Dear Joshua Tree, are you on another planet?

A Joshua Tree….in Arizona!

Okay science fiction fans, this post is for you.  Have you ever noticed in your favorite Sci-Fi series that often times when intrepid explorers visit other planets, all of said planets are at Joshua Tree National Park?  Seriously, Joshua Tree pops up in so many science fiction flicks it isn’t funny.  It hit me this weekend as I watched a few episodes of Firefly (in honor of Jodi’s trip to Comicon 2015) that Joshua tree popped up in that series too.

Captain Sisko from Deep Space 9 dug through the sand for the orb of the emissary there, the folks from Firefly messed around there, and more often than not the interesting trees pop up in movies all over the place……Are you getting the picture yet?

If you do a search on IMDb you’ll find at least 49 titles that have been to Joshua Tree.  That’s just the most popular ones for movies.  And for TV shows….yeah, you know it when you see it.

While Joshua Tree isn’t on another planet, the location does indeed look other worldly.  The amazing Joshua trees will catch your attention pretty quickly if you’ve never seen them before.  Combine that with the awesome rock formations (and awesome climbing) and you really do feel like you’ve stepped off of our planet and on to another.

Something same, something different

Joshua Tree National Park isn’t the only location where Joshua Trees grow.  Take a ride north of Wickenburg Arizona and you’ll find yourself on the Joshua Tree Parkway.  These amazing desert trees can be found there as well.

Not Joshua Tree, the Granite Dells. But it looks pretty similar!

If you head North and East of the Joshua Tree Parkway you may find yourself in Prescott, AZ.  Prescott has an amazing set of granite formations known as the “Granite Dells.”  The formations in the Dells are very similar to those in Joshua Tree, and they were formed around the same time as Joshua Tree.  Two very similar locations hundreds of miles apart.  Who knew?  😉

One thing is for certain.  If I’m ever abducted by aliens they’ll most likely bring me somewhere very similar to Joshua Tree.  Look, I already landed in the Granite Dells, I’m not too far off from J Tree!