Wearing: vintage dress, Janessa Leone Klint Bolero Hat

I don’t know why I get so behind in posting my favorite photographs from my favorite trips; perhaps it’s because I want to hold onto them and make them last. I have a horrible habit of doing that, to the point of forgetting that I haven’t posted them, in the first place.

These photos are from a road trip with my dear friends Kimbly and Allister. We left Los Angeles and headed to Joshua Tree for a stay in the cutest airbnb, Dome In The Desert. Our trip was full of wonderful memories, like our Crossroads moment of singing “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” at a local karaoke night, my first Sizzler experience (when I was young, I thought it was a fancy restaurant for rich people…turns out, it’s not), matching “yay!” tattoos, friendly ghosts, Salvation Mountain, and star gazing. On this particular day, we headed out to the Joshua Tree Cholla Cactus Garden at the national park. I somehow forgot to check the gas level before heading down the very long, very desolate road, and we had no phone service. We didn’t know if we should turn around (where there were no gas stations, anyway) or keep going into the unknown…but we chose the latter. We were coasting on fumes with the air off and windows down; I was reassuring the girls that we were totally going to make it, while internally worrying we we would not. The sun was setting and we weren’t passing any cars, and had no idea how far this cactus garden was, or how far we were from the entrance and hopeful gas station. Thankfully, we made it to the cactus garden and saw some other people once we got there, but let this be a lesson for you all: make sure you have plenty of gas, and check the actual map before relying on your phone for information;) Once we realized how close we were to a gas station (and had service back on our phones, just in case!), we stopped at the Joshua Tree Cholla Cactus Garden for the last light of the day. It was so worth it. How dreamy is this place?

And yes, I always wear 70s maxis in the desert…don’t you? Okay, you caught me. Sometimes I wear 60s minis.

P.S. Check our hashtag #akkdesertroadtrip for more photos.