Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree is one of the smaller parks in the National Park system, but it is the home of interesting rock formations and trees, the Joshua Tree.   

Currently a desert environment, a dry, dusty, sage desert environment, it was shaped eons ago.

Several factors contributed to the landscape we toured.  This landscape has been formed and reformed for over 100 million years by the forces of water, wind, chemical weathering and plate tectonics. 

Hard granite formations became embedded in softer, older bedrock creating granitic intrusions.   

 

Eons ago this region was submerged.  In this underwater world, water gradually eroded away some of the bedrock creating rounded edges and exposing the granite.  Then, plate tectonic movements lifted this area. The climate changed, water retreated and a desert region was born.   

 

Over the eons wind, water and weather continued eroding the bedrock, opening the granitic intrusions to further erosion creating these dynamic rock sculptures.  Magnificent rock formations now dot the landscape.  

One of the vista points in the park is a view of the San Andreas Fault.  Through the dusty haze we can see the line of plate movement that shaped this area long ago and continues to shape the world we now inhabit.  A time or two we felt the earth move under our feet and later heard that several small quakes occurred in the area during our visit.  It was not hard to ponder the possible future changes.

 

Many of these rock formations look like giant cairns and they share this landscape with the Joshua Tree.  But this is not a tree in the normal sense.  It is unlike trees we commonly see in the northwest.  

There is no lower branching of limbs, rather all the leaves are gathered at the top of the tree.  It has highly adapted leaves to help retain water in the desert environment. They look something like a cross between a giant pine needle and a palm frond. 

It only blooms under the right conditions at higher elevation when proper moisture becomes available.  When it blooms it has a large flower at the tip of each branch that, when closed looks like a giant, white artichoke, but when open resembles something like a freesia.  

 

A tall Joshua Tree would be about 20 feet tall.  They are hard to date because they do not grow annual rings as most trees do.  As part of their adaptation to the desert their inner layer is more like a cactus, fibrous and growing vertically.  

The Joshua Tree and rock formations, together with other desert plants and flowers create a quite rugged landscape.   

Trails travel throughout the park and are easily accessible to those prepared for a hike in the desert sun. 

Equipped with our sunglasses, hats, lots of water and the ubiquitous granola bars we traversed a few of these trails.  Although completely unlike the redwood area, this landscape has the same ability to touch a very ancient, primitive part of the soul.   

 

Both speak to the power of nature to attract and nurture just the right species of plant and animal to create a unique environment.