We woke up today at 1:20am. That’s pretty early. Fortunately for us, our bodies were still three hours ahead so it really felt like 4:20am but that is still very early.
Jen and I showered, dressed, and headed out of the hotel by 2am. It was raining out and obviously very dark. There was virtually no traffic but that isn’t too surprising given that it was such an odd hour on a Sunday morning.
We drove the long drive north and east towards Joshua Tree. I was a little worried that it was raining the whole time up until we got close to Palm Springs. Because Joshua Tree National Park is in the desert I didn’t think we would have to contend with rain - now I’m not so sure.
When we arrived at the north entrance to Joshua Tree it was still pitch-black outside - well before sunrise. It was also quite cold outside. We didn’t have a map of the park so I stopped at the welcome center near the entrance. It was closed, but fortunately I was able to find a box with park maps and grabbed one.
After consulting the map, I decided that we should try to go to ‘Keys View‘ to watch and photograph the sunrise. It made me sad to see that the sky was overcast as light began to creep over the horizon.
We drove the long distance inside the park to the Keys View overlook place. It was actually snowing when we arrived! I didn’t think that it was very likely to find snow in a desert environment like Joshua Tree. However the snow didn’t appear to be accumulating on the ground.
Once we got to the overlook area Jen asked for me to stop at the primitive restroom area. There was no electricity so I had to park the car such that the headlights would provide a little indirect ambient light into the restroom itself for her to use.
After we parked and I set up the camera on the tripod I was disappointed to see that the location wasn’t ideal for a sunrise given the current weather conditions. We appeared to be inside a localized snow system that wasn’t really moving. It was also damn cold outside - I had a hard time feeling anything in my hands.
I took a couple of 30-second exposures using the remote switch I got for Christmas, but nothing looked that great from our vantage point. I also had the usual problems with the 15mm fisheye lens. I’m really sick of having a lens that doesn’t work and plan on fixing the situation when we get home. As a result, I didn’t get any good photos.
It even started to snow a little more and I saw a larger snowstorm rolling into our location. We decided to drive to a different section of the park to see if conditions get better.
(Jen used her camera to take this photo of the rising sun - she caught the colors at just the right time.)
Next we went to the ‘Ryan Mountain‘ trailhead. It was still fairly cloudy and quite cold. We took a few photos of the sunrise but the colors were so fleeting due to all of the clouds. It was so cold that I had a hard time carrying the tripod in my bare hands. If I knew it would have been like this I would have packed some gloves.
(The rising sun as seen in the distance from the top of some boulders near Ryan Mountain)
We drove around some more to the south looking for a nice area to stop. As we drove the sun rose higher and higher into the sky. We finally came to the ‘Cholla Cactus Garden’ overlooking the Mojave Desert. This was a pretty cool spot. We stayed for a while walking around, examining the flora, and taking pictures.
(A bunch of Cholla Cacti with the Mojave desert in the background)
Next we drove back north and went to the Barker Dam trail. We parked and hiked to the actual barker dam. This was a really nice hike. With the sun being higher in the sky and the clouds dissipating, it felt quite nice outside now - it wasn’t so bitter cold like earlier.
(Jen and I took a self-portrait using the tripod)
Eventually we decided to head out and drive back to San Diego. I was pretty bummed that we woke up so early to drive out here to see the fleeting sunrise only to be thwarted by cloudy & snowy skies.
The two times I’ve been out here (and the one time Jen was out here) with Larry we had lunch at a great diner place. Jen and I wanted to have lunch there again this time.
I thought it was in the town of twentynine palms and so we drove all over the place looking for it. It simply wasn’t there. We figured it might have closed down or something. I even called Larry to see if he could remember the name of the place or where it was located but he couldn’t remember.
After I got off the phone with Larry, I considered that the place might be in the town of Joshua Tree, just down the road on the way to I-15. We went these since it was on our way anyway and found the elusive restaurant. Its called ‘Crossroads Café‘ and is excellent.
I ordered a BLT and Jen ordered a veggie sandwich. The food was great as always, and the clientele is an earthy, healthy type of people - a lot seem to be rock climbers.
Once we concluded lunch we headed back to San Diego - Jen drove. On our way we took a side-road near the vast windmill farm and stopped so I could take some photographs. The windmills are so gigantic and that combined with the fact that there is a field of hundreds of them is just hard to comprehend and is a sight to be seen.
(The windmills were hundreds of feet tall)
It was a long drive back to the San Diego area, but we eventually made it. We stopped at a little liquor store in Del Mar to buy a cheap bottle of red wine and took it back to the hotel.
Once there we unwound and opened up the wine. Jen and I were both pretty tired - we were up so early today. Larry called and tried to make some plans for us to have dinner together. He and Amy just got back into town from being in Las Vegas for a couple of days so they were pretty tired too.
The plans fell through and instead Jen and I just ate at the hotel restaurant instead.
