A spiritual place, some call it, quiet, peaceful, astonishing, beautiful, Joshua Tree is a one-of-a-kind region on Earth. Some friends and I took a trip to this amazing location and took a journey that one much experience.
Starting in Las Vegas, and a little fun at the casinos, we drove to Joshua Tree via the Mojave Desert but not before we stopped and hiked in Red Rock Canyon. Quite different from Joshua Tree, there was a serene quietness in the valley.
Quiet in Chicago is still noisy. Quiet in most places still has a buzz — a water heater, the sound of a distant car, wind whistling over a roof. But in Red Rock Canyon, there is nothing but the sound of silence. Perhaps one might hear a stone tumble down a distant rock face or a breeze rustle the branches of a tree but stand still for only a moment is one will know for a moment how quiet the Earth can be.
It is addictive — to stand in stillness, surrounded by quiet creatures, and awash in silence.
A premonition of things to come, we continued the journey south through the Mojave. There are a few obligatory stops along the way. The highway itself is unique—a single vector through a sloping desert. Mountains in the distance, shrubs and cacti nearby, and sometime the Moon makes its appearance in the sky like one might see standing on an alien world.
As we approached Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms, the greetings of anticipation of a new adventure was in the air. There is a feeling like one might get standing outside an amusement park waiting to get in. Lights, sounds, shops, and cars scatter the landscape.
But this is all temporary. As we journeyed into the park, the entrance was like a portal to somewhere else. The silence and alien world returns, cellular signal diminishes, and the rest of the world seems distance. Even the passage of time seems to change. Time no longer mattered as we made our way through the Joshua Tree.
