Mark and I are in southern California for ten days and after a day in Santa Monica and two days in Palm Springs, we met up with our friend Ken and drove to Joshua Tree National Park for a hike. Ken selected the Maze Loop, which is a lesser-known park trail and he was right: we only saw a single family of four the entire time we were there.
We saw many cacti on this hike, like teddy-bear chollas, jumping chollas and prickly pears but my favourites were these red barrels.
At times during the hike there was a chilly wind and I am glad Ken brought along long-sleeve shirts for us.
This snake crossed our path near the end of our hike