I'd visited Joshua Tree a couple of times before, but always as a quick day trip. This was the first time I set aside real time to explore the park properly. I took the long Presidents' Day weekend and made a proper visit — and lucky for me, after a very wet winter, the skies cleared up and the weekend turned out sunny and dry.

The park was packed. I chatted with a ranger who had an interesting take on it — she thought the crowds had less to do with the holiday weekend and more to do with it being the first clear stretch of weather in a while. Hard to argue with that.