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California Trip - Day 6

Considering we spent the night in Yucca Valley, last night, it was a short jaunt to the Joshua Tree National Park.  This park, situated where the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet and transition, is representative of not only "Low Desert", the traditionally barren and uber-dry that most people think of, but also "High Desert", which tends to be moister and cooler, and thus contains more vegetation.

Afterwards, we proceeded to return to our hotel in Pasadena.  A scorcher of a day driving a little four cylinder car whose air conditioner was unable to keep up.  It was so nice to just enter the hotel room, let alone lie back for a few minutes and catch up email and what not.
In the early evening (before dark), we drove out to Griffith Observatory and met up with Mike Simmons, who gave us a little bit of a tour, after which we checked out a pair of planterium shows.  The shows were so-so, but the visuals were fantastic.

After the shows, we took some evening shots of the LA region, since Griffith Observatory is situated north of the city.  These will contrast nicely with the day time panoramic shots I took in the late afternoon.

Before leaving for the night, we went up to the East Observatory Dome on the site, and had a look at Jupiter through the 12" refractor.  Seeing was poor, but that's not surprising given the amount of light pollution and heat drafts from the city.