Part of The US National Parks
- Where
- Southern California,
about 140 miles east of Los Angeles (NPS) - Coordinates
- 33.991° N, 116.059° W
Jumbo Rocks (NPS) - Area
- 795,156 gross acres
(3,218 km²) (NPS) - Joshua trees
- About 870,000
in the park (NPS estimate) - Protected
- National monument 1936
national park 1994 (NPS) - Best visited
- Spring and fall; summer highs
over 100°F (NPS) - Advisory
- United States
(no State Department level)
Pale boulders piled up like a giant’s laundry, and among them spiky trees holding their arms out at odd angles, each as if it had asked a question and was waiting. Dry wind, a ring of far mountains, and shade only where a rock allowed it. At dusk the stones went pink and the stars came out so thickly I sat down on the warm ground to receive them.
The short answer
Joshua Tree National Park lies in southern California between Interstate 10 and California Highway 62, about 140 miles east of Los Angeles, 175 miles north-east of San Diego and 215 miles south-west of Las Vegas, the National Park Service says. It covers 795,156 gross acres, including private and state inholdings, and runs from 536 feet at its south-eastern boundary to 5,814 feet on Quail Mountain. In the Park Service’s words, two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together here. Nearly 2.9 million people visited in 2025, against 31,285 in 1941, the first year anyone counted.
The land is part of the traditional homelands of the Maara’yam (Serrano), Nüwü (Chemehuevi) and Kawiya (Cahuilla) and the traditional use area of the Aha Macave (Mohave), the Park Service says, represented today by 15 federally recognised tribal governments; it dates the earliest evidence of people here to nearly 10,000 years ago. The national monument was proclaimed on 10 August 1936, and Congress made it a national park on 31 October 1994.
Why it's worth knowing
Two deserts in one park. The park sits in a rain shadow, the Park Service explains: Pacific storms drop their moisture on Mount San Jacinto, 10,804 feet, and Mount San Gorgonio, 11,502 feet, before they reach it, and at 33 to 35 degrees north it lies in the dry belt of the horse latitudes. The western and higher half is Mojave Desert, where nearly a quarter of the plants are found in no other desert and the Joshua tree is the signature; the eastern and lower half is the Colorado Desert, part of the Sonoran, where Cottonwood Spring and the Pinto Basin lie. Late in summer a tropical storm can drop five to ten inches of rain in a few hours, a large part of a year’s total.
Not quite a tree. The Joshua tree, Yucca brevifolia, was once classified as a giant lily; DNA research has placed it in the agave family, the Park Service says, and like the California fan palm it is a monocot, in the same botanical group as grasses and orchids. It grows half an inch to three inches a year, forms no growth rings, reaches 40 feet and occasionally 50, and lives about 150 years on average, some more than 300. It flowers only after well-timed rain and a crisp winter freeze, which damages the branch tips and sets off both flowers and new branches; a tree first flowers at 50 to 70 years old, and some grow as single unbranched stalks because they have never bloomed. A single partner pollinates it, the yucca moth, which lays its eggs in the flower and whose larvae eat some of the seeds. The Park Service estimates there are about 870,000 Joshua trees in the park. The Cahuilla called the tree hunuvat chiy’a or humwichawa; the story that Mormon settlers named it for the biblical Joshua is, the Park Service says, one for which historical records offer little evidence.
A gardener’s park. Minerva Hoyt hired biologists and desert ecologists to report on the Joshua tree country, served on a California state parks commission under the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and won an ally in Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, the Park Service says. Railroad lands forced the proposed park down from over a million acres to about 825,000 before Roosevelt signed the proclamation. In August 2012 the US Board on Geographic Names named a 5,405-foot peak in the park Mount Minerva Hoyt.
The field notes
A garden of one
About 12 miles south of the north entrance, a flat quarter-mile nature trail loops through nearly 10 acres of teddybear cholla in the Pinto Basin, the Park Service says, one of very few stands of the cactus in the park. Its seeds are usually infertile, and new plants start from fallen stem joints, so the Park Service suggests that the whole garden may consist of a single individual. The joints detach easily and cling by tiny barbs, which gives the cactus its other name, jumping cholla, and the Park Service advises against touching it.
The dark, and its edges
Joshua Tree is a designated International Dark Sky Park, by DarkSky International, and holds an annual night sky festival, the Park Service says, though light from the towns around it does reach the park, so some areas are darker than others. It names four designated stargazing areas, the parking lots of Quail Springs, Hidden Valley, Cap Rock and Ryan Mountain, and says the Pinto Basin Road between the Cholla Cactus Garden and Cottonwood has the darkest skies and the least traffic. The park is open 24 hours a day, and the gates are left open at night.
Visitors by the million
The park’s own figures trace the crowds: 31,285 visitors in 1941, the first year records were kept; more than one million for the first time in 1990; more than two million in 2015; and more than three million in 2021, with 2,932,644 in 2025. The Park Service calls October to May the busy season, with springtime and holidays the most crowded, and says its first-come campsites fill nearly every weekend from September to May.
March 2014Joshua trees and granite boulders below the park's desert mountains.
Photograph: NPS / Brad Sutton · Public domain
August 2023The Milky Way over a Joshua tree.
Photograph: NPS / Anna Cirimele · Public domain
March 2021Folded desert mountains in the park, from an NPS patrol flight.
