Joshua Tree National Park

As long as I was so close - about an hour by car - I decided to check out Joshua Tree National Park. Boy, was I glad I did. I'd never seen a Joshua tree, leave alone such a luminously beautiful and, for me, totally unfamiliar landscape. Now I understand why people extol the beauty of the desert. It made me think a lot about the Don Juan books of Carlos Castaneda.



Besides the 50-mile views and the other-worldly vegetation were astonishing rock formations.



Here's the car I rented from Budget at the Palm Springs Airport. You can drive for hours within the National Park and see very little traffic.



Isn't this a gorgeous place?



Here's yours truly on a trail leading to a small dam beside an abandoned gold mine. Twenty-four hours later I was back in Manhattan.