Boulders and buttresses, rugged mountains, gold mining ruins, desert plains dotted with oddball trees—Joshua Tree National Park is a weirdly wonderful place. Here’s how to plan your visit, from where to stay and what to see to the best ways to experience this singular desert landscape.
What to Expect at Joshua Tree National Park
Nicknamed “J-Tree” by locals, the park is located about an hour from Palm Springs and lies at an ecological crossroads, where the high Mojave Desert meets the low Colorado Desert. That marriage results in amazing desert flora, including those wacky namesake trees (actually a type of yucca), and leafy groves of palm trees. Joshua Tree’s beauty shines around the clock, with vibrant sunsets melting into nights filled with uncountable stars perfect for stargazing adventures.
Start out in the park-adjacent city of Twentynine Palms, where the Joshua Tree National Park Visitor & Cultural Center (opened in 2022) will give you an informative overview of what to expect once you enter the park and also some background on the Native American tribes that have lived in this area for millennia.
Joshua Tree National Park’s Highlights
Next, drive up to Keys View, where you can get a panoramic vista of Mount San Jacinto and Mount Gorgonio—often snowcapped in winter—with the Salton Sea shimmering in the distance. Take a hike to survey the vista from the summit of Ryan Mountain, the park’s tallest peak at 5,461 feet. Go explore the remarkable monzogranite boulders at Skull Rock Nature Trail or the Wonderland of Rocks. If you’re looking to do some rock climbing, Joshua Tree has more than 8,000 established climbing routes, from easy beginner scrambles to extreme vertical cracks.
Joshua Tree National Park History
Learn about the park’s fascinating gold mining history at the Lost Horse Mine, an easy 4-mile round-trip hike. Seek out shady palm groves and trickling streams at 49 Palms Oasis, a 3-mile roundtrip hike that follows sections of an old Native American pathway, and Lost Palms Oasis. Take a ranger-led walking tour of Keys Ranch, the home of miner and pioneer William F. Keys. In the early 20th century, Keys built a ranch house, schoolhouse, workshop, and gardens amid the yuccas and boulders and lived for a remarkable 60 years in this desert enclave. For a different kind of stimulation, sign up for a class at the Desert Institute, a weekend field program for adults and families with courses in such fields as natural science, cultural history, creative arts, desert naturalist studies, and desert survival.
Rock Climbing at Joshua Tree National Park
Big, climbable rocks are like catnip to active kids, and Joshua Tree offers a natural playground full of them, with more than 400 climbing formations and 8,000 established climbing routes. To get started, join a group class—like those from Joshua Tree Rock Climbing School—to learn fundamentals such as handling ropes, rappelling, and “belaying” (getting back down) on beginner slabs and boulders. You can rent pads, helmets, and camp gear at shops like Nomad Ventures.
A good place to get the lay of the land and try some easy boulders: the 1.5-mile, fairly flat loop trail by Barker Dam, which is also a good place to see the park’s unique, namesake trees and even some Native American petroglyphs.
Where to Stay Near Joshua Tree National Park
Lodging options near Joshua Tree National Park are spread across several gateway communities, each aligned with one of the park’s three main entrances.
In Twentynine Palms, boutique properties such as Reset Hotel, Hotel Wren, and the steeped-in-history Harmony Motel sit about 10 minutes from the quieter North Entrance; to the west, the towns of Joshua Tree (Joshua Tree Inn, Mojave Sands Motel) and Yucca Valley (Spark by Hilton Yucca Valley Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley Joshua Tree Best Western) place visitors closest to the busy West Entrance.
Farther south, Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs provide a broader selection of resorts and hotel accommodation within driving distance of the less-trafficked South (Cottonwood) Entrance.
Camping in Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree’s nine campgrounds offer plenty of camping options, but they fill up fast from September to May (in the heat of summer, sites are easier to come by. You’ll find desert-themed lodgings and quirky motels in towns just outside the park—Joshua Tree Village, Twentynine Palms, and Yucca Valley.
Don’t miss a visit to nearby Pioneertown, an 1880s-style false-front Old West town where more than 50 films and television shows were shot in the 1940s and 1950s. Today, you can still see mock gunfights on the town’s “Mane Street” and top-notch live music at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace.
Joshua Tree National Park address
74485 National Park Drive
Twentynine Palms, CA 92277-3597
Phone: 760.367.5500