Joshua Tree National Park is a unique and striking desert park located in southeastern California. Plan a Joshua Tree itinerary that covers two days in the park.
2
1
1
100 mi
Joshua Tree National Park is home to more than just a forest of Joshua Trees. In fact, even though “tree” is in the name, there aren’t a lot of trees around.
Before we visited the park in February of 2024, I had no clue what to expect from the park. I’ve been to Great Smoky Mountains National Park before, and with the word “tree” in the name, I just assumed it would be similar, but in a desert.
Boy was I wrong! There are Joshua Trees all around, but it isn’t like you are in a forest. Actually, it’s quite the opposite.
We were pleasantly surprised by what we found as we drove through Joshua Tree. We had no expectations going into the park and didn’t research much of it before our trip. Our school district takes a week off in February, so it’s a perfect time to travel since it isn’t Spring Break season yet, therefore, there aren’t a lot of tourists (or high prices).
Natural steps on the Hidden Valley trail
All six of us in front of an iconic Joshua Tree
Getting There
Joshua Tree National Park is located in Southern California, about halfway between Los Angeles and the Arizona border. The closest airports are Palm Springs International Airport and Twentynine Palms Airport. Both of those are small airports, though, so the closest major airport is Los Angeles. From there, you’ll need to rent a car to drive about 4 hours east into the desert to get to the Joshua Tree Area.
From Houston, we were able to get a direct flight to Los Angeles Airport. My dad was not very happy to be flying into LAX as we haven’t had great experiences there in the past, but we made it through. They were flying from Southwest Florida, so had a layover in Houston so we could all get on the same flight on United Airlines.
Once we landed, we took a shuttle to the car rental facility where we rented a 7-seater SUV since there were 6 of us on the trip.
From the airport, we had about a 4-hour drive, including some evening LA traffic. We made a stop at the Chick-fil-A in Riverside to visit with my cousin and his family who live in the area and to get some dinner on the way to our rental home.
Best Time to Go
Because Joshua Tree National Park is in the desert, it can get extremely hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. The best times to visit are in February, March, April, October, and November. The park is about 800,000 acres of land where two distinct ecosystems converge: the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Desert.
Although spring and fall are usually the peak season for the park, we did not feel like it was very crowded. We saw the most people when we were trying to visit Skull Rock. Otherwise, even the most popular hikes didn’t have too many people at them and we didn’t have a problem finding places to park.
Day One
Twentynine Palms Visitor Center
I like to start our journeys in the National Parks at a Visitor Center when we can. We get information about the park, ask the ranger about hikes and trails, get the stamp for our National Parks Passport books, and the boys can pick up a Jr. Ranger book.
The 29 Palms Visitor Center is actually in the town of Twentynine Palms, outside of the National Park boundary. We timed it perfectly and got there just as they were opening for the day.
Entrance Sign
Just before getting to the North Entrance, the National Park sign will be on the right side of the road. When we went, there weren’t any other cars pulled over to have someone take our photo. So we propped my phone up on some of the rocks on the ground and set the timer.
Entrance sign for Joshua Tree National Park
North Entrance
We went in through the North Entrance. This was not the closest to our rental home, but we wanted to make a big loop. We also tend to start with the furthest things while we are fresh so the next day we don’t have as much driving to do.
Of course, we had to stop to get a photo at the National Park Entrance Sign!
Cholla Cactus Garden
Our first stop inside the park was the Cholla Cactus Garden. I didn’t know much about any of the types of cacti in the area, but the cholla cacti were cute fuzzy-looking little cacti with small yellow flowers.
There is an easy 0.25-mile trail through the acres of cholla “teddybear” cactus. The short hike starts on a boardwalk right at the small parking lot and then gives way to a sandy trail outlined by rocks.
This was a great place to start the day because it was a simple trail to get us out there. It’s also the furthest from most of the park, so it worked well to go there first and then work our way through the park.
Teddy Bear Cholla Cactus
Our group at the cactus garden
Close up of the flowers on the Cholla Cactus
Cholla Cactus Garden
Arch Rock & Heart Rock
This was one of our favorite areas in the park. It was our first chance to see all of the boulder formations and get a chance to do some “scrambling” as they call it at this park. It’s a combination of hiking and climbing.
The trailhead for both trails starts in the Twin Tanks Parking Lot. You have to quickly cross the street, and then start on the trail. To get to Arch Rock, you’ll walk just over ½ mile in before getting to the loop. You can go either direction, but we were suggested to go counterclockwise for the best views of the arch. Once you get near the arch, you can scramble up to the arch itself.
