Skull Rock, an Owl, and Date Shakes in Joshua Tree

If you've never been to Joshua Tree in Southern California, I advise you change that. I went with my brother two years ago and was pouring over our trip pictures. Almost every mile or so there is a different terrain to be explored. We didn't even scratch the surface of the park only having one day to bounce around. We looked at a park map, and having come in from the northern side, decided to check out mostly features in that part of it. Skull Rock had a captivating name (doesn't it?) and we decided that that would be part of the journey. This section of the park is made of large boulders all piled on each other. Children were bounding over the mounds and climbing the low hill of rocks everywhere.I haven't been to a park like this since I was a kid of maybe eleven or twelve. Our parents used to take us to a park in Missouri called Elephant Rocks. That park can unleash the wildest imagination of a child being made of pink granite boulders. Skull Rock brought back similar memories seeing the kids jumping every which way.
This feature is small and doesn't take a long time to see all of it. My brother and I ventured to the back side and found ourselves in a large ravine. High above us on a ledge was what I believe to be a great horned owl. It watched us in its solemn state, never taking it's eyes off me. I have only ever seen owls in the zoo and never in the wild, though I've heard them hooting many times.
When I was a child of maybe four I had a dream that was so real I wasn't sure it was a dream. I had just fallen asleep but hadn't realized it. My dream took place in my bedroom just after I'd fallen asleep and I guess I didn't realize I was asleep. A large yellow owl flew up to my window and began talking to me. I remember it had a voice like Vincent Price on Thriller and basically I was not having this so I ran down the hall to my parents bedroom. I told them there was an owl talking outside my window which they shared a glance over. My mom told me that owls can't talk, but I was sure she was wrong because parrots could talk. I'm pretty sure I slept in there bed that night. Ever since then even the image of an owl would upset me. My grandmother had a ceramic owl head that I would turn to have facing the wall when I visited. I was intrigued but creeped out by the owls in the zoo. The Little Rock Zoo had, I think, two barred owls. Their all black eyes watched as you circled the cage their heads doing a complete three hundred and sixty degree turn. Haunting.
My brother and I watched the owl which did not move until we were deep in the ravine. It eventually pinched to an point that we could not go any further and turned to go. There were too many attractions to be seen and not enough time. My brother and I passed many date shake shacks which I'd been talking up. Divinity in a paper cup I'd said, and a nice reward for a hot desert romp.