Joshua Tree Trip Report – April 17-19, 2009
Last April, I visited Joshua Tree National Park with about a dozen of my closest friends. We hiked through a desert in bloom. We found a few desert inhabitants that we had not seen before. At night, we laughed around a campfire while roasting hot dogs and making s’mores. We laid out on large boulders and enjoyed the expansive starry night. It was a very memorable trip. Anyone following this blog knows that I’ve become a desert rat since that April trip, having returned many times. Early this year, in fact, I resolved to go to the Mojave Desert every weekend in the month of April, hoping to catch some of that magic again.
I’m happy to report that the magic was back in the desert last weekend!
It wouldn’t be an easy task for me to explain the greatness of the weekend. Even superlatives won’t be able to express the awesomeness of the experience. Nonetheless, the weekend will be referenced for years to come by me and my two friends who were there to experience the magic. For Nathan, this was the first trip to the area and he’s already to go back within the month. For Peter, this was his second journey to the park. The first trip was so memorable, he brought his girlfriend with him this time. While we sat atop a 70-foot boulder and watched the sun set over Pleasant Valley, he got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend. She said yes.
Joshua Tree NP is for all types of lovers, especially nature lovers. It has taken many years of searching, but this would be the trip where I photographed my first (and second) desert tortoise. I also photographed the beautiful punctate bear beetles with its iridescent green pronotum and yellow elytron. Two of them, in fact! We joked on Sunday morning that the only way this weekend could get any better is if we found a rattlesnake… and we did!
Here are a few of my favorite nature photos from the weekend:
A juvenile blister beetle (Nemognatha lurida) rests on a leafy-stemmed coreopsis (Coreopsis calliopsidea).
A short-horned grasshopper (Acrididae) perfectly blends into the gravel of a wash.
I watched this cricket hunter wasp (Chlorion aerarium) efficiently and quickly dig a burrow into the desert. I sat just outside of its burrow, where it brought out earth, increasing the size of its underground home. It would use its specialized mandibles to grip and carry gravel, some pieces as big as itself.
While searching for desert tortoises, I came across two cactus bees (Diadasia opuntiae) seemingly fighting over territory: a hedgehog cactus flower (Echinocereus engelmannii). They fought long enough for me to switch lenses on my SLR camera. (View the slideshow at the end of this post to see a macro shot of this fight.)
Sadly, this southwestern speckled rattlesnake (Crotalus mitchellii pyrrhus) is dead. We witnessed its demise after unsuccessfully trying to save it from being run over by vehicles as it tried to cross a paved road. After it was run over while curled, Nathan and I used a stick to move it into the desert. We watched as it violently writhed for about ten seconds, its mouth wide open and bleeding, before it stopped moving forever. Even though it has the means of killing me in about an hour, I still felt sad when it died.
My first encounter with a desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). This beautiful creature didn’t mind our presence and walked by us and into this shaded spot under a boulder to escape the afternoon sun.
This is the second desert tortoise we met in the park. Like us, it was hiking through an area north of Skull Rock. It too didn’t seem to mind the four of us taking photos and video of it, a good sign that it hasn’t been threatened by humans, thus has not become fearful of humans. Either that, or its a diva tortoise looking to get a break in Hollywood.
I got to use my butterfly net for the first time on this trip, something I’ve owned for over a year. My first and third swing of the net EVER captured these flying beauties, punctate bear beetles (Paracotalpa puncticollis). Since I’m a bug shutterbug and not a bug collector, I released both after taking photos of them – including photos of one flying away! (see the gallery below)
Here’s more photos from my trip. Please post a comment if you can help identify any of the insects:
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Peter
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Nathan