The Best Guide to Joshua Tree National Park

It’s definitely an interesting time. International travel seems to be getting further and further away from us. With some countries opening back up, it still seems like a while before I’ll be jetting off to say… Bali anytime soon.

However, something we all can still do is travel around our hometowns more. And with the United State’s National Parks opening back up, I decided to take advantage and head out to the beautiful Joshua Tree National Park in Southern, California.

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First off, wow this place is gorgeous! It has such a cool vibe. And I love the hiking and the surreal landscapes.

Me on the Lost Palms Oasis Trail

WHERE TO STAY:

Since this was my first time, I figured a two night stay was a good idea. And honestly, I could have stayed way longer!

I was looking around for a quiet little cabin to rent, but at the time of wanting to go, everything seemed pretty booked up.

But that’s when I found it.  A super cute trailer park filled with themed vintage trailers!  The place is called Hicksville Trailer Park. They want to keep it all super under wraps to keep the privacy of it, so you won’t find the address until after you’ve booked a trailer, but it is well within driving distance to Joshua Tree National Park. We stayed in The Pony trailer – which was adorable! However, if it’s a busy time of year you will be right by the dart board and ping pong table. Just a heads up if you’re wanting to sleep a bit early.  But wow this place was cute!  And I loved having breakfast while sitting on our lovely wooden swinging bench.  The place has a pool, a bunch of vintage video games (I got a pretty decent score on their pinball), and even a miniature golf course!  We almost didn’t want to leave!  But since I came out here to see a National Park, we did ;).

Hicksville Trailer Park – The Pony Trailer

WHAT TO EAT:

I loved the food out here in Joshua Tree.  It was so great and a ton of vegan options. Here is a list of some great restaurants open for take out right now:

Frontier Cafe. Honestly one of the BEST sandwiches I’ve ever had. They have great vegan options too. I’m still thinking about how good their sandwiches are! The space is really cute too. We unfortunately could not sit inside at the time of our visit, but it looked very inviting.

Joshua Tree Coffee Company. Great coffee and they were open outside for take away orders. There’s not a lot of shade though when waiting just as a heads up.

The Natural Sister’s Cafe. Came here a few times for some great breakfast items. Had dinner here once too. Really good healthy and vegan food options.

To save money, we ended up going to a grocery store and picking up food we could make at our trailer. We made sandwiches and had lots of food bars for our day hikes. It was pretty hot when we were there, so we were definitely trying to eat on the lighter side.  Also please make sure you take lots of water with you on the hikes.  Especially as we head into the summer months.

Frontier Cafe

WHAT TO SEE:

Now for the sites. I really had no idea how beautiful Joshua Tree is. And there’s so much to do! It’s $30 to enter for 7 days. So it’s really not bad if you plan to spend a week there. I’d love to go back and actually camp out here! But before I get too far off topic ;), I’ll list some of my favorite sites I saw:

Cap Rock. Might be my favorite because it was our first stop. We entered the park the first day around sunset so we went straight there and did the nature walk and climbed on the rocks. It’s a great place to watch the sunset! People were set up with chairs, but I was happy sitting on a rock and taking in the beautiful view. From the very moment I stepped foot here, I knew Joshua Tree was going to be a very special place.

Me at Cap Rock

Barker Dam. I loved this hike. It’s not long but it leads to a beautiful spot that has water.

Me taking in the beauty of Barker Dam

Hidden Valley.  I loved, loved, loved this hike.  It’s so beautiful.  You walk through a bunch of rocks and suddenly you’re in this beautiful hidden valley (hence the name) ;).  This hike has a lot of cool history on the plaques around the trail too which was really fun.

Hidden Valley

Wall Street Mill.  This was a really pretty hike.  There are some old ruins and at the end of the trail is an old mill.  Really recommend if you like mills as much as I do.

Wall Street Mill

Ryan Mountain.  I loved this hike.  The views are absolutely stunning!  And definitely try and time it for the sunset.  It’s such a beautiful sight.  It feels a bit long while hiking up, but keep going.  It’s very worth it. (It’s a 3 mile there and back hike).  We did use flashlights on our way down towards the end as it was getting dark.  I saw a couple of people try to hike it in the dark, but please don’t do that.

Sunset view from Ryan Mountain

Skull Rock.  This place was fun, but wasn’t my favorite site in the park.  I did love the trail over to the large rocks though.  That was really neat.  And it’s very surreal to climb on them.

Arch Rock.  This was such a beautiful rock.  And you can climb up and sit under it.  So fun!

Me on Arch Rock

Cholla Cactus Garden.  This is such a gorgeous little walk.  I bet it’s really beautiful at sunset.

Cholla Cactus Garden

Lost Palms Oasis Trail.  This was an amazing hike.  However, it gets very hot out there.  On our last day we woke up early enough to be hiking by 6am.  It still got hot, but we finished the hike just before 10am.  It goes to a really cool oasis.  Be careful hiking down to it though.  We opted not to because of the heat, but if we’d left earlier we would have.  Also watch out for rattle snakes.  We encountered three of them.  The last one shot up like it was from an Indiana Jones movie!  So please do stay safe.

Wall Street Mill Trail

Also one last note, the stars out here are absolutely out of this world!!  (Pun intended) ;).  No, but really, it’s so incredibly beautiful out here.  We sat out on the rocks and watched all the shooting stars for quite a while.  It’s definitely a place worth visiting.  Especially being so close to Los Angeles. And I cannot wait to go back!

Want to read more about fun places near Los Angeles?  Check out my Best Weekend in Palm Springs post.

Happy travels loves! 🙂

Sunset at Cap Rock

Barker Dam

Me at Cap Rock

Joshua Tree Roads

Cap Rock

Me helping a Joshua Tree at Cap Rock

Ryan Mountain