Skull Rock
By Linda Morris
December 10, 2011
While visiting family in Los Angeles for the Thanksgiving holiday, we needed to come up with a plan to escape the city on "Black Friday." Taking a drive out to Joshua Tree seemed like a wonderful way to spend the day far from the maddening crowd of frenzied shoppers. After an easy 2.5 hour drive due east of LA, we arrived at what seemed like a distant galaxy, with a landscape comprised of not only the iconic namesake trees of the park itself, but also breathtaking, other-worldly rock formations that seemed more like carefully crafted, made-made sculptures, rather than accidental clumps of rocks that had been pushed up through the ground millions of years ago. The weather was glorious and we were all overwhelmed by the beauty and diversity of Joshua Tree. We learned that the park is comprised of two different deserts - the Mojave and the Colorado - each vastly different ecosystems from each other. This time our visit was in the Mojave section exclusively, but next time we hope to spend more than an afternoon, camping under the stars and exploring even more of this magnificent national park. One of our favorite rock formations was Skull Rock, close to the entrance of the park, unmistakably reminiscent of an actual skull. Can't wait to get back !
