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Joshua Tree National Park - Exploring the Park

The park is open year-round. Three main entrances – the West Entrance, Indian Cove Entrance, and North Entrance, provide access to the higher Mojave Desert, while Highway 195 takes visitors to the Cottonwood Visitor Center in the eastern part of the park. A fee of $10 per vehicle is charged for a 7-day admission to the park. All park visitor centers are open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cottonwood Visitor Center – in south. Oasis Visitor Center – outside park. Desert Queen Ranch – guided walking tours only, 90 mins, $5, near Hidden Valley campground. Keys View-scenic road. Rock climbing popular. Geology Tour Road – 2 hours.

Mojave Desert

Most visitors to the park enter from the north side, just over the Little San Bernardino Mountains from Palm Springs. The Oasis Visitor Center is two miles from the park’s North Entrance, in the town of Twentynine Palms, provides helpful orientation and information about park conditions and upcoming ranger-led programs. The main route through this portion of the park is called Park Boulevard, and takes visitors past several campgrounds, trailheads, and scenic points. A five mile extension to the breathtaking Keys View is a recommended detour on clear days.

There is plenty to do in this area of the park. The Wonderland of Rocks area contains a profusion of granite boulders of all sizes and is immensely popular with rock climbers. The popular Desert Queen Ranch tour leaves twice daily during the high season and offers a look at the lives of some colorful early twentieth century ranchers. The Fortynine Palms and Mara oases are splashes of greenery in the desert landscape. Plenty of unpaved roads and trails invite mountain bikes, hikers, and high clearance vehicle exploration.

Colorado Desert

With easy access from Interstate 10, the southern portion of the park is comprised mainly of wilderness. The Cottonwood Visitor Center has information and programs about this very different desert, the cactus-dominated Colorado. A scenic drive along the Pinto Basin Road connects the two areas of the park, passing by the Cholla Cactus Garden and cutoffs to four wheel drive roads to old mining camps. The backcountry wilderness of the Coxcomb and Eagle mountain ranges await backpackers seeking solitude.

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