Joshua Tree National Park

Distance: 49 Miles

Count the stars, photograph stacks of large boulders, and meander through 800,000 acres of beautiful desert vegetation. Joshua Tree National Park is one of the world’s most incredible natural desert treasures spanning a region larger than Rhode Island. The setting is established by two large ecosystems that have come together forming a landscape carved by wind, rain, and sun.

The two most dominant features that dot the landscape are large boulder formations with thousands of Joshua trees spread as far as the eye can see. Joshua Tree National Park is a popular hiking, rock climbing, and camping destination. The park is also a wellknown observation site for astronomers with the naturally dark night skies and 300-days of cloudless skies.

Depending on season, the park is home to over

250 species of birds. While most the animal life is active in the evening which includes snakes, bighorn sheep, kangaroo rats, coyotes, lynx, and black-tailed jackrabbits.

While only a couple hours away from Palm Springs, San Diego, and Riverside by car it is in a world by itself. A point that becomes crystal clear on a cloudless evening when the sky above is punctuated by countless stars its easy to lose yourself in the expanding galaxies above. The sheer size of this state park allows you to find your own secluded spot in the desert – serenity with a faint distant yap from a coyote.

During the day, the park hosts all levels of desert explorers. For most park visitors, the park is easily accessible via well maintained dirt/gravel roads which even a fully loaded Prius will find comfortable to transverse. However, if the road less travelled is more your adventure, you’ll find trails more than happy to test your 4wd mettle. But, some of the best places to see will require you to exercise your biped biology as you hike through narrow trails and rocks.