…And I wanna sleep with you in the desert tonight, with a billion stars all around.
~The Eagles – Peaceful Easy Feeling
Today’s Friday Photo comes from our recent vist to Joshua Tree National Park, California. The scattered clouds were taking their turn passing in front of the sun throughout the day. Then at dusk, the sun was low enough to avoid them for awhile. The end result was this beautiful yellow glow and long shadows with a moody sky overhead.
We were staying in the Palm Springs area, where triple-digit heat is the norm. Joshua Tree is at a higher elevation (around 3,500 feet), compared to Palm Springs which is at or near sea level. As a result we were treated with an afternoon temperature of around 85 degrees, and high 70s at dusk.
This enchanted place is one of those best kept secrets. There’s lots of history here, ranging from cattle rustlers, to gold mining, to rock and roll. Well, country rock and roll anyway. The album artwork for The Eagles’ first album was shot in the park, and British band, America (remember A Horse With No Name and Sister Golden Hair?), also used Joshua Tree National Park as the backdrop for some of their album covers. Gram Parsons (The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers) and Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones) also frequented the park. And speaking of Gram, and probably the strangest musical fact about Joshua Tree National Park. he was cremated in the park near Cap Rock.
And I’ll leave you with this one: Another musical fact about Joshua Tree is that Irish band, U2 did not take photos in the park for their Joshua Tree album cover, though they did do a road trip from Reno to Joshua Tree in December 1986 after the album was finished. The location of the album cover was actually 200 miles away, at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park, California. The Joshua Tree in the photographs on the album artwork was outside of Death Valley on California State Route 190.
~ Photo Taken September 3, 2017, 6:23 pm
I HIKE FAR (do you?) 