I’d heard so much trash talk about Joshua Tree in the past that I honestly wasn’t looking forward to this part of our trip. And I was soooo happy to be wrong.

5AM-ish – Start driving through the middle of nowhere.

The night before, we’d driven from Death Valley to Barstow, California to sleep in a tiny motel right on Route 66. We woke super early in the dark to start the journey to Joshua Tree.

The gateway town for JT is called Twentynine Palms and it was about two hours away.

7:30AM – Pit stop @ Joshua Tree Coffee Company

Got some tasty coffee for some much needed energy, admired their pink aesthetic, and took a much needed pee break. (Their bathrooms are outside on the patio and they give you a code to enter.)

Shout out to the staff here who were super friendly despite how busy it was. I also loved that they have a window into the back area and you can watch their whole process while you wait.

8:30AM – Parking lot breakfast

Maybe these wraps technically aren’t “breakfast food,” but this was the best visitor’s center food I’ve had in my life. I looove being in this part of California, I get vegetarian-spoiled.

Joshua Tree is free to enter, there’s no formal pay station with a ranger or anything.

The vault toilets here at the Hidden Valley trailhead were terrible and hot on a different level. There are also hella warning signs about bees (my biggest fear, yay).

8:45AM – Hidden Valley Nature Trail

The interpretative trail here is technically a mile long but really it’s what you make of it. I took a million pictures of the Joshua trees and cholla cactus, I was in heeeaven

It’s a giant playground of boulders and rock walls. It’s simple to see how Joshua Tree is know to be a rock climber’s paradise. We saw plenty of ’em and it’s so fun to watch them have fun.

We climbed over, up, in between, and all around.

There was this super old-seeming dead tree that I was enamored with.

It was January 29 when we were here (hence the long sleeves) and it was semi-chilly in the morning but quickly warmed up. I can’t imagine how blisteringly hot it must get here in the summer.

Then we drove 10-ish minutes to…

10:45am – Ryan Mountain

Remember how I said I wasn’t that stoked to come here? This is what really turned it around. One of my favorite hikes we’ve ever done.

AllTrails calls this 2.9 miles out-and-back with 1100 ft gain. It was probably more like 4. The beginning is alllll up, and the end is alllll down.

The trail is an easy, clear, beaten down sandy dirt path with stone stairs at some parts. You have a cool aerial view of Joshua Tree’s Hall of Horrors from here (that parking lot was *slammed*).

It was pretty intensely hot by the time we got to the top a bit before noon. We went through a TON of water. (And there are bathrooms at this trailhead, thank God.)

We hung out at the summit for a while, taking in the views and eating some snacks. A super nice stranger snapped some cute pics of us. I was so tired haha

My favorite part was this: for the entire hike, we had a view of Death Valley’s salt flats and it was blowing my mind that I could see it from so far away. We were in Death Valley the day before and had driven so many hours since, but they were *right* there.

And then we saw Mount Whitney!!! If you read my post about Badwater Basin and my obsession since childhood, just know that Whitney is on that list for the same exact reason. The highest mountain in the lower 48. Such a cool surprise. I swear I’m gonna climb it one day.

The way down was super quick thanks to the elevation, stairs, not caring about the view we’d already looked at for hours, and my need to pee.

We hung out in the bed of the truck in the parking lot, just eating our breakfast leftovers and reeling from the effort we’d used to climb Ryan Mountain. It felt so rewarding.

2PM – Cholla Cactus Garden

It took us a little under an hour to make it from Ryan Mountain’s trailhead to the parking lot for the Cholla Cactus Garden. (Think about that when you’re thinking about how much gas you need! And no bathrooms whatsoever, have fun pulling over with no cover haha.)

This was the part of the trip that was my idea. I can’t tell ya how much I love cholla cactus. Until then, I’d never seen one in person.

I’m a huge houseplant lover, especially cacti and succulents. I’ve been so interested in cholla (aka “jumping cholla”) because of the personality they have. I think it’s so funny that they attach onto people and can cause so many (relatively harmless) problems. If you’ve never seen anyone get stuck, you should totally YouTube it.

Anyway, we were here! It was so cool to be surround by them.

And I had no idea that they have little fruits!

Dogs aren’t allowed here at all. There’s a rock-bordered path throughout the garden and a few plank board walks.

And they definitely do live up to their nickname of being “jumping,” not that they can actually sense or react to you but because their pieces are held together in such a fragile way that the slightest wind can cause them to disconnect and fall. It’s honestly kinda startling to see in person.

If you wanna be super prepared, bring a fork with you to be able to best fling it off of yourself if you get stuck.

3:15PM – Bye, Joshua Tree

But not before another pee break, you know me.

I love the National Park Service’s graphic designer.

6:15PM – Sunset

And it was such a pretty one. We were driving through nothingness-desert for a whiiiile until stopping at this sketchy gas station at the California/Arizona border.

Then we drove the rest of the way to our hotel in Laughlin, Nevada – a weird little casino town that I never knew existed.

It was our midway point to our next stop (which was also very hot, beautiful, and full of rocks): Valley of Fire State Park.

Check out the Joshua Tree Coffee Company:
https://jtcoffee.com/ | https://www.instagram.com/jtcoffeeco/

Learn more about Joshua Tree National Park:
https://www.nps.gov/jotr/

Hidden Valley Loop via AllTrails:
https://www.alltrails.com/ar/trail/us/california/hidden-valley–3

Ryan Mountain trail via AllTrails:
https://www.alltrails.com/ar/trail/us/california/ryan-mountain-trail

Cholla Cactus Garden via AllTrails:
https://www.alltrails.com/ar/trail/us/california/cholla-cactus-garden

Coyote Peterson’s dramatic cholla experience:
https://youtu.be/dJzTse9Dsaw?si=JJS7iUQmd-caph1_

The motel I mentioned off Route 66 in Barstow, which I *highly* reccomend:
http://www.route66-motel.com/