Joshua Tree National Park

Yesterday I went to Joshua Tree National Park with my friend Sean. It was pretty cool and as we did it on a whim, neither of us had a real camera to capture our "bouldering" which is apparently different then rock climbing, though the outcome (me huddle on a rock crying that I'm not ready to come down) is probably the same in either instance. While we were out we saw several rattlesnakes (one was very scary since it was near us on the path), many different lizards, jackrabbits (who don't care if you're barreling towards them, they were there first), a roadrunner, desert chipmunks, and my favorite, Big Horned sheep. The sheep were so cool because they were on the top of this big rock way above us and I couldn't even begin to understand how they got up there. Sean and I were staring up at them and the sheep were staring down at us and we were laughing that they were probably like "look at the two of them down there. They are so graceful in this environment. Look how they walk on two legs...they are just amazing." I guess it was funnier if you were really dehydrated but we had a blast. Its the most fun I've had doing activities I hate in a long time. I was pretty proud of myself too, I certainly wasn't dressed for the excursion. Luckily I'd worn my Teva sandals and was able to do the "bouldering" with little problem. A couple of times, Sean would just sort of make crazy jumps and I'd explain that just a thin strip of velcro was all that was holding me on particular rock. Hooray for Tevas!

Hopefully all of you will find the humor in the above picture. We drove past this rattlesnake and then backed up to get a closer view. It was rattling and angry. Then it stopped. And apparently we thought throwing change in its general direction would cause it to react in someway. (We did not try to hit it, but I do regret throwing money at an animal) It didn't but I think in the end the snake won because it got 37 cents out of us. I didn't like littering, but it really didn't seem appropriate to try to get the money back while it was around the snake. It was scary!!

Ok, that's all I have to report. It was a really fun day and I was sorry it had to end. I wanted to stay and go camping, but I figured we'd probably need some form of shelter so our rattlesnake friend didn't plot revenge. No such luck so we called it a night. I most likely would have died of fright out there anyway, considering I'm scared of my own shadow, but it was a nice thought.