Ilya, Phoebe and I took Ken and Katie up to Joshua Tree yesterday; a sort of coup de grâce to complete their week-long visit to Los Angeles. As we departed from Echo Park the sky was cloudy, and I silently wondered whether the day would bring any good opportunities to look out over the desert and enjoy the scenery. How could it possibly exceed last month’s adventure? The car ride was filled with tunes by Pavement and Built to Spill, who afforded us the best sing-along potential, and are likely the two least-depressing artists available on my iPod.
We reached Joshua Tree shortly after 2pm, and headed straight for the Crossroads Cafe, which was recommended to Ilya on our last visit, but happened to be closed that day. This time it was open, so while Ken and Katie ate lunch, Ilya Internet’d and Phoebe and I amused ourselves with discarded scratch-off tickets and a game called “guess the condiment” where we closed our eyes, poured various condiments on each other’s fingers, and tested our senses of smell. When Ilya reminded me that I had an e-mail from a reader named Allyson who had written a really nice note offering various places to visit next time I was in Joshua Tree, I commandeered his laptop and found her message. She recommended an area of the park called Jumbo Rocks, and touted it as the best place to watch the sunset. We quickly piled into the car (after stopping for some bottles of wine, cheese and crackers), and headed for Jumbo Rocks.
Jumbo rock has the second-highest elevation of any campground in the park (4,400 ft.), and consists of countless beautiful formations. Everything is very spherical and the rocks are remarkably smooth. This made it easy to climb most of the cliffs in the area. We started on a fairly tall (but easy to scale) rock that had a very flat pinnacle. We ran around, took some pictures, tried unsuccessfully to open a bottle of wine, and lamented the fact that we didn’t have our Farkle dice (images of wild “Insta-Farkles,” with dice rolling off crags into gaping crevices left us bitterly — but giddily — disappointed).
Phoebe had the brilliant idea to try and climb a neighboring rock that looked much more treacherous than the one on which we were currently stationed. She descended alone and ran to check its potential before yelling up that it was okay for me to climb down. Brazenly, stupidly, I decided I was going to attempt to descend down the far side of the rock we were on, instead of returning along the original path. This lead to my getting trapped in a very tight space, hanging maybe forty feet above the ground by my hands and feet. It was the not the closest I came to greeting death all day (that came when I accidentally stepped into a hole while walking the edge of a cliff), but the potential to inflict grave bodily harm was quite good. I eventually found my way down, meeting Phoebe and Ilya once I was back on solid ground. We began ascending the next rock. It was much tougher and posed some tricky obstacles (jumping small distances over gaps between rocks), but we eventually made it to the top. Also, Phoebe had a bit of a panic attack near the top. The summit was incredible. We called for Ken and Katie to join us, but the wind was growing more intense, so we remained incommunicado for an extended period of time. After yelling loudly enough to get their attention, the pair joined us atop the new cliff.
Not only would it be impossible for me to render the sunset for you in words, the pictures that Katie took (which will take a few weeks to arrive in my inbox, I imagine) would still pale in comparison to the sights we were granted for those fifteen or twenty minutes before the sun finally disappeared from view. What began as a distant orange glow along the tops of distant mountains suddenly transformed into a jaw-dropping color and light show that spanned the entire three-hundred and sixty degrees of horizon that surrounded us. Ilya described it as trying to watch TV while continually manipulating the color, tint, brightness and sharpness controls. The sky turned from deep red to deep blue in the span of ten seconds. A full rainbow formed before our eyes and spread across the entire expanse of sky above our heads. The rocks below turned an eerie shade of red. The sky above moved from blue to orange to purple. I speak without hyperbole when I say it might have been the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed. We were all momentarily transported to another world.
Everything after that sunset paled in comparison. I spent the rest of the night trying to re-imagine what I’d seen. It proved — and it continues to prove — to be futile. I think we’re all anxiously awaiting slightly warmer weather so we can make our next trek out to the desert.
