I took this photo from a very high vantage point. But actually these waterfalls were pretty high. (I took this in the midst of a truly horrid drought, so water levels were extremely low.) Despite appearances, these falls were about seventy feet in height.
This was part of a truly vast wind farm that covers miles and miles and miles of territory in and around Desert Hot Springs.
My first look at some truly big western mountains. Not the biggest ones, of course, but some of the larger peaks around southern California. Bigger, of course, than anything we have here in the Southeastern USA.
Obligatory photo at the park entrance sign.
Carole walking along the trail to Barker Dam. 
Beside the little lake. The first time that it's had water in over a year, according to the park ranger we spoke to.
Carole took this one of me at the dam itself. 
Ancient petroglyphs at a rocky overhang along the trail.
I had to have a portrait taken with one of the Joshua trees.
And of course Carole could not keep me from scrambling up on the boulders and rocks.
One of the few wild animals we saw in the park. These little ground squirrels were begging for food at the Keys Point overlook. We didn't feed them anything.
Detail of a Cholla cactus. I was careful not to get stuck.
A self-portrait I took on one of my lone hikes while Carole waited at the trailhead.
The well-named Split Rock where we stopped to have a picnic lunch.
Carole took this one of my just before we left the park. There was a vast grove of these plants at the flat lands below the higher country in the northern part of the park.
This was in a canyon area near Barker Dam. Wonderful scenery and lots of the Joshua Trees for which the park is named.
I took this one from a ledge above Keys Point, the highest spot to which you can drive in the park (about 5,100 feet above sea level). The San Andreas fault is plainly visible in the flatlands far below.
This is Ryan Mountain, the only mountain that I was able to hike in the park. On a cool day it's an easy 1.5 mile hike to the summit.
A huge rock formation on the flank of Mount Ryan.
View along the road as we entered the southern and much drier section of the park.
This was a vast stand of Cholla cactus. The woman who described these plants to us at the visitors center had both Carole and me scared witless of them by the time we reached the trail through the cholla cactus garden. We hiked through it, but were pretty careful along the way. We avoided the spines.
Not long before we got to the end of our drive. The scenery was hideously arid.
Carole hiking toward a moist area of the park that supports a small oasis. There is a spring here which doesn't quite reach the surface, but which provides enough moisture for these enormous California fan palms.
This was the last spot where we stopped before leaving the park. If I go back, I've vowed to climb the mountain on the left of the photo.
One of the most common fossils are of Dire wolves. This is a display consisting purely of dire wolf skulls.
And this is how they process the excavation. A block of tar/earth is hacked out of the ground and raised to the surface where the fossils are carefully worked free of the matrix. I was impressed at the size of the blocks of tar that are being hauled out of the deep excavation areas.
Fossil skeletons of a mature and an immature mastodon pulled out of the pits.
A short-faced bear. These were huge. They were the largest bears ever known. They're extinct, now, except for the closely related Spectacled bear of South America which is much, much smaller and also in danger of extinction due to human encroachment on its range. Behind the bear skeleton is that of a full grown extinct horse for a size comparison.
Here I am with a life-size sculpture of a fully grown Short-face bear. Yes, they were enormous predators. They were likely very fleet runners with long legs.
An exterior shot of the Page Museum. Highly recommended and only a $7 admission fee for adults! What a deal!
Watch where you step! Not poop, but upwellings of asphalt/tar can be found in the lawn around the museum.
In order from far left, front row (seated): Ray Bradbury, Norman Corwyn, George Clayton Johnson, John Shirley. Back row (standing) Unknown dude who had nothing to do with the anthology, James Robert Smith (in red shirt), Jason Brock (editor/publisher), Cody Goodfellow, John Tomerlin, Lisa Morton, Earl Hamner Jr., William F. Nolan (waving).
Don't ask!
Don't Tell! 
Capt. Lecter. I took this photo from a very high vantage point. But actually these waterfalls were pretty high. (I took this in the midst of a truly horrid drought, so water levels were extremely low.) Despite appearances, these falls were about seventy feet in height.
The first time I saw Sandy Dennis was in the movie UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE. I don't know what it was about her, but even at that age (I couldn't have been more than nine or ten) I found her very attractive. She set the stage for my attraction to quirkier women.
A woman of the 1960s and early 70s who I thought was a truly beautiful woman was Susan George. My pals at the time thought that I was crazy. "She has bad teeth!" and "Her eyes are weird!" Or similar comments would ensue if I mentioned how good looking I thought she was. So I began to keep my thoughts to myself. She was a real beauty to my way of thinking.
Joan Greenwood was another actress I first saw when I was really young. But again, whatever it was about her, she pretty much pushed all my buttons and closed all my circuits. I found everything about her completely hot--her voice, the way she moved, the delivery of her lines. Yeah, I think I wanted to bone her before I knew what that meant.
Barbara Harris is an actress that I found completely attractive. Not in the way one finds Claudia Cardinale attractive. But in a more subtle manner. She's always interesting to watch and she sometimes makes my heart melt.
I suppose Karen Black comes the closest to the model of classical beauty of all of my favorite actresses of my youth. I never had to deal with howls of derision from my buddies if I mentioned that I reckoned that she was hot. I've never figured out if she's all that great an actress, though. I was generally too busy thinking about how good looking she was. Plus, she made a lot of really crummy films. But what a babe.
Steve McQueen, the #1 tough guy in all of Hollywood history, as far as I'm concerned. Certified cool.
You had to like Lee Marvin. He really was a Marine and got shot in the ass by machine gun fire in Saipan. Most of his platoon was killt, but not Marvin. Yeah, that's tough.
Hell. Anthony Quinn. He was siring babies when he was in his seventies. And playing the great god Zeus around that time. It fit. As a young man he boxed professionally to earn extra money and was friends with Frank Lloyd Wright. Well, shit! It just cain't get much cooler than that!
Jack Palance. Yeah, one tough bastard. He was once 15-0 as a heavyweight pro boxer with 12 knockouts. He finally lost a close decision to a ranked contender and called it quits and was drafted. Burned in a training accident as a paratrooper, he had reconstructive surgery on his face which left him with the gaunt look we came to know on screen. The funniest thing I ever saw in a movie was a fight between him (as Toriance) and Charlton Heston (as Ed Bannon)--we were supposed to believe that Cheston could beat Palance. Right. For Palance, that was some real acting.
Well, I have to include a couple of modern actors. I don't think I need to elaborate too much here with Nick Nolte. Shit. Yeah, we've all had a laugh at his arrest mug shot. OK, OK--it's funny. But nobody as honest as this guy can be anything other than a total badass. He's got my vote for that. Damned good actor, too.
Sean Penn is not only one of our great modern actors, he's also got a toughness that's not just projected. It's real. Has to be. It takes guts to go against the grain of the status quo, which he does frequently. Viva Chavez, baby!
