TALKING TO ALIENS IN THE MOJAVE DESERT - JOSHUA TREE PHOTOGRAPHER

Hey what’s up guys? I took this trip to the JT years ago, and never blogged about it. Lately I’ve been digging into my old hard drives and re-editing the old photos with fresh Dawndra eyes. I’m a whole different person now, and along with that my style changes.

Did you know the Joshua Tree IS NOT A TREE! It’s actually a yucca plant and is in the the same subgroup that includes flowering grasses and orchids. It grows primarily in the Mohave Desert, which includes Joshua Tree National Park, but you can also sometimes find them in the Sonoran Desert, hanging out with the Saguaro cactus. They are a slow mover, growing just 1-3″ per year. Based upon that growth rate, some researchers think that the average lifespan for the tree is 150 years. Cool right?

So what makes the Joshua Tree Such a magical place? Why is the VIBE so great? Is it the energy of the land combined with the peoples energy that it typically attracts like nature lovers, spiritual people, or four cool chicks looking for a good time like us? It’s actually a dark sky national park, the sky is unpolluted by the unnatural lights of a city. It’s strangely beautiful- and I would even call it otherworldly. Maybe it’s because it’s been “touched” by “others.” Which is possibly why I could not stop talking about aliens while we were there on this trip the entire time. We basically asked them to abduct us. I was just hoping they would let me keep my camera while I was on the ship.

Did you say “trip?” Oh, well now that you mention it, I did take a small amount of mushrooms during this visit. And we went to the Integratron, which looks like an alien space ship. Or like a drawing of one.

So there I was in the Mojave Desert, seeing galaxies and wolves and questioning my life decisions inside an ELECROSTATIC GENORATOR called the INTEGRATRON while some woman playing crystal bowls that were singing to my chakras. I FELT that.

My friend Chili found it so relaxing that she fell asleep and started to snore.

This Integratron is basically the magnum opus of an old man who thought he was an alien mouthpiece. George Van Tassel — author, aircraft engineer and “ufologist” — built the integratron with the intention of generating electricity to “charge the human body” and extend human life. 

“Take us with you” we would say looking at the sky. Maybe when you are looking for aliens they don’t show up. Maybe they only show up for the non believers. I for one, believe.

It was here in the cactus garden that our rental car actually FILLED UP WITH BEES. WTF? I love bees. They are the coolest little creatures, but this was a problem as we needed to get back in the car to leave. That was a whole thing, basically Hope saved the day by getting in the car and driving around with them as they flew out. Then we realized if you roll the window up, they try hard to get out- then roll it down and they leave.

NOBODY got stung. One even flew in mu boot when I was shooting this photo. See, JT has a good vibe. The bees knew we loved them.

Thank you Joshua Tree! I can’t wait to get back there to you! And thank you to these three beautiful witches who put up with me being absolutely obsessed with making photos. These gals worked hard to make some art with me and I am forever grateful.