Love being in the great outdoors? This book will inspire the reader to trek in the Mojave and/or Colorado Deserts of Southern California in the Joshua Tree National Park established in 1994. The book is filled with photos, photo insets, graphs, charts, and maps dealing with the animal and plant wildlife, history, and activities concerning this national park. Even more information is given on this and other national parks in the online reference given through www.factsfornow.scholastic.com , keyword Joshua Tree on page 45.

Joshua Tree National Park has six mountain ranges, two deserts, oases, old gold and silver mines, many nocturnal animals, plus desert bighorn sheep, rattlesnakes, Costa hummingbirds, desert tortoise, numerous different cacti, creosote bush, sand verbena, desert willow, palm tree, and of course, the Joshua Tree.

On top of all that, “Joshua Tree is an International Dark Sky Park. That means the darkness at night is complete and stargazing is magnificent.” (37)