Working on an upgrade to Drupal so I'm rolling in some new features, including an easier way for me to include images in posts.

At the same time, of course, I've been working on a lot of new images, so I thought I'd give it a shot with a recent one. This is a unique view of Joshua Tree at night. What do you think?

Joshua Tree in a Small World
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In October we trekked back out to Joshua Tree for our first group camping of the year, in honor of Julia's birthday - camping was all she wanted to do. In typical SoCal fashion 5 people took 3 cars; I made it out hours before everyone else, setup camp, took some hikes and then got dinner ready. Eventually Julia and her parents arrived, but my mother was nowhere to be found - around 7pm Julia and I went out on the highway to check my voicemail and look for mom - she had missed the campsite and was apparently on her way home by that point. By the time we got back to camp however, she had found her way in and we all had a great time.

For images from other Joshua Tree trips click here.

Joshua Tree 2005-10-21 (Pano 1)
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Joshua Tree 2005-10-21 (Pano 2)
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Joshua Tree 2005-10-21 (Pano 3)
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Joshua Tree 2005-10-21 (Pano 4)
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Joshua Tree 2005-10-21 (Pano 5)
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Joshua Tree 2005-10-22 (Pano 1)
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Joshua Tree 2005-10-22 (Pano 2)
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Joshua Tree 2005-10-22 (Pano 3)
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Joshua Tree 2005-10-22 (Pano 4)
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Joshua Tree 2005-10-22 (Pano 5)
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Our first trip to Joshua Tree together, I had great photographic hopes, and even less common sense. After an incident with a bare foot and cholla cactus I didn't get all the shots I planned for, but we were inspired to come back nonetheless. The best part about this trip is that Joshua Tree in July is almost totally abandoned, given the 120 degree temperatures and lack of drinking water in the park - this means no tailgate partiers, and hundreds of thousands of acres nearly all to ourselves!

For more images from other Joshua Tree trips, click here.

Joshua Tree 2005-07-01 (Pano 2)
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Joshua Tree 2005-07-01 (Pano 3)
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Our first trip to Joshua Tree together, I had great photographic hopes, and even less common sense. After an incident with a bare foot and cholla cactus I didn't get all the shots I planned for, but we were inspired to come back nonetheless. The best part about this trip is that Joshua Tree in July is almost totally abandoned, given the 120 degree temperatures and lack of drinking water in the park - this means no tailgate partiers, and hundreds of thousands of acres nearly all to ourselves!

Joshua Tree, July 2005 (click image above for more from this trip)

Our second Joshua Tree expedition was in September - somewhat more mild weather, cooler evenings, and more people, but still ranks the park as one of my favorite sites in SoCal.

Joshua Tree, September 2005 (click image above for more from this trip)

In October we trekked back out to Joshua Tree for our first group camping of the year, in honor of Julia's birthday.

Joshua Tree, October 2005 (click image above for more from this trip)

Our second Joshua Tree expedition was in September - somewhat more mild weather, cooler evenings, and more people, but still ranks the park as one of my favorite sites in SoCal.

For images from other Joshua Tree trips click here.

Joshua Tree 2005-09-15 (Pano 1)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-15 (Pano 2)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-15 (Pano 3)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-15 (Pano 4)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-15 (Pano 5)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-15 (Pano 7)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-15 (Pano 9)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-15 (Pano 10)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-15 (Pano 11)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-16 (Pano 1)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-16 (Pano 2)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-16 (Pano 3)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-16 (Pano 4)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-16 (Pano 5)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-16 (Pano 6)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-16 (Pano 7)
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Joshua Tree 2005-09-16 (Pano 10)
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Beginning in 1964, visionary whacko Claude Bell set out to build something no one previously had known we needed - two of the largest man-made dinosaurs, situated conveniently off the 10 highwayy between Los Angeles and Palm Springs. Between their conception and his death in 1986 these things rose over the desert landscape, bringing weary travellers a reason to pull off the interstate, gawk for a few minutes, and then enjoy the bounty of nourishment from the adjacent truckstop diner, and eventually the Denny's and Burger King which still sustain this Thoracic Park.

Click here for an unscripted audio thought on the Cabazon Dinos.

Between music videos and the epic film "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" it seemed there was no end in sight for the pop-cultural impact of the monument; of course, the fundies had to ruin it. Now owned by an even bigger whacko and his partner whacko, this team of Orange County preacher and Orange County businessman is looking to turn the Cabazon Dinosaurs into the world's largest dinosaur-themed monument to "Intelligent Design" - aka, biblically literalist creationism. What's the tie-in you ask? Well, since evolution is a fraud, and the bible is the unvarnished and unedited truth, mankind must have shared this great blue-green sphere with dinosaurs, even going so far as to load them up on Noah's zoological cruise ship when the time came. No shit, people think this crap. But I digress. Apparently, instead of explaining the extinctio of dinosaurs in the slightly-more-plausible way by suggesting they died off in the flood, instead these assholes want us to believe men rescued little t-rex on a wooden raft 2000 years ago. So, really, that explains why Orange County fundamentalists want to turn a pop-culture icon into a biblical learning output.

Of course, don't take my word for it. Check out the official Cabazon Dinosaur site, and this handy FAQ at AnsweringGenesis.com

PS, for directions see Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.920063,-116.774497&spn=0.004603,0.007060&t=k&hl=en

Cabazon Dinosaurs 1.
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Cabazon Dinosaurs 2 - September 17, 2005
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Cabazon Dinosaurs 3 - September 17, 2005
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Cabazon Dinosaurs 4 - September 17, 2005
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