Along the way back, you’ll see signs for Heart Rock as a spur from the Arch Rock trail. It isn’t marked on most maps, and there isn’t a sign at the trailhead for it. We stumbled on it by accident.
The hike to Heart Rock is about a 1-mile round trip off of the Arch Rock trail. There are a few large boulders around Heart Rock, but you can usually pick your way through the half mile out to the rock and back pretty easily.
In total we spent about 30 minutes from the trailhead to Arch Rock, walking to the rock, taking photos, and finding the spur for Heart Rock. Then we spent about 30 minutes walking to Heart Rock, taking photos, and walking back to the vehicle. Between the two rock formations, we spent about an hour on these trails.
Arch Rock
Walking on the Arch Rock Trail
Always finding rocks to climb
Trail to Heart Rock
Heart Rock
Stephanie & Justin at Heart Rock
Arch Rock
Heart Rock
Live Oak Picnic Area
When going into the park, we brought along a picnic lunch since we knew we would be gone all day and there aren’t any restaurants in Joshua Tree National Park.
The picnic area was a nice spot in the boulder fields. Unfortunately, it was super windy so we weren’t able to sit at the picnic tables without everything blowing away. Since we didn’t want to lose our food or any trash in the area, we decided to eat in the vehicle. While the view from here was pretty, this was not one of the best places to try to have a picnic so we made it a quick stop and then kept exploring.
Skull Rock
Skull Rock was a spot where we pulled over, parked, and took a picture with the namesake rock. We decided not to do the trail because we knew we had a few more things we wanted to fit into one day.
We parked in the Skull Rock parking area off the main road and crossed the street to the rock. There was a rock in front of the skull with a perfect place to take a photo. The area was a little crowded, so we waited just a few minutes for our turn to take a photo in front of the rock. The only good thing about having a lot of people around was someone was willing to take our group photo if we took theirs.
Skull Rock
Discovery Trail & Face Rock Trail
After checking out Skull Rock, we spent a few minutes on the Face Rock Trail. We never found Face Rock, but the boys (ok, my dad included) found a few rocks that looked like another part of the body that they found much more funny than a face. They decided to show us exactly what they thought these giant boulders seemed to be (mooning us) but I will spare you those photos.
The Discovery Trail starts in the same parking lot as the Skull Rock area. We didn’t do the entire trail but went to the slot canyon to the right of the trail. The Discovery Trail is a new addition to the park and was created by a group of local students. There are signs and viewpoints along the way pointing out the things that interested the students.
The entire trail is just under ¾ mile long if you want to do the whole thing. There’s also a spur that adds about ¼ mile to go to Face Rock.
Face Rock
Ryan Mountain Trail & Indian Cave
Our original reason for stopping here was just to take a photo of Ryan at the sign for Ryan Mountain. While there, we ended up exploring quite a bit of the area. The boys saw a lot of rocks to climb and wanted to see where they could get to. So, we stayed there for about half an hour exploring.
We saw the signs for Indian Cave so we wanted to check that out. It wasn’t much of a “cave” but more of some rocks that were set up in a way to provide shelter. From there, we worked our way over towards Ryan Mountain. We never met up with that trail, but climbed a lot of boulders up into the mountainside for a little bit.
Ryan at Ryan Mountain
Tyler, Stephanie, and Ryan in the Indian Cave
Tyler in the rocks
Ryan Mountain Trailhead
Barker Dam Trail
When I first looked this up, the Barker Dam looked really pretty. I showed my family photos and we decided it was a trail we needed to do.
We were a bit… underwhelmed… with this. Well, the trail itself wasn’t too bad. There were a lot of trees and nature to see along the way as well as some rock art. But when we got to the actual dam, it was dried up. It must have been the wrong time of the year for us to see it.
Barker Dam
West Entrance
Since we were making the day a big loop of the park, we went out of the West Entrance.
Note: Have your park pass ready even when you are leaving the park. We were confused about why there was just as much of a line to leave the park as there was to get in and why we were being stopped by a ranger. He asked to see our park pass (we had the 4th grade pass) even though we were leaving. When I asked why, he said some entrances to the national park don’t go through a ranger station so it’s their way of making sure people have paid their entry fees.
Day One Map
Day Two
Our second day was a bit more limited on time. While we were in California, they had the “Pineapple Express” storm coming through all the way from Hawaii, or so we were told about it. To us Gulf Coast people, it seemed like a Tropical Storm coming through. We kept a close eye on the weather the entire time we were in California, and the afternoon was calling for scattered thunderstorms and we didn’t want to be caught in the desert in the middle of that.
