The desert is best seen by foot. Get out of the car or off your horse, walk or hike a bit, and you'll see hundreds, if not thousands, of wildflower varieties. Many of them are very small, as in the first photo, of pink, white and yellow flowers. The reddish-purple blossoms are Chia, a very important food source to the former Indian inhabitants here. A teaspoon of Chia seeds a day could sustain them as they traveled.

The next photo was taken in the Cholla (pronounced choy' yuh) Cactus Garden area of the park just as the Jumping Chollas (called that because the needles seem to jump into passersby) were about to bloom. YOU don't want to touch these plants. However, that's no problem for the Morning Dove in the next picture who built her nest in a Cholla in Yucca Valley. Her confidence that the Cholla would protect her from predators allowed me to take this closeup picture while she sat on her chicks.

The blooming Beavertail photo was taken with my camera by daughter-in-law Lachiel. The green Ocotilla (pronounced Aw kuh tee' uh) photo is just to show the rarely-seen green leaves on a plant that looks like a dead skeleton plant most of the year, and is used to make thorny fences.

For information about Joshua Tree National Park, visit their web site