A few weeks ago, I made a trip to California to meet up with our daughter. The first day, I headed out along I-70 to reach Richfield, UT. This route crosses the San Rafael Swell, where there is some spectacular scenery. I made this image at one of the Rest Areas along the route.
The next day, I left early in the morning to head to Yucca Valley, CA. This city is located adjacent to the Joshua Tree National Park. After checking into the hotel, I headed into the park just before sunset. This image shows some of the typical plants that may be found among the granite hills. We can see Cholla, Yucca and Joshua Trees.
As the sun set lower in the sky, the spines on the Cholla light up to outline the limbs of the plant. I chose a monochrome black and white rendition for this image.
Here is another image that shows some more of this landscape before the sun set.
Along the park road, I found a large Joshua Tree at the roadside. In this image, I composed a silhouette of the tree, with the sun behind the tree’s trunk.
In this image, the sun had just set, but continued to light up some of the distant hills. I found a Yucca and nearby Joshua Tree to complete the composition.
In the above area of the park, there were grass fires that occurred several years ago. Perhaps, that contributed to the dead trunk of the Yucca?