Bees

Arch Rock, Joshua Tree National Park

I wanted that beer. 

I'm not a big drinker, but I'd been hiking into the hills around my campsite at California's  Joshua Tree National Park to photograph an arch rock at sunset and on the way back I was thinking about beer.  Before I left I took the cooler out of the car and put it in the shade with a wet towel over it.  I was aiming for evaporative cooling, river-trip style.

I forgot to consider that, in a dry environment, wildlife wants refreshment, too.  I came around that last corner and saw that the cooler was adorned with hundreds of bees.  I used an extended tripod leg to lift and move the towel, but most of the bees remained.

Not an irrevocable tragedy, I know.  It got fully dark, the bees went away, I ate and drank in the moonlight.

Cholla Garden Sunrise, Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree, otherwise, was fabulous.  I spent a fair amount of time rock climbing there in the 80s and so was excited to come back with my camera and to have some shoulder season solitude in a magical place.  I got all that and giant granite boulders, otherworldly vegetation and sweet light.

Joshua Tree and Granite Slab

I got what I needed, just like the bees did.

More JT images are in the Desert Gallery on the website (the last nine).

PS - I didn't plan two posts "the Bird" and "Bees."  Really.