Loop Road east of Sheep Pass, Queen Valley, Joshua Tree National Park, Riverside County, CA, 9/29/2005
Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California and was declared a U.S. National Park in 1994 after being a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It is named for the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) forests native to the park. It covers a land area of 790,636 acres and is slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. Roughly 429,690 acres within the park is a designated wilderness area. Straddling the San Bernardino County / Riverside County border, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation: the higher Mojave Desert and lower Colorado Desert. The higher and slightly cooler Mojave Desert is the special habitat of the Joshua tree. It grows in patterns from dense forests to distantly spaced specimens. In addition to Joshua tree forests, the western part of the park includes some of the most interesting geologic displays found in California's deserts; the dominant geologic features of this landscape are hills of bare rock, usually broken into loose boulders. At 4,470 feet above sea level, this desert garden scene is entirely within the Mojave Desert and we see it just as the first direct rays of sunlight arrive on a clear autumn morning. At sunrise I drove to this spot immediately east of Sheep Pass on Loop Road to photograph the attractive lone Joshua tree on terrain that tilts slightly eastward into Queen Valley, allowing for ideal capture of direct early morning sunlight. We are looking south toward Sheep Pass Group Campground. My camera is aimed perpendicular to the light, maximizing the ability of the polarizing filter I used to darken the sky and remove unwanted glare from the landscape. In the distance at far right is the eastern flank of Joshua Peak.
