NO, NOT THE U2 ALBUM, BUT, YES, THE YUCCA IT’S NAMED AFTER
My wife and I were lucky to go on a camping trip in Joshua Tree National Park in May of 2019. It was a particularly stunning time to visit with wildflowers and cactus in full bloom. The jaw-dropping landscapes were punctuated with beautiful cloud formations and associated shadows.
Sometimes it almost feels like cheating to take photos of nature so beautiful. You really can’t go wrong here!
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Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) native to the Mojave Desert. Originally declared a national monument in 1936, Joshua Tree was redesignated as a national park in 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act.[4] Encompassing a total of 790,636 acres (1,235.4 sq mi; 3,199.6 km2)[2] – slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island – the park includes 429,690 acres (671.4 sq mi; 1,738.9 km2) of designated wilderness. Straddling San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation: the higher Mojave Desert and the lower Colorado Desert. The Little San Bernardino Mountains traverse the southwest edge of the park.[5]
On the evening after the first day’s shooting, Corbijn told the band about Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia), hardy and twisted plants in the deserts of the American Southwest, and he suggested their use on the sleeve.[1] Bono was pleased to discover the religious significance of the plant’s etymology;[79] according to Mormon legend, early settlers named the plant after the Old Testament prophet Joshua, as the tree’s stretching branches reminded them of Joshua raising his hands in prayer.[84] The following day, Bono declared that the album should be titled The Joshua Tree.[79] That morning,[80] while driving on Route 190 near Darwin, they spotted a lone-standing tree in the desert.[17] Corbijn had been hoping to find a single tree, as he thought it would result in better photographs than if he shot the band amongst a group of trees.[79] They stopped the bus and photographed with the lone plant for about 20 minutes, something the Edge called “fairly spontaneous”.[66] Despite shooting in the desert, the group dealt with cold weather during parts of the trip. Bono explained, “it was freezing and we had to take our coats off so it would at least look like a desert. That’s one of the reasons we look so grim.”[85] Regarding the serious tone of the images, Corbijn said, “I guess people felt they took themselves too seriously. It was definitely the most serious, I think, that you can photograph a band. You couldn’t go any further down that line unless you start photographing graves.”[31]