Last weekend was my first trip to Joshua Tree. A couple friends and I did a quick one night trip to check out the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. This celestial firework show appears every August as the Swift-Tuttle comet goes by.
We made good time on our drive and arrived at about 10pm at night. Driving past the few first viewing areas we pulled into a semi full multi parking lot area. The night sky on a regular night is clear and amazing without the lights from the city. I heard that during the Northridge earthquake, when all the power was off, Los Angelinos had called the police in a panic asking what all the lights in the sky were. Get out into nature, it’s much more amazing then we think!
We sat for about 4 hours, meteors would like up the sky every 3-4 minutes drawing “oohs” and “ahhs” from the crowds like a giant firework show. Some lighting up the whole night sky for a second or two. We left at about 2:30AM and ended up getting back to L.A. at about 5:30 AM.
In the future I would have liked to get there earlier and and at least planned to camp until later in the morning. It was an awesome time and a great excuse to get out into a bit more of a natural environment.
My friend was able to take some pictures which she graciously allowed me to post below.
