Joshua Tree: Weekend in the Desert

As part of our big farewell to our time living in California, Akash & I did a trip to Joshua Tree a couple weekends ago! The first one we did was Laguna Beach, and I shared a whole post on that trip. We ended up doing 6 trips total, so I’ll be sharing recaps on each one of them over the next couple weeks!

Back to Joshua Tree… visiting JT was always on my list while I lived in LA, but it was something I had always pushed off and figured I would do “sometime.” I’m definitely more of a beach girl than a desert gal, so it was always on the bottom of my list. When we decided to leave LA though, I knew we had to make a trip out before we left! It definitely didn’t disappoint. We had so much fun exploring, and it was awesome to check off another national park off our list.

Accomodations

There aren’t a ton of hotel options in Joshua Tree itself, but there are a ton of amazing AirBnbs available. We decided instead to spend the weekend in Palm Springs, and drive the 45 minutes to the park, and it worked really well for us. It was great to spend our mornings at the park, and relaxing the rest of the afternoon in the desert heat at the hotel pool. We stayed at Les Cactus in Palm Springs, and it might be my new favorite hotel in the desert! During my time living in LA, I took probably 5-6 trips to Palm Springs, and stayed at somewhere different every time, so the fact that Les Cactus is my new number 1 is a big statement.

Looking for more hotels, or more things to do in Palm Springs? Check out all my Palm Springs posts here!

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I actually found Les Cactus from a TikTok, and booked it the same day. Their rates are super reasonable, and I especially liked it because it’s a pretty small property, which made me feel safer amidst COVID times. The whole place is so well designed, and really is the perfect staycation spot. It has a really fun pink theme throughout, and has a ton of cute eclectic decor (including lots of Gucci touches in the lobby!) If you’re planning a stay in Palm Springs, I highly recommend this hotel for your stay.

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Now onto our Joshua Tree trip! There’s a couple ways you can see the park, but we decided to enter in from the West Entrance, and drive East then South. We left our hotel before sunrise, and caught the sunrise just as we were entering the park. I’d actually highly recommend doing something similar, because around mid-day the desert gets hot. The entire morning that we spent exploring was really nice, because it was warm but there was a great breeze blowing through. It made it so much more tolerable (and FUN!) than if we’d been hiking around in 100+ degree weather.

The Route

Upon entrance of the park, you have to purchase a visitor’s pass, which is good for a whole 7 days. We drove a car through, but if you prefer to walk through or bike the park, the pricing is different.

PSA: As of mid-September 2020, reservations aren’t required! Unlike some other national parks, thankfully Joshua Tree didn’t require reservations.

The park map makes it super easy to navigate the park, and the directions are pretty standard. I downloaded an offline Google Map since you do lose service out here, but honestly if you’re able to read and follow a basic paper map, you’ll be totally fine. (Check out the exact map I mentioned here!) Here’s the route we took:

• Entrance through West Entrance Station
• Hidden Valley
• Keys View
• Ryan Mountain
• Jumbo Rocks
• Skull Rock
• Cholla Cactus Garden
• Ocotillo Patch
• Exit through Cottonwood Visitor Center

Park Highlights

The two favorite parts of the day for us were Keys View and Cholla Cactus Garden. Keys View has a tiny walk up to see a beautiful view (see photo below!) Great spot to get a photo.

Cholla Cactus Garden has funny looking cacti as far as your eyes can see. If you’re a bug-phobic person like me though, watch out! There were a ton of bees and wasps when we visited, which made it less enjoyable for me personally. Definitely worth seeing though! One thing to note at the cactus garden though, is to keep an eye out for the cacti. There are a few species that will actually land spores or smaller cacti if it feels a predator approaching. A friend of mine visited a few months ago, and got spiked pretty nasty by a cactus. Be careful & safe!