Magical Day in Joshua Tree NP

The Venerable Pinniped is currently in Yucca Valley CA, and his flippers are draggin'. So, I'm goin' to hit the rack soon. I'm on the way home from a pleasant week in the Phoenix area with my old high school buddy Dave...we've been friends for over 40 years! We saw the Sharks play the Coyotes, and went to two spring training games, and I got in some nice pool time and tromped around in the desert on two days. The weather was absolute perfection...seven days of total sunshine with high temperatures in the 80s, lows in the 50s. Today I returned to Yucca Valley, the same place I stayed at a week ago and on the same route. The Old Sloat doesn't usually retrace his steps on a return trip unless absolutely necessary, but in this case I figured that, as beautiful as Joshua Tree NP was a week ago, it was worth another visit. Was it ever! The flowers were even more profuse than they were last week, and some cactus have started blooming too. Over the next few days I plan to blog the blooming vegetation plant by plant...it's just fabulous! And it's only been about an average rain year. This pic shows the Joshua trees in late afternoon, silhouetted against the hazy mountains in the lowering sun. It was really a pretty afternoon in the park today!