Joshua Tree National Park
6554 Park Blvd
Twentynine Palms, CA
A high desert where whole forests of shaggy, Dr. Seuss trees stand among mountains of rounded golden boulders, under some of the darkest skies in Southern California.
Joshua Tree is where two deserts meet and neither one quite wins. The higher, cooler Mojave in the west grows the park's namesake tree, a spiky, arm-waving member of the yucca family that early travelers thought looked like a prophet reaching toward the sky. The lower, hotter Colorado Desert in the east trades the trees for creosote flats, spidery ocotillo, and gardens of cholla cactus that glow when the sun is behind them.
Threaded between the two are the boulders, immense piles of rounded golden rock that rise out of the flats like the ruins of something built by giants. Together they make one of the most otherworldly landscapes in California, a place that has drawn rock climbers, artists, musicians, and stargazers for generations.
What Guests Love
- The strange, shaggy Joshua trees standing in forests against the sky
- Scrambling on the great heaps of rounded golden boulders that draw climbers from around the world
- Some of the darkest, most star-filled night skies within reach of a big city
- Hidden fan-palm oases and the quiet, enormous space of the desert
Worth Knowing
- Summer days are dangerously hot and most people visit from fall through spring; carry far more water than you think you need in any season
- There is no reliable water or fuel inside the park and cell service is spotty, so fill up and download maps before you enter
- Nights can be cold even after hot days, so bring layers, especially for stargazing
- The Joshua trees are slow-growing and fragile, so stay on trails and never climb or lean on them
Details
Twentynine Palms, CA
Learn about Joshua Tree National Park
Two deserts in one park
The western half of the park sits high enough and cool enough for the Mojave Desert, where the Joshua trees grow in loose forests among the boulders. Drop east and south and the land falls into the Colorado Desert, a hotter, lower country of creosote, ocotillo, and the dense Cholla Cactus Garden.
The seam between them runs right through the park, which is part of why it feels so varied. In a single drive you can pass from tree forests and rock piles to open cactus flats and the palm-lined canyons where hidden water surfaces.
The boulders and how they formed
The park's signature rock is monzogranite, molten rock that cooled deep underground long ago, then cracked into a grid as it rose and the land above it wore away. Groundwater rounded the corners of those blocks while they were still buried, and erosion later stripped the softer material to leave the smooth, stacked boulders standing on the surface.
The result is a natural climbing gym on a giant scale, and Joshua Tree is one of the most famous rock-climbing destinations in the world, with thousands of routes. Even for non-climbers, the boulder piles are irresistible to scramble and explore.
People of the desert
This land is the ancestral home of Native peoples including the Serrano, Cahuilla, and Chemehuevi, who knew where the desert's scarce water surfaced and lived with a landscape most newcomers found forbidding. Their presence is written into the oases, grinding stones, and rock art of the park.
Later came prospectors and cattle ranchers, who left behind mines and the Keys Ranch, a homestead preserved by the park service. The Joshua trees themselves were given federal protection in the 1930s in part through the campaigning of Minerva Hoyt, a Pasadena activist who pushed to save the desert plants.
Oases, seasons, and stars
Where faults bring water near the surface, tall fan palms cluster in green oases like the Oasis of Mara and Cottonwood Spring, startling patches of shade and birdsong in the dry country. Spring can bring wildflowers after a wet winter, though the timing varies greatly year to year.
Because the park is large, high, and far from city lights, its night skies are among the darkest in Southern California, and it is certified for its dark skies. On a clear, moonless night the Milky Way pours across the sky above the boulders.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Twentynine Palms
Palm Springs
About 45 miles southwest
A mid-century desert resort town at the foot of Mount San Jacinto, with modernist architecture, hot springs, and an aerial tramway to alpine forest.
Pioneertown
About 25 miles west
A 1940s Western movie set built as a working town, now home to a famous roadhouse and a main street that still looks like the Old West.
Cholla Cactus Garden
Inside the park
A dense stand of teddy-bear cholla that lights up gold at sunrise and sunset along the park's transition into the Colorado Desert.