In the soft glow after sunset in Joshua Tree National Park, a lone, perfect Bansai-esque California Juniper basks in the summer heat next to an oddly upright geologic obelisk, the type of rock monument that would be so bizarre anywhere else but fits right in with the rest of the surreality of JTNP. This tree isn’t tall, probably of average human height, but I get the sense that it is quite old, the gnarled trunk and bark giving this impression, like it has wanted to grow bigger and more unfettered but the hard rock layers above having decided to prevent this.
It’s a beautiful, well sculpted little tree, and the whitish features you see are small berry-like cones that hold a single seed each. This specimen and the rock tower are quite the natural juxtaposition: two impressive features within 10 meters of each other. Either of these two could make for a cool photo subject in and of themselves, so it was a blessing to find them both together, and their presence underneath the unfettered desert skies devoid of light pollution allows the Milky Way to shine down, crystalline and pure.