Skull rock.

Joshua Tree National Park.

Bouldering.

Nestled home….

Roadrunner, roadrunner…

Giants have been here, one thinks of Joshua Tree National Park.  The debris of their existence – boulders crashed and piled and sculpted into incomprehensible shapes – seems to prove that someone bigger once roamed this region.  Broken rocks are all that remain of their sudden, mysterious departure.  Unnatural.  Like the Mojave Desert that surrounds it, this landscape causes me to shrink a little each day…

The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It’s as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California. – John Steinbeck

(Brought to you by Where’s My Backpack: Travel Theme – Due to a website crash, this is last week’s theme)

Next stop on our Southwest American road trip: Tucson and Nogales, Arizona

Previous stops: the Mojave Desert and Joshua Tree National Park, California

• Las Vegas, Nevada and the Hoover Dam
• Zion National Park, Utah
• Lake Powell, Arizona, the Navajo Reservation and Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
• South Rim of the Grand Canyon
• Route 66, Holbrook and the Painted Desert, Arizona
• Sedona, Arizona