Mojave Desert - Tourist Attractions / Parks

Mojave National Preserve, Joshua Tree National Park and Death Valley National Park are the strangely beautiful stars of California's barren desert. Death Valley is the lowest and hottest stretch of the three while Joshua Tree National Park has the greatest concentration of notable flora, including the Joshua tree for which it is named. While the National Parks preserve the Mojave Desert's extremes, the National Preserve, perhaps, preserves the essence of what this desert is - a little Joshua tree, a little sand and cinder cone, a little wildflower, a little canyon and mountain.

History, both ancient and relatively recent, is also a part of the desert. The Twenty Mule Team Museum recalls the days when this intimidating landscape was crossed not by cars, but by lumbering beasts of burden. The Calico Early Man Site harkens back to even earlier days, at the dawn of civilization, while the occasional rambling ghost town serves as a reminder of just how wild - and unforgiving - this stretch of desert truly is.