Pine City

I hiked the Pine City trail in Joshua Tree NP earlier this week.  The landscape features an appealing combination of rocks, pinyon pines, junipers, cactus, and flowers at this time of year.  It's easy to see why artists are attracted to the desert.  The stark lines of the landscape...the clarity of the skies...and the hardy perseverance of the desert plants are inspirational.

Abstract art is easy to create in the desert.  You can boil things down to basic elements...rock, sky.

Along the trail were many fishhook barrel cactus with striking magenta spines.  Some had a few flowers blooming.  Blow up the pic and get immersed in the cactus.

A forest of spines.

California goldfields blooming out of the rock.

Blow up this pic and maybe you can see some of the dozens of bees that were tripping out on this blooming yucca.

A diligent bee works a prickly pear flower.

Rock

The Lizards, thriving in their natural habitat, getting abstract.

Rocks and pinyon pines.

A fine prickly pear flower with stylish red trim.

Seam in rock.  Could be a picture at MOMA.

Boulders and pinyon branches.  This area has many pleasant shady nooks among the pines.  It's a good place to hang out.  Some people were camped in the vicinity...very nice spot for it.

This little pincushion cactus sported a fine set of spines and flowers about to bloom.