Joshua Tree National Park was near the top of my list of places to visit while I was in the Palm Springs, CA area. Other than the fact that the park was supposedly littered with these ‘Joshua Trees’ I really had no idea what to expect. I’m used to the provincial and national parks of Alberta: lakes, rivers, mountains, and forests, so when we drove into Joshua Tree, it was quite a change to be in the middle of a scrubby desert. It definitely felt like an alien landscape.<\/p>\n

The day we went, I was under attack by a nasty chest cold. I was coughing and wheezing up a storm, so we couldn’t go for any hikes without me ending up short of breath and in a lot of discomfort. This meant we were stuck seeing the park from the roadside turnouts, which was a bit disappointing. It also didn’t help that we weren’t dressed for how cold it was in the park that day. Wearing shorts and a light sweater when it’s 8 degrees celsius and ridiculously windy was not the best choice I made on our trip. Needless to say, next time I’m down there, I’ll likely be spending another day or two in Joshua Tree hiking some of the many trails and capturing the park a bit better than I was able to this time.<\/p>\n