One Day in Joshua Tree Itinerary: Ultimate Day Trip to Joshua Tree National Park

The sprawling desert wonderland of Joshua Tree National Park is one of the closest national parks to Los Angeles, and perfect for a little staycation adventure. Preserving almost 800,000 acres of otherworldly rock formations and starkly beautiful Joshua tree-dotted landscapes, there’s a whole lot of sights to add to a Joshua Tree itinerary. But what if you’ve only got one day in Joshua Tree? Have no fear, we’ve got you covered! We’ve included the best sights to see on a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park, making sure you see what you came for.

The park is glorious. It’s no wonder that a day trip to Joshua Tree is on our essential Los Angeles Bucket List.

We live near the park and have visited many, many times, so we can help you plan the best day trip possible!

Before You Go

• Read our guide on how to score the cheapest flights
• Book your flight to Palm Springs, LA, Ontario, or San Diego
• Protect your travel plans with trip insurance
• Check your phone plan or get a United States eSIM
• Review our carry-on packing list 
• Learn everything you need to know about traveling through airport security
• Secure your car rental
• Get a good ol’ fashioned paperback guide since you won’t always have service. We like this one.
• Pack the right travel cameras and comfortable travel clothes

What is Joshua Tree National Park?

Joshua Tree National Park protects 1,235 square miles of unique desert landscapes in Southern California’s Colorado and Mojave Deserts. As its name suggests, the park protects one of the largest habitats of Joshua trees in the world — which grow only in the Mojave Desert.

Located about 2-3 hours from the Los Angeles area, visitors can easily spend one day in Joshua Tree National Park and see what makes the park special.

READ MORE | 5 Days in Los Angeles Itinerary

Is One Day in Joshua Tree National Park Worth It?

Joshua Tree National Park covers over 790,000 acres — a huge area about the size of Rhode Island!

With miles of desert wilderness, there’s a ton of space to explore here. And it’s beautiful. There’s a reason Joshua Tree is considered one of the best vacation spots in California for families!

With that being said, the park’s network of paved roads makes it easy to spend just one day in Joshua Tree National Park to hit the park’s biggest attractions.

We’d say it is worth spending just one day in Joshua Tree National Park, if that’s all the time you have. More time will allow you to get off-the-beaten track, but you’ll find that one day will let you hit the top sights.

If you plan on visiting other national parks after Joshua Tree National Park, you might West to look into getting one of these national park scratch off maps!

The Layout of Joshua Tree National Park

Before we lay out our Joshua Tree One Day Itinerary, a quick explanation of the layout of the park is in order.

Be prepared for lots of driving if you’re going to visit Joshua Tree National Park in one day! Driving allows you to see the best of what the park has to offer while maximizing your time during your one day itinerary in Joshua Tree National Park.

The park has three entrances and three main paved roads, as well as a few other unpaved/4WD roads.

Three Entrances of Joshua Tree National Park

The entrances are near Joshua Tree in the west, Twentynine Palms in the east, and Cottonwood Springs in the south near Interstate 10, with over 50 miles of road separating the most distant points in the park.

Three Main Paved Roads of Joshua Tree National Park

Park Boulevard runs between the Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms entrances, while Pinto Basin road splits off in the north-central part of the park towards Cottonwood Oasis and the southern regions of the park. Keyes View Road runs for  5.5 miles from the middle of the park to Keys View in the south.

Most of the sites in our Joshua Tree National Park 1 day itinerary are to be found on these main roads, making it easy to get around on your day trip to Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree One Day Itinerary

With your time limited to only one day, here are our picks for the best spots to add to a one day Joshua Tree itinerary.

This is a jam-packed Joshua Tree Itinerary that will keep you in awe from sunup to sundown and beyond, so take notes!

Sunrise at Cholla Cactus Garden

Sunrise at Cholla Cactus Garden

Start off your  Joshua Tree one day trip with a bang by catching the sunrise at the Cholla Cactus Garden located in the middle of the park on Pinto Basin Road.

This is most feasible if you are able to spend the night nearby (we will recommend places to stay at the end of this post), otherwise you’re going to have to leave quite early, depending on the time of year!

Wherever you start your 1 day Joshua Tree itinerary from, the cactus garden is the most remote spot, so it makes sense to start here.

The Cholla Cactus Garden, in the upper reaches of the Colorado Desert portion of the park, hosts thousands of peculiar fuzzy Cholla cactus that glow beautifully in the rays of the rising or setting sun.

While the Cholla Cactus Garden is worth visiting any time during your Joshua Tree one day trip, it’s totally worth the extra effort of waking up before sunrise and getting your butt down there to watch the sunrise.

A word to the wise: some areas in the park are quite remote, including the Cactus Garden. Be very careful for road hazards as you make your way down park roads, as you could be miles away from help with no cell service. On the way to the Cholla Cactus Garden, we got a nail in our tire, so be very careful!

