Joshua Tree National Park
- Beth Strong
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
When I visited Joshua Tree National Park I stayed right outside of the park entrance in Twentynine Palms, CA. This was my longest stay (2 months) out of necessity and the opportunity to do a few weekend trips. The necessity was born from snow still covering road to my next destination and the weekend trips were spontaneously planned.
My time here stared with Matt coming to visit, we had a blast. We met up on the coast and explored the Channel Islands before hitting the desert, celebrating his birthday, and doing a few hikes.
Joshua Tree Hikes
Ryan Mountain Trail | 2.92 miles | 1,076 ft elevation gain |
Skull Rock | 2 miles | 180 ft elevation gain |
East Side Park Entrance Gate Trail | 2.1 miles | 410 ft elevation gain |
My favorite hike was the East Side Park Entrance Gate Trail, we woke up early to knock out this hike just after sunrise and it gave us stunning landscape views of the park. You'll see lots of cactus as you hike and the trail is unmaintained so finding the way was a little more challenging than usual.
Joshua Tree is a park you should drive all the way through at least once. We started at the north entrance and got to watch the rocky desert turn into an expanse of Joshua Trees, it's incredible how much life grows in the desert.
Things to Know:
Length of stay: You'll want to plan for 1-2 days here
Where to stay: There is an entrance to the park in Joshua Tree, CA & Twentynine Palms, CA - Twentynine Palms is cheaper buit is mostly a military town because of the large marine base here.
If you want a little more luxuty you can go futher west to Palm Springs, CA.
I stayed at Twentynine Palms Resort which was $676/month for a standard back in site.
What to do:
Hike
Attend the Joshua Tree & Twentynine Palms farmers markets
Stargaze (Joshua Tree is and official International Dark Sky Park)
Rock climbing
If you have extra time you can head out to Big Bear for more hiking and a completely different landscape!
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