Tuesday, November 28, 2006

National Parks Passport

After our Thanksgiving break in Palm Springs, K and I visited Joshua Tree National Park. I am generally not a huge fan of the desert, but certain desert landscapes have managed to enchant me over the years: the plentiful saguaro cacti at Saguaro National Park in Arizona, the red rocks outside of Santa Fe, and now the joshua trees and massive rockpiles at Joshua Tree.

We didn't spend too much time at the park since we got there as the day was fast losing light. (Did I mention I hate daylight savings time?) We did have the chance to hike the Hidden Valley trail loop and check out Keys View:

After that, we headed back to Highway 10 to return to L.A. However, earlier in the day, we stopped by the Joshua Tree Visitors Center, where I was able to complete my part of a chain that has been going on for awhile.
I have a National Parks Passport, which lists all of the National Parks and has designated pages for you to get a stamp at each visitor center. It's pretty fun, and while I doubt I'll ever collect every stamp, it's cool to see the stamps from each park you've visited. Anyway, I don't know where this started, but if you have one already and you visit a park with someone who doesn't, then you have to buy one for them. I got mine from my ex, who in turn got his from my friend, and this trip, I was able to buy one for Kip. Obviously, you can always just buy one, but it's much more fun this way.

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