My folks and I spent a day at Joshua Tree National Park
exploring and looking for wildflowers in bloom after the recent rains. The day
was beautiful, clear, and a perfect temperature. Our online research (http://www.nps.gov/jotr/planyourvisit/blooms.htm)
directed us to the washes south of the Cottonwood Visitor Center for the best
flower viewing, so we entered the park from the south and drove north. Especially
prominent were purple fields of Salvia
columbariae (Chia), and combinations of blue and purple Phacelia distans (Wild heliotrope) and P. campunularia (Desert Canterbury
bells). We also saw our first Mentzelia
involucrate (Sand Blazing Star), which shimmers like bridal satin in the
sun and is difficult to capture in a photo.
North of the visitor center we hiked out on the desert floor to view Fouquieria splendens (Ocotillo) and the Yucca brevifolia (Joshua Tree) up close. Some of the Joshua Trees were just starting to blossom. This section of the park is at a higher elevation, and the blooms were not as developed as in the south.
At the end of the day, we reviewed our discoveries and compared notes at The Rib Company, near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, over barbecue ribs and all the fixings. With less seasonal rain, and being earlier in the season, we saw fewer mass bloomings that in previous years, but we still added many new flowers to our lists, and saw a good representation of blooms in smaller quantities. The desert remains an amazing ecosystem – hostile and harsh, yet full of fragile beauty.
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| Fields of Chia - contrasting with the sage greens and sand. |
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| Discovering Blazing Star shimmering in the sun. |
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| Patches of blue and purple flowers. |
North of the visitor center we hiked out on the desert floor to view Fouquieria splendens (Ocotillo) and the Yucca brevifolia (Joshua Tree) up close. Some of the Joshua Trees were just starting to blossom. This section of the park is at a higher elevation, and the blooms were not as developed as in the south.
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| Ocotillo |
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| Joshua Tree, with blooms in the upper branches. |
At the end of the day, we reviewed our discoveries and compared notes at The Rib Company, near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, over barbecue ribs and all the fixings. With less seasonal rain, and being earlier in the season, we saw fewer mass bloomings that in previous years, but we still added many new flowers to our lists, and saw a good representation of blooms in smaller quantities. The desert remains an amazing ecosystem – hostile and harsh, yet full of fragile beauty.
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