New spot!  When I was preparing last week’s post, I had originally thought about just adding all these images to that photo essay, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to just do these images from Kelso Dunes in its own post – so here we are!  The landscape out at the dunes is so different from that of Joshua Tree that I hope you agree, it warrants a dedicated post.

Kelso Dunes is about a 2 hour drive from where I typically stay when I’m visiting Joshua Tree.  I happened to pass by it on my way to Joshua Tree from Las Vegas, and honestly, the more I looked at it as I was driving, the more I wanted to come back and check it out.  I took note of the name as I passed, and then went back on my last full day of the trip.

If you know me, you know I do a fair amount of hiking.  I’ve done some pretty terrible hikes over the years, but honestly, this one takes the cake.  Horrible.  When walking around in Joshua Tree, the sand typically has enough of a crust on top of it, that it’s more like walking on hard ground, than walking on the beach.  Sometimes your foot will break through, which is really annoying, but for the most part, it’s not hard walking.  Kelso Dunes, on the other hand, was like your worst day at the beach! The main dune is about 800 feet tall, and the closer you get to it, the taller it feels.  What makes is difficult is for every step you take, it feels like you slide back a half step.  For parts of the ascent, you also have to kick your toe into the dune so you can get traction to take a step up, again, only to slide back some.  It was like an epic session on the Stair Master!  For all the effort, however, the views were absolutely stunning!  Seriously, like nothing I’d ever seen here in the US – or really anywhere else for that matter.  The scenes definitely conjure up thoughts of Africa or the Middle East, at least for me anyway!

While I was hiking / climbing the dunes, there was only one other person who happened to be there.  For the image above, I thought he added a real since of scale as he descended, and I liked the human element for the image as well.  Below are several more images I captured while I was in the park and as the sun set.

Hope you enjoy!  More next week,

Dan

–Dan Thompson