West Entrance
The last few places we wanted to go in the park were all closer to the West Entrance, so we entered and exited from this park entrance.
Hall of Horrors
As we were driving through the park on the first day, Ryan saw a sign for the Hall of Horrors that he wanted to check out. At that point, we were all tired and ready to call it quits for the day, but I told him we would get back to our rental home and look it up online to see what it was.
I’m so glad we looked it up for a few reasons. First, we might not have made sure it was the first place we went until we knew what it was. Second, if we didn’t know about the slot canyons we never would have found them.
The Hall of Horrors trail is just under 1 mile with almost no elevation change. It’s an easy one to traverse to see the Joshua Trees and the boulder formations and one of the best hikes in the park. The fun part, though, was making our way to the slot canyon entrances and going through those.
We went the wrong way when we started the trail. The best way to go is to the left from the parking lot, or clockwise. We went the other way and didn’t find the slot canyons until almost the end of the loop.
There are two slot canyons side-by-side here. One is a fairly large width that none of us had a problem getting through. You do have to do a bit of scrambling to get to the entrance of the slot canyons.
The second slot canyon, the one on the left, is much more narrow in a few spots. Only my dad and the boys were able to fit through that area, so they explored past there for a little while. We saw some rock climbers in the area. Having rock climbing equipment and knowledge is the only way to go out the other end of these slot canyons.
Tyler and Ryan in the bigger slot canyon
View from the top of the smaller slot canyon
Tyler squeezing through the narrow slot canyon
Hall of Horrors
Keys View
This was another stop that we made that was neat in some ways but didn’t live up to expectations. While we were there, due to the incoming storms and the elevation of the Keys Viewpoint, we couldn’t see anything.
The boys still thought it was neat, though, because we were driving into the clouds. The temperature was definitely much lower up here than down in the desert areas of the park.
Supposedly, when it’s a clear day, you can see all the way down the valley including parts of the famous San Andreas Fault.
Hidden Valley Picnic Area
After Key View, we were all getting hungry so we went to the Hidden Valley Picnic Area. We went past the main parking area, which is close to the Hidden Valley Trailhead, and went to the second loop of parking spots.
There were very few people over here, so we had the area to ourselves. We found a table under a tree for some shade and had our picnic lunch there.
Of course, the boys finished eating quickly and wanted to explore. We were amazed that even something as simple as the picnic area had so much to offer in the way of climbing and exploring. As we walked around and through the rocks, we found yet another small canyon to walk through.
Hidden Valley Nature Trail
The last trail we did in Joshua Tree National Park was the Hidden Valley Nature Trail. The trailhead was just up the road from where we ate lunch so we piled in the vehicle, moved it a bit closer to the trail, and went out.
The trail is only about a 1-mile loop that takes you through the valley. While I enjoyed some of our hikes through the boulders, my dad said this was his favorite trail that we did in the park. There was a lot of scenery to take in and informational signs telling about the history of the area.
Scenery on the trail
Always finding boulders to explore
More scenery on the trail
Hidden Valley Nature Trail
Boy Scout Trail
We did not walk on the Boy Scout Trail, but since we are all part of Boy Scouts, and have been for many years now, I wanted to take a photo with the sign at least. My mom got out of the vehicle with us to take the photo and my dad decided to mess with everyone and started making laps in the gravel parking lot. There wasn’t a single other car around so he was having fun with it. The boys thought it was hilarious!
Boy Scout Trail’s trailhead marker
West Entrance
Once we finished the Hidden Valley Trail, we could start to see some storm clouds moving in. We decided it was time to head back to the house before we got caught in the rain. There were a lot of warnings about the flash floods that can happen in the desert and we didn’t want anything to do with that.
Joshua Tree Visitor Center
Our last stop for the day was the Joshua Tree Visitor Center in the town of Joshua Tree. This is another visitor center that is outside of the park boundary. I was able to get another passport stamp here and bought a Christmas ornament to add to our collection of ornaments from all of our travels. It was interesting that the visitor centers were all located outside of the park boundaries at this park.
Day Two Map
Itinerary Options
Of course, every well-planned itinerary has room for changes and improvements.
- If there are flights available, you can fly into the Palm Springs International Airport which is the closest airport to Joshua Tree.
- For those who can’t do a lot of hiking and scrambling, try taking a scenic drive down Park Boulevard.
- Joshua Tree National Park is an International Dark Sky Park, meaning the stargazing is amazing and you can even get a glimpse of the Milky Way on a clear night.
- Spend a night in one of the park’s many campgrounds including Black Rock, Cottonwood Springs, Indian Cove, Jumbo Rocks Campground, and Belle Campground.