We made our two stops at Grand Canyon West and headed back for the two-hour ride to Las Vegas. The tour guide had an unexpected bonus for us. We stopped by a small park packed with Joshua Trees.

I was snapping these alien-like trees from the van as we sped along — imperfect in their composition and image quality. I was glad we got to stop and appreciate them up close.

I looked for a dense patch and framed a mountain between two foreground trees. The late afternoon cast long shadows. I like the color and monochrome versions of the same image, so I feature both.

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