Joshua Trees at Dawn

Joshua Trees, Joshua Trees, Joshua Trees, Joshua Trees. It's not a cactus, it's a tree.

We keep driving in this beautiful region that inspires so many people; in the sixties this was the hangout place of many many musicians; Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones and Gram Parsons of the Byrds used to smoke joints here and drink, while they were searching the sky- and starlight for UFO's. I decided to camp here for the night and do exactly the same thing. Sleeping in the open sky is not new to me, we did it the night before at the banks of the Colorado River in Needles, but this time we were in the desert, no water, no electricity, only sand, grass, rocks and.. Joshua Trees. It scared me at first, as deserts make you think of creepy creepers as Scorpions, Snakes and other crawly sneekers.
But it was actually a wonderful night; didn't get much sleep though, because of the lack of electric light in the area, the stars where amazing. I could imagine the earth as one little dustparticle in this giant universe with milkyways, supernova's, stars and suns, planets and.. UFO'S. It's just so hard to close your eyes, when you are impressed every time you open them.

Waking up with the sun is in a way reassuring, it comforts you. The warmth embraces you like a campfire on a hot summer night, you wake up with the odd sight of the arm of a Joshua Tree right in front of your face. Strange, but funny. Then you realize where you are, suddenly. I'm in the desert. I'm in this beautiful piece of art, where I happened to stumble in, this wonderful scope of nature that inspires you in every way. California here we come.