Joshua Tree National Park, California - long ago burned by a desert wildfire, tall joshua tree yucca plants display dalmation-like black and white markings. Around the joshua trees, spring wildflowers are in bloom.
A single yucca stalk rises from the snow-white, soft, gypsum sand at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
Badwater, Death Valley, California - infrequent rain fills this basin and minerals in the soil form crystals separated by cracks.