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Ben at Arch Rock

Arch Rock

Next stop on our one day itinerary for Joshua Tree National Park is a visit to Arch Rock. To get here from the cactus garden, take your way back up Pinto Basin Road to the north towards White Tank Campground.

Joshua Tree National Park is world-famous for its rock formations, and the area around Arch Rock and the White Tank Campground is one of our favorite areas to explore.

If you’re lucky, you can find parking on the road just outside the White Tank Campground and walk through it towards Arch Rock. If you can’t find parking near the campground, you can park about a mile up the road at the Arch Rock Nature Trail lot.

While the short trail to the arch is not well-defined and easy to lose track of, sooner or later you’ll find your way to Arch Rock.

With all this beauty, it’s no wonder that Joshua Tree is included on our list of the best road trips in Southern California for couples.

Rock walls near Arch Rock

What we enjoyed even more than the arch itself was climbing through the narrow slot-like gaps in the rock walls, which feel much more remote than they are (3 minutes away from the campground).

Expert tip: Download the free app maps.me, and load the offline maps for the area ahead of time (while you’re still connected to internet). These maps are accessible on your phone even if you lose data (which we did), and will help you avoid getting lost!

Skull Rock

Jumbo Rocks and Skull Rock

Time for the next site on our one day Joshua Tree itinerary!

Get back up to Park Boulevard  and head towards Skull Rock, one of the best Joshua Tree photography spots. One of the most iconic images of the national park is Skull Rock, a slightly creepy rock formation that definitely resembles its namesake.

Located right on the main road, you don’t even need to get out of your car to see Skull Rock, which is great if you’re running short on time trying to see Joshua Tree National Park in one day.

Skull Rock is right next to Jumbo Rocks, a popular campground that has interesting rock formations worth a quick climb. Or skip Jumbo Rocks to save time on your day trip to Joshua Tree National Park.

Lauren at Queen Valley Road

Optional: Queen Valley Road (Dirt Road)

If you want to get a bit off the beaten path in your one day itinerary for Joshua Tree National Park, consider driving down the unpaved Queen Valley Road from in between Skull Rock and Barker Dam. While the road isn’t paved and is somewhat sandy, most cars can handle the road in all but the worst conditions.

In this area you’ll find less crowds and lots of Joshua trees, making it a perfect addition to your Joshua Tree National Park 1 day itinerary. I love driving down dirt backroads, so naturally Queen Valley Road was one of my favorite experiences in our Joshua Tree National Park itinerary.

READ MORE| Check out the top scenic drives in LA

Barker Dam

Barker Dam

A popular stop on many a Joshua Tree National Park itinerary, Barker Dam  is an interesting spot to view water in an otherwise dry desert. You’ll also find other sites of interest, including an alcove with Native American petroglyphs.

The dam was built over a century ago by ranchers who wished to trap seasonal rains. Nowadays the dam sometimes has water behind it, sometimes not, depending on the time of year of your visit.

Even if the water has dried up, a walk around the mile or so loop trail here is worth a quick visit. There’s even some Native American petroglyphs nearby, which was an added bonus that we had no idea about before we visited.

We were even lucky enough to get up close and personal with some of the park’s most elusive wildlife: bighorn sheep!

Bighorn Sheep at Barker Dam

But even if you aren’t so lucky, Barker Dam is still worth a spot on a one day in Joshua Tree itinerary. If you hike the Barker Dam trail without long stops, it can take you about an hour.

Sunset at Keys View

Sunset at Keys View

By now, your day trip to Joshua Tree National Park will probably be coming to an end — it’s been a lot to pack into one day! For the penultimate stop in our 1 day Joshua Tree itinerary, start heading down to Keys View 30-45 minutes before sunset.

Depending on where you are in the park, it could take 20 minutes or more to drive to Keys View, so make sure you leave early enough if you want to catch the sunset.

Perched at over 5,000 feet at the edge of the Coachella Valley, Keys View is the highest point reachable by road in the park.

Keys View offers amazing sunset views over Palm Springs, the Salton Sea, the San Jacinto Mountains, and even into Mexico on extremely clear days. We can’t think of a better way to end your Joshua Tree one day itinerary than with catching the sunset at Keys View.

Stargazing

Once the sun goes down, there’s still one more activity you can squeeze in to your Joshua Tree National Park 1 day itinerary. The park boasts some of the darkest skies in Southern California, making it a primo spot for stargazing.

Pull over pretty much anywhere in the center of the park to enjoy some of the best stargazing in the region, especially on nights near the new moon. But be warned — the park and its roads are very dark at night, so drive with caution.

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Adapt It for the Weekend: Joshua Tree 2-Day Itinerary

Got more than one day for your Joshua Tree itinerary? If you want to adapt your one day itinerary to fill an entire Joshua Tree weekend itinerary, there are a few adjustments we suggest.

