Text courtesy of Trazzler.com
By Megan Cytron
With sunny highs in the 60s and bright blue winter skies, December and January are excellent months to hit the road and head to Joshua Tree National Park and the quirky area surrounding it. This brief respite from the blistering heat allows outdoorsy types to rock climb and take long hikes without risking heat exhaustion (though you'll need sunblock--and polar fleece at sundown). Photographers and botany geeks can linger as long as they like capturing the desert flora. There may be no better place to catch this month's lunar eclipse and Geminid meteor showers. Especially if you are doing so while soaking in a hot spring under billions (and billions) of stars.
A note about Trazzler's slideshows: we don't do top-tens or best-of lists. Nor are we so morbid or presumptuous as to tell you where you must go before you shuffle off this mortal coil. The world is far too big and fascinating to encapsulate in any kind of definitive list. We simply chose the places that our writers have contributed that make us think, laugh, dream, and, in this case, experience a vicarious vertiginous thrill. --Megan Cytron, Editor of Trazzler
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