Joshua Tree

The ubiquitous Joshua trees

Beautiful sunset from our campsite

The tarantula

Our first stop on our way to the Southwest was Joshua Tree NP.

On the drive in, we stopped for coffee and lunch in Palm Springs, where it was incredibly hot and dry.  The town is pretty cute, but more remote than I had expected given its iconic status as a retirement location.

The rest of the drive was pretty much just Mojave Desert, which is a wasteland of scrub brush and nothingness.  We arrived at Joshua Tree in the early afternoon, which gave us enough time to drive the main park road and take some pictures of the ubiquitous trees and the beautiful surrounding hills.  While very pretty, we definitely did not need more than just a couple hours there – the landscape and trees are the only thing to see.

We set up camp in the park that evening and went for a walk after watching the sunset.  Kristen had read that tarantulas are known to run across the road at night, so we were hoping to see our first desert wildlife.  We were having a nice time looking at the stars and spotting constellations, when all of the sudden Kristen spotted a tarantula on the road.  Neither of us had ever seen one in the wild before, so we were pretty thrilled.  The things are pretty gross looking, though, so we snapped a quick picture and got the hell out of there.