• A Joshua Tree and amazing rocks

• Wildflowers in the desert

• We walked the Hidden Valley Trail

• A yucca (lower right)

• The Joshua Tree is a variety of yucca. They don't branch out until after they have flowered the first time.

• Pinyon Pine

• This guy is about 4-to-5 inches long.

• From Hidden Valley, we drove to an overlook atop the ridge of the Little San Bernadino Mountains that form the southwestern border of Joshua Tree National Park. It is called Keys View.

• Kathy, Brian, and Jeff at Keys View

• Brian at Keys View

• Brian at Keys View

• From Keys View, we could see across the Coachella Valley from the Salton Sea in the southeast, past Palm Springs in the south, to Mount San Jacinto (the snow-capped mountain in this photo), in the southwest.

• Looking southeast from Keys View to the Salton Sea.

• Looking over the Coachella Valley and Palm Springs from Keys View

• Mount San Jacinto

• Mount San Jacinto, across the Coachella Valley from Keys View

• Salton Sea on the far left

• Looking west at San Gorgonio Mountain. At 11,500 ft., it is the highest in Southern California.

• San Gorgonio Mountain

• San Gorgonio Mountain

• Kathy, Brian, and Jeff at Cap Rock

• Kathy, Brian, and Jeff at Cap Rock

• A Joshua Tree forest

• Skull Rock

• Skull Rock

• Brian at Skull Rock

• Split Rock

• An up-close view of a granite boulder

• Jumping Cholla

• Brian, Kathy, and Jeff entering the Oasis of Mara (Maara') loop walk