First of all, it’s probably more convenient to experience the sunrise at Cholla Cactus Garden on your second day, instead of your first day. We also recommend you take some more time exploring more remote areas of the park, which we will go into in more detail in the following subsections.

Here are some additional ideas for a Joshua Tree weekend itinerary.

Drive Pinto Basin Road

The Pinto Basin in the middle of the park is probably the most remote area of the entire park. If you have time for a Joshua Tree 2 day itinerary, it’s definitely worth the drive down Pinto Basin Road to check out this desolate corner of the park.

Straddling the unique transition zone between the Mojave Desert in the north and the Colorado Desert in the south, driving the length of Pinto Basin road to the Cottonwood Visitor Center allows you to take in the vast sweep of the empty landscape in its whole glory.

49 Palms Oasis

Hike to an Oasis

Joshua Tree National Park is home to five different oases where you can view California fan palms in their natural habitat. Two of them are reachable by popular day hikes: the 3.2-mile-roundtrip 49 Palms Oasis trail and the longer 7.2-mile-roundtrip Lost Palms Oasis.

Depending on your hiking ability, these hikes are a fantastic addition to a Joshua Tree weekend itinerary. Both trails involve some elevation change and very little shade, so make sure you bring plenty of water and avoid hiking during the heat of the day. You might also consider investing in a Garmin hiking watch to track your hike.

We opted for the shorter, 3.2 mile hike for our Joshua Tree itinerary and thought it was stunning, and well worth the trip. We started our hike around 7 am, and spent a good chunk of time enjoying the oasis. In fact, by the time we were heading back it was notably hotter and sunnier, making the return trip surprisingly more grueling. We can’t stress it enough: bring water!

Visit Cottonwood Springs Oasis

If you want to visit an oasis but don’t want to hike much, you could visit the Cottonwood Springs Oasis. Easily reachable by a walking path, this oasis is located near the park’s southern entrance.

Drive Geology Tour Road

If you’re comfortable driving on sandy 4WD roads, take a drive on the 18 mile Geology Tour Road loop. This tour takes you past some interesting geological features of the park, and away from the crowds. This is a perfect addition to a Joshua Tree 2 day itinerary, as you could easily spend half a day or more exploring areas back here.

Rock Climbing

Joshua Tree is a world-famous rock climbing destination, with technical and non-technical routes for a vast array of climbing skills. I love bouldering, and I had a blast scrambling on boulders around the park.

Some of the best rock climbing areas in the park are Hidden Valley, Wonderland of Rocks, and Indian Cove. We stayed at Indian Cove Campground, and I was amazed at how easy it was to climb quite high on the rock formations, including directly behind our campsite!

What to Bring to Joshua Tree National Park

• A good pair of hiking shoes. Ben loves these, and Lauren loves these, but Moabs are a classic, comfortable and fairly affordable option that we highly recommend.
• Hiking socks. The right socks make all the difference!
• Polarized sunglasses.
• A hat to block the sun. We use this one and this one.
• Snacks and water. We love using these travel-friendly collapsible canteens (our full review here).
• Lunch. No need to waste precious time leaving the park to grab food. Bring your own in this portable cooler!
• Sunblock. You’ll get plenty of sun exposure! We like this non-greasy sunscreen stick when traveling.
• A camera! Read our budget travel camera guide for affordable suggestions. We shot all these pictures in this post (minus the drone shots) using this camera body and this camera lens. However, drones are not permitted in national parks.

While it can be hot in the summer, it can be cooler at other times of the year.

If you’re visiting in summer you won’t need many layers. However, for all other seasons you should bring layers, as mornings and evenings can be chilly.

Where to Stay Near Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park is near the towns of Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms, as well as Yucca Valley, Landers, and Wonder Valley. The national park is a bit further from the Palm Springs and Coachella Valley area, but still doable as a day trip from there.

There are many adorable glamping sites within reach—refer to our Glamping in Joshua Tree guide for everything you need to know on that.

All of these areas have various vacation rentals, hotels, and campgrounds from which you can launch your day trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Check out this review of 18 epic Airbnbs in Joshua Tree.

Stays Near Western Entrance

If you’d like to stay near the western entrance of Joshua Tree National Park, the High Desert Motel and Safari Motor Inn are budget options that are close.

For a cute mid-range option, The Castle House Estate is also pretty close to the western entrance.

Stays Near Eastern Entrance

If you’d like to stay near the eastern entrance, the SureStay Plus by Best Western and Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites are budget options to try.

For a mid-range hotel near the eastern entrance, you can try Sunnyvale Garden Suites.

You’ll also find a variety of epic Joshua Tree cabin rentals, if that’s more your vibe!

 Camping in Joshua Tree National Park

If you decide on camping in Joshua Tree National Park