After trona--in the high desert--I went down to the equally desolate Salton Sea--in the low desert. the differences between the high and low desert are really only apparent to ecologists, physical geographers and geologists. it looks the exact to any other observer including myself. the transition of the high to low desert occurs at the very lovely joshua tree national park:
after i took the pic above i accidently knocked over my tripod and broke my GND filter so I had to make HDR pics which I dont like doing. if you google image search for HDR images you see a lot of overstylized pics to the point where they dont even look real. i generally hate that kind of photography but i think these came out alright. some you cant even tell they are hdr
not hdr
but hdr or no hdr, the colors were rich. no enhancement here, the sunsets out here are truly brilliant
at this point about 12 cars had pulled over to take shots of the sky colors. one guy felt the need to put on U2's Joshua Tree as this was happening. normally i'd roll my eyes at this, but I was happy at least some people were enjoying nature and reveling in it in their own way.
and thats not to mention the fantastic star show joshua tree puts on at night. joshua tree is a mecca for southern californian star gazers. im' still figuring out how to take night shots so I didn't get a lot of pics of the sky at night.
sunrises are not to be outdone either. cholla cacti:
