Joshua Tree National Park // Adventure Elopement Photographer & Full-Time Traveler

Our visit to Joshua Tree was an exciting one for several reasons. It included a few firsts for us: it was the first National Park visit of our full-time traveling adventures, and for each of us it was our first time to this specific park. It may have also been each of our first time experiencing the monsoon rains of the desert.

During our visit, we hiked two very different trails. One lead us up to the top of a mountain with views overlooking the park and the next day our other hike lead us through the Joshua Tree forests themselves. That second day, we were very careful to watch the weather because those crazy rains were causing flash flooding in the area. We carefully found a path that wasn’t in the warning area, however, we still kept a careful watch over the weather and I constantly made sure we had escape routes just in case things took a turn for the worse.

I think we both agree that the second hike was our favorite. It wound along washes, through cacti and joshua trees. The fog and mist from the rains made us completely soaked even while it brought beautiful fog down over the hills. After only a couple of miles, I unfortunately was so cold from the rain that I had to turn us around. I do hope to go back someday because it was absolutely beautiful. Sadly, the torrential rains encouraged me to leave my DSLR at home so the only photos from this leg of our Joshua Tree journey are from our camera phones.

Joshua Tree National Park became a bit infamous this past winter during the government shutdown. What a crazy time for our National Parks, huge numbers of visitors while staff were minimal to none. These beautiful places our country has put effort into protecting were vulnerable and taken advantage of; you may have heard of the damage done at Joshua Tree during this timeframe. When you go to these places please respect them and those who work so hard to preserve them. If you would like to join me on my journey of learning how to do just that, a good place to start seems to be the Leave No Trace organization. As I learn how to steward this beautiful land better, I’ll share with you, too.