Nature Corner

This is a funny-looking tree I found in the Southern California desert wastelands. (You can click to enlarge these slides.)

This is a view from the western border of the appropriately-named Joshua Tree State Park, where you find a mess of Joshua Trees. I should have read about Joshua trees on the Internet before posting this photo, though ... this entry could have probably been thought out a little better.

Let's see ... oh, this is Yucca Valley, up the road north of Joshua Tree State Park. It was a windy, 20-degree December morning. I waited 27-and-one-half minutes for the shot, like those disciplined Victorian-era photograhers in the wilderness with those huge box-shaped cameras, and a black drape over their heads (to keep them warm out here?) used to do it. My frozen finger broke clean off when I snapped the shutter - sewn back on with low-gauge fishing line - but a really decent photo came from this painful experience, so it was worth it. You have to love nature, even when it nearly destroys you, and I've had numerous hair-raising experiences in the wild.

Joshua Trees. Don't get too close, because they can be mean. One of them nearly ripped me apart, though you don't often read of the fatalities that must occur out here, at least I haven't.

- Nature Hunter