Joshua Trees - BLInspirations

This post is one of a series about our trip to Arizona and California spanning this past New Year’s holiday. For an overview of our trip and links to other posts, please see 2018/2019 Western Trip.

From Phoenix, we drove to Joshua Tree National Park (near Palm Springs in southeastern California). During our first day there, we were able to drive a short way into the park through the West Entrance (near Yucca Valley) before dark.

There are two distinct deserts in Joshua Tree National Park, the higher elevation Mojave Desert in the north and west portions of the park, and the lower elevation Colorado Desert in the southeast part of the park. The Joshua Tree (a member of the lily family) is native to the arid southwestern United States, where it is confined mostly to the Mojave Desert in elevations between 1,300 and 5,900 ft. Although Joshua Trees may grow to nearly 50 ft. tall, most that we saw probably did not exceed 15 or 20 feet. The trunk consists of thousands of small fibers and lacks annual growth rings, making it difficult to determine a tree’s age. The first impression of a Joshua Tree is that it is top-heavy. At the end of each stout branch are bunches of dagger-like leaves.

In the park, Joshua Trees are found both as individuals and in stands. Many of the trees in stands appear to be about the same size and they are fairly uniformly distributed over the area, almost as if they were planted in rows, even though they are propagated naturally. There are several photographs of stands of Joshua Trees in the Additional Images section below, as well as photographs of individual trees.

For additional information about the Mojave Desert, please see https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/nature/deserts.htm.