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By Johnny, February 18, 2009 11:46 pm

Over the Valentine’s Day weekend a group of us decided to go camping instead of wasting our time waiting in line for an open table at our favorite restaurant. We opted to visit the Joshua Tree National Park. This gave me an opportunity to use my tent. I bought this thing over 6 years ago and never had a chance to use it. It only cost me $20 at the time and I was wondering how that quality would hold up in the cold desert nights.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and was immediately welcomed by our friends who had food ready for us to eat. Talk about getting the royal treatment. After the quick meal, we scoped out our site and I setup our make-shift shelter for the night. It was an easy setup and I was done withing 15 minutes.

The temperature dipped down to the low 30s when we hit the sack around 10:30PM. Thank goodness for the mummy sleeping bag we each had. It kept us warm the whole night. Only the part that was exposed suffered through the cold night which was mainly our nose.

In the morning, we indulged in more food. We practically ate all day and night. After breakfast, we ended up driving into the park and visit the Hidden Valley area for a quick hike to Barker Dam. There, we scaled rocks and boulders and witnessed a dried out dam. Saw lots of natural desert vegetation including the famous Joshua Trees of the area. After the hike we had a brief lunch and made our way to a beautiful look-out of the Joshua Tree valley. The temperature fell 11 degrees as we proceeded up. Snow lined the side of the road as we approach the look-out point. It was an amazing view, but the cold got the best of us so we quickly hauled ass out of there and back to our campsite.

Looking like it might rain, everybody opted to go home that night after a quick dinner and gathering around the camp fire. When that was said and done, we left around 8PM. I didn’t get back home till about 10:30. I was exhausted but was satisfied with the escape to nature. Can’t wait to camp again this year!