We'd spent the morning driving across southern Idaho's high desert, where miles of open country stretch beneath an endless sky. Sagebrush rolled past the windows in muted shades of green and silver, and the horizon seemed to breathe in slow motion.

For those who wander slowly, the magic of Joshua Tree comes in the details: a lizard sunning itself on warm stone, the wind whispering through the branches, or the sun melting behind distant peaks at the end of a quiet trail.