Photograph: NPS / Emily Hassell · Public domain
- Walk at first light, while the rocks are cool and the birds are talking, and be in the shade before the rocks start talking instead.
- Admire the cactus garden from the path with your hands behind your back. (Leaned in for a closer look. The garden took a small souvenir of me instead.)
- Count the trees with their arms up. (Gave up in the first valley. The list asked for a smaller desert and was refused.)
- This desert was somebody’s home long before it was a park. Leave the old marks on the rocks for the people they belong to.
- Stay after dark, switch off every light, and give your eyes time to catch up with the sky.
A Joshua tree that has never bloomed. Most Joshua trees branch, the National Park Service explains, because a winter freeze damages the tips of their branches and, with well-timed rain, sets off both flowers and new branches; a tree first flowers at around 50 to 70 years old, or about eight feet tall. Some grow instead as a single, unbranched stalk, because they have never bloomed. They stand among the many-armed trees of the Mojave half of the park, growing half an inch to three inches a year, and since Joshua trees form no growth rings, their age is guessed from their height.
Tally, in the marginAll morning I waved back at the trees with arms. Not until the afternoon did I notice the plain straight ones standing among them, saving up. I waved at those too, more gently, in case it helped.
Getting there
How to get there. By car, from Interstate 10 or California Highway 62. There are three entrance stations, the Park Service says: the West Entrance, five miles south of Highway 62 at Joshua Tree Village; the North Entrance in Twentynine Palms, three miles south of Highway 62 on Utah Trail; and the South Entrance near Cottonwood Spring, off Interstate 10, 25 miles east of Indio. The closest airport is in Palm Springs; public transport is limited to local buses. The drive from the West to the North Entrance takes about 45 minutes, North to South about an hour, and West to South about an hour and a half. The Park Service warns against relying on GPS, which can route drivers onto rutted or soft-sand backcountry roads.
When to go. Spring and fall are the most comfortable seasons, the Park Service says, with highs typically of 70 to 85°F and lows around 50°F; winter highs are around 60°F with nights near or below freezing, and summer highs are usually over 100°F. Joshua trees usually bloom between mid-February and April. Strong winds and flash floods can come at any season. The park is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
What to arrange ahead. No reservation is needed to enter, the Park Service says. Campsite reservations are made on Recreation.gov, as are tours of the historic Keys Ranch, which can be visited only on a ranger-guided tour. There are no hotels, restaurants or gas stations in the park and no drinking water in its centre, so the Park Service asks visitors to arrive with enough food, water and fuel; water can be had at the West Entrance Station, the Black Rock Nature Center and the Twentynine Palms visitor center. Cell reception is very limited; the Park Service suggests downloading its app’s offline maps before arriving.
Safety. The State Department’s travel advisories cover other countries, so none applies here. The hazards are the desert’s own: heat, wind, flash floods, no water in the middle of the park, and cholla spines. In an emergency, dial 911.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Joshua Tree National Park?
Joshua Tree National Park is in southern California, between Interstate 10 and California Highway 62, about 140 miles east of Los Angeles and 175 miles north-east of San Diego. Its entrances are at Joshua Tree Village, Twentynine Palms and Cottonwood Spring, and the closest airport is in Palm Springs, the National Park Service says.
Which deserts meet in Joshua Tree National Park?
Two deserts meet in Joshua Tree National Park: the Mojave, higher and cooler, in the western half, where the Joshua trees grow; and the Colorado, part of the Sonoran Desert, lower and hotter, in the east, around the Pinto Basin and Cottonwood Spring. The National Park Service calls them two distinct desert ecosystems.
Is a Joshua tree a tree?
The Joshua tree, Yucca brevifolia, is a yucca in the agave family and a monocot, related to grasses and orchids, the National Park Service says; it was once classified as a giant lily. The Park Service notes that tree describes a growth form, not a plant family, and most Joshua trees fit it, with a woody trunk and branches.
How many Joshua trees are in Joshua Tree National Park?
The National Park Service estimates that there are about 870,000 Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park, growing at elevations between 2,800 and 5,800 feet. It names the Covington Flats area for some of the tallest, which reach about 40 feet and occasionally 50.
When do Joshua trees bloom?
Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park usually bloom between mid-February and April, the National Park Service says, and only after well-timed rain and a winter freeze. A tree first flowers at about 50 to 70 years old; some grow as single, unbranched stalks because they have never bloomed.
Who was Minerva Hoyt?
Minerva Hamilton Hoyt was a South Pasadena gardener and campaigner who founded the International Deserts Conservation League and persuaded President Franklin Roosevelt to proclaim Joshua Tree National Monument on 10 August 1936, the National Park Service says. A 5,405-foot peak in Joshua Tree National Park was named Mount Minerva Hoyt in 2012.
When did Joshua Tree become a national park?
Joshua Tree was proclaimed a national monument on 10 August 1936 and became Joshua Tree National Park on 31 October 1994, incorporating the monument, under Public Law 103-433, according to the National Park Service’s record of changes to the park system.
Is Joshua Tree an International Dark Sky Park?
Yes. The National Park Service says Joshua Tree National Park is a designated International Dark Sky Park by DarkSky International and holds an annual night sky festival. It names four designated stargazing areas and says the Pinto Basin Road between the Cholla Cactus Garden and Cottonwood has the darkest skies.
What to pack: the Desert & salt kit