We were only going to be here one night, so as soon as we met at the campsite, we took a hike up a mountain.
Grandpa Craig only made it about halfway up the mountain and took the picture on the left of the surrounding valley. On the right you can barely see CJ standing on a saddle rock part way to the summit. Caleb soon caught up with his dad and - while they couldn't get on top of the large rock - got pretty close.
After their extended climb, we see Caleb & CJ exiting the wash near the half-way point - Craig was waiting for them here.
Below is a little bit of the desert wildlife found in this area.
Once we returned to our campground Caleb decided he wanted to climb the smaller hill just behind us. The first shot is of the hill, the second is Caleb climbing up a crevasse, the third is him climbing out of the crevasse, and the final shot is as far as he was willing to climb.
As the sun dropped lower and lower, the full moon started to rise over the campsite adjoining us. For evening entertainment we walked down to the amphitheater in the dark and the ranger gave an interesting talk on all the species of life interacting in Joshua Tree National Park - all 1200 square miles of it. Then, the next morning before sunrise, the mountains seemed to have no depth. It just looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a single color and not much of a picture - very strange feeling that I wasn't able to fully capture with a camera..
