
Good pictures!
Experienced an odd coincidence while reading this post. I have set up the wallpaper on my computer run through a series of thirteen panoramic rock formations. The scene changes every fifteen minutes. And one of the scenes contains Joshua trees. Now I know what they are.
Good boots are good advice. In broad daylight in a place like that, the cacti are usually the most dangerous thing you will bump into (Only people don’t have the good sense to burrow into the shade during the heat of the day. 🙂 )
Surprised I did not see any cacti in your pictures. Maybe the Joshua trees are siphoning up all the water.
Boots I did not have on the trip, so I was careful to walk in open dirt and avoid stepping into “cover” where the nasty creatures go during the day; you’d never catch me wandering around in that field after dusk! As for the cactus, they don’t grow in the Antelope Valley because the elevation is too high; they freeze in the winter and even have periodic snowfall that would kill them…
Awesome work. I guess when you mom wants photos you gotta do what you gotta do.
I reckon so
In June of 2013, my husband and I went to visit my daughter who was living east of LA at that time. She was studying landscape architecture and had been several times to Joshua Tree National Forest. She loved it there and had even camped out there with her classmates. So she took us on a trip to Joshua Tree one day. I was surprised how hot it was and how the air literally sucked the water out of us, but the landscape immediately struck me. I had never seen anything like it. Piles of rocks seemingly strewn in heaps here and there and then there were the Joshua Trees. I hadn’t even seen a picture of them before that. I fell in love with their odd beauty. I can’t remember all of the interesting details about Joshua Trees that she told us that day, but they are truly unique and I treasure the afternoon we spent in Joshua Tree National Forest. God has all sorts of landscapes on this earth suited to the environment of the place, each with its own beauty. Very interesting indeed, and lovely too! Thanks for the nostalgic reminder of a perfect day in the desert!
I appreciate the remembrance; sounds like a wonderful time…
Like the pictures. I have never seen a tree like this.
Thanks; they dont grow in many places