How does every good story start? Well, if you ask me it starts with a trip into the wilderness to go to the bathroom. Truly, it's how I've begun some grand adventures.
Road trips are rife with bathroom emergency situations (especially if your name is Megan the Nautie Mermate).
Driving along I had to poo. Like baaaad. All of a sudden we see signs for Joshua Tree National Park. I basically did a hard left turn of I-10 because well: A NATIONAL PARK MUST HAVE A RESTROOM, RIGHT?!
We find ourselves on a long windy road quite a ways from the visitor center. I screetch over to the side of the road frantically take off my slippers and put on sneakers and trek into the sand to find a place to poo amongst the cacti. I didn't think I could make it to the visitor center...
My Mom is all, 'don't worry, no one will see you...'. I'm like...this is a road! There are no trees! Cacti! I can't squat! Aaaaaaah!!!!!!
So I ran back to the car jumped in the drivers seat and burned rubber for the visitor center (while my Mom chortled in the passenger seat).
Long story short. I made it.
Where the heck am I going with this? Well....during my trek into the sand I saw some really pretty flowers.
On our way out of the park I stopped to photograph some Cacti. That one stop led to many stops and now I've got a collection of some photos I love!
Poop Expedition turned Photo Safari. Of course.
Let me introduce you to the Cholla Cactus. The first of a few Desert Flowers I'll be sharing with you!
I think whats great about the Cholla Cactus is how phenomenally complex their skeletons are. They're equally gorgeous once they've passed on.
To be fair these Cholla Cacti don't have flowers on them right this second...but you can see some examples here.
What I didn't realize is that there are quite a few different types of Cholla. The ones I've photographed are Silver Cholla (I think).