Backpacking Joshua Tree, Part II

Photos from the weekend are in the gallery!

On Sunday morning, Jim set his cell phone alarm to get us up in time to take pictures of the sunrise in the desert. There was some discussion as to whether or not his phone had updated for the end of DST yet, but we decided since the phone had been off all afternoon it was unlikely. Thus we set the clock for what we thought was 6a the night before, and found when it went off the next morning that the sky was still pitch black. An hour later the alarm went of for a third time, and I saw the light in the east that we were looking for.

The sunrise from our camp was beautiful that morning, with just enough cloud cover to really bring out the colors. We ran around shooting for about 45 minutes, then ate breakfast, packed up, and hiked out. Without stopping for photos on the way out, we probably made it back to the car in about an hour. When we got to the car, we discovered that the phone had set itself back for the time change, and it was only 9:30a. This gave us plenty of time to mosey our way south out of the park, stopping to enjoy the various views around the park.

Despite the icky traffic, we made it back to Orange County around 3p that afternoon. Grabbed In-N-Out Burger in the afternoon (gotta love the animal-style fries!), dropped off the rental car at the airport and caught the shuttle to our hotel for the conference. It was kind of fun getting to the swank Newport Beach Hyatt covered in dirt and sweat, and watching the sand pour out of my shoes and pants cuffs as I stripped for my shower that night. Heh heh, it’s always good to have some fun in the desert!!