An Evening in Joshua Tree
An explosion of color.
That’s what greeted me after hours of waiting at the top of Key’s View: a scenic overlook near the southwest part of Joshua Tree National Park. A long and winding roadway gets you to a circular parking lot, with a slightly steep walkway to an observation perch at the top of the hill. I got there early so I could set up my cameras and roll a Timelapse of the evening as it approached. I’ve been to Joshua Tree four times now, and the sunsets never disappoint.
There comes a moment where, just as the sun starts to dip below the mountains in the distance, hues of almost all kinds seem to jump out at you and color the landscape. Reds and oranges certainly, but yellows, blues, browns, and even shades of purple make the mountain range and the underlying Coachella Valley alive and vibrant. And just as soon as that moment arrives and you drink it in as much as possible… it starts to leave. Rainbows coalesce into oranges and reds, darkness starts to creep up from the valley floor to meet the sun at the top of the ridge, and just like that… evening starts to turn into night.
Driving back to the hotel, the warm desert breezes turn cool, and invite you to open your car windows and drink it in. You might even start to chill a bit as the desert environment sheds the heat and chilly air rustles through the Joshua tree branches and rock formations that form the area. Blue and grey shadows start turning to black, the trees rise up from the horizon and cast jagged silhouettes against the sky, as night continues to race across the ground.
Small taillights in front of you show the way forward; a 21st Century “wagon train” navigating the rocks and sand. An empty ranger station tells you to slow down, although no one is there to bid you farewell. At that point, night has firmly ensconced itself in the area and you are no longer in the park: the lights of the nearby town suddenly sparkle in the distance like a rolling carpet of stars. And while driving towards them reveal that they are not so much stardust as they are the local bar or fast food joint, you linger at the top of the hill, to try and keep the illusion alive. And then... you drive on.
