Serendipity
I was out wildflowering my way around the Mojave over a long weekend during the spectacular En Nino of 1998. I had left another site at dusk and driven most of the way to Joshua Tree, my target for the next day, and was looking for a place to pull off the road and camp. So I turned off the highway and followed an unnamed dirt road off into the desert. There were cars on a neighboring road that remained visible out across the flat desert as I drove, and I was feeling a little paranoid because I was traveling alone, so I drove for probably a few miles until I found a spot that seemed a bit more secluded. I could see there were flowers nearby as I turned in for the night in the bed of the pickup shell. And the perfume from the dune evening-primrose was so intense that I spent the night with my sinuses all stuffed up. But I had only the barest inkling of the sight that was to greet me at dawn. I'm posting 2 shots: 1 just before sunup & the other just after.
When people talk about a wildflower bloom in the desert, you have to realize: it's very localized, keenly dependent on where there was a cloudburst or two, what the elevation and soil conditions are, etc. You'll drive for miles and miles with nary a petal, and then all of a sudden there'll be a patch like this. Up until now, I had just been following ranger station reports & online 'hotlines'. But this site I found all by myself, and that made it special.
Serendipity
I was out wildflowering my way around the Mojave over a long weekend during the spectacular En Nino of 1998. I had left another site at dusk and driven most of the way to Joshua Tree, my target for the next day, and was looking for a place to pull off the road and camp. So I turned off the highway and followed an unnamed dirt road off into the desert. There were cars on a neighboring road that remained visible out across the flat desert as I drove, and I was feeling a little paranoid because I was traveling alone, so I drove for probably a few miles until I found a spot that seemed a bit more secluded. I could see there were flowers nearby as I turned in for the night in the bed of the pickup shell. And the perfume from the dune evening-primrose was so intense that I spent the night with my sinuses all stuffed up. But I had only the barest inkling of the sight that was to greet me at dawn. I'm posting 2 shots: 1 just before sunup & the other just after.
When people talk about a wildflower bloom in the desert, you have to realize: it's very localized, keenly dependent on where there was a cloudburst or two, what the elevation and soil conditions are, etc. You'll drive for miles and miles with nary a petal, and then all of a sudden there'll be a patch like this. Up until now, I had just been following ranger station reports & online 'hotlines'. But this site I found all by myself, and that made it special.