A Day in Joshua Tree National Park
- karapturner97
- Apr 5, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: May 11, 2021
My husband's birthday was at the end of March, and luckily it fell on a Saturday. We live in southern California where there are so many options for local weekend trips, but at first I wasn't sure of where to go. I initially thought about driving down to San Diego or up to Malibu for a beach getaway, but lately we have been on a desert kick (We went to Death Valley National Park for Valentine's Day weekend). Last July we bought a National Parks Pass, and in the past year have been able to go to four different National Parks in California including Yosemite, Sequoia, Death Valley, and Kings Canyon. I eventually decided on a weekend split between Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs, but this post is completely focused on the beauty and our experience at the youngest National Park in the country.
We live in Orange County, California and it takes anywhere from 2 to 3 hours to get to Joshua Tree. The interesting thing about this park established in 1995, is that three different kooky small towns border it. We drove through Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, and Twentynine Palms. One tip that I should have followed myself is to start looking for lodging MONTHS in advance. I kept seeing amazing, clean, and Instagramable Airbnbs in Joshua Tree (I'll link my favorites below) but since I wasn't completely sure of where we would be going, these gorgeous homes and yurts sat idly in my "saved" homes list and quickly got booked for my desired weekend. We ended up staying in the Fairfield-Marriott in Twentynine Palms, which is a 2-star hotel and though it wasn't terrible, it had a nasty mattress and noisy neighbors. We only stayed there Saturday night though, and it was nice that it was close to the less busy east entrance of the park.
We left Saturday morning around 6:30 am, and didn't hit too much traffic. It was a bit windy that day but still sunny and gorgeous, and arrived to Joshua tree around 9am. We had a plan to hit the Visitor's center first, which I always recommend doing when going to a new park. We used the restroom there, bought t-shirts, got our park map in case of no cell phone reception (I am always terrified of being lost in the wilderness), and were told by the ranger to use the Oasis Visitor Center entrance because it is always less busy. We planned to go to several different spots including the Cholla Cactus Garden, Arch rock, Skull rock, cap rock, Split rock, and the Hidden Valley Nature trail. However, we were not able to visit all of these spots due to the massive crowds of people also visiting that weekend.
We headed into the park at 9:30 am and were already met with large groups of people. We truly had a loose idea of what we would be doing that day so we stopped at the first pull off called the Live Oak picnic area with tons of amazing rocks and joshua trees. We trekked down into the valley where we saw a desert field of brush, dead and living joshua trees, and massive boulders. We stayed there for probably a good hour to hour and a half then decided to eat lunch in the car.
Next, we wanted to see Split rock. We could see it from across the road but the dirt and gravel parking lot was full but we thought we could park alongside the road near the lot. We got into a bit of a traffic jam when we were told to back out of the lot and almost got hit and hit another car. So we decided to pull over to the side of the main road and just start walking to more ginormous rocks.
One thing I will say about Joshua Tree National Park is that you really do see more and more of the same exact things. You will not see any wildlife besides a few ravens and lizards, you will always see joshua trees, and the same huge scratchy boulders in various shapes. Since we were staying the night, we decided we would go to the Cholla Cactus garden for sunrise on Sunday and also hit Skull rock the following morning due to the massive crowds and lack of parking around it. Time and time again, I will always say that it pays to wake up at 4am and beat the crowds when it comes to National Parks and popular hikes. It's quieter, and not seeing hundreds of people and cars littering the landscape makes for better pictures and a better experience.
Next, we drove up to Jumbo rocks which sounds exactly like what it's called. They were fun to walk and climb around, and I noticed a ton of people camping around them. I noticed so many campgrounds around these rock areas and if we end up visiting this park again I would love to go camping under the amazing stars and giant rock formations.
The next stop was Cap rock, which is a giant rock with what looks like the bill of a baseball cap on top of it. We noticed that we were down the hill from Key's View, a viewpoint of Palm Springs, the Salton sea, and Bernadino mountains. Parking was also hard to find in this small lot at the top of the hill but we managed and were able to get hazy pictures of the valley.
We wanted to go on the Hidden Valley trail, but ended up not being able to find parking. We spent the rest of our time in the park roaming around random fields of trees and rocks, and didn't feel too exhausted from the day since it wasn't hot and we didn't go on any long hikes. This is definitely a family friendly park, just be sure to bring water, food, and sunscreen (I forgot and had a beautiful deep ruby sunburn on my face and chest) and you will be good as gold.
At the end of our day in the park, we started the half hour drive to our hotel in Twentynine Palms. It is a quaint town that surprisingly has a ton of fast-food chains and even a Cold Stone, so you don't feel too isolated. We arrived at our hotel at around 5:30pm and showered and changed for dinner.
Now finding a place in dinner was tricky in Joshua tree because we wanted to go to this popular restaurant that is always busy AND you seat yourself called Joshua Tree Saloon. We got ready and left for the restaurant famous for its burgers and old west atmosphere. We probably only waited 30 minutes to find a table and another 20 for our food to come out to us. Joshua Tree is a really small town, and we were able to walk around for a few minutes to different old West building replicas. This included a fake barbershop and a 1960's pink and teal beauty salon that is currently both a museum and working salon. We also stopped in a random parking lot to hear a local woman sing with her band. I loved seeing what the locals did for fun, and it was a great treat after dinner. We ended up getting dessert at the Cold Stone previously mentioned and headed back to the hotel to eat and watch movies.
The next day was going to be dedicated to Palm Springs, but we wanted to get to the Cholla Cactus garden for sunrise before we left. We slept in a bit too long and ended up leaving at 6:15am but still got to the gardens in time for that beautiful morning light and took pictures. My husband did step on a cactus but fortunately nothing reached his foot.
We then stopped at Skull rock and it was amazing being the only people around. This was probably one of my favorite moments of the trip and made me wish we had gotten to the park earlier the day before. Another great thing about Joshua Tree National Park is that it's only an hour from Palm Springs, a booming city that's nearby but still has some of that desert charm.
Overall, my husband had a great birthday and we both had so much fun at this park. We both agreed though that it wasn't our favorite National Park we have ever been to but would love to come back and go camping some day with friends or family. We did visit during a strange time in that we wore masks, avoided crowds, and were constantly using hand sanitizer every time we got out of the car but we felt safe. My advice to those who have never been to Joshua Tree National Park: arrive at the park at sunrise to avoid people, bring sunscreen, bring a camera, be careful of the cacti, and enjoy the unique and underrated beauty of the California desert.
*I didn't forget the airbnb recommendations for Joshua Tree! These three looked so fun and have great ratings and reviews. So if you don't want to camp or stay in a hotel, check these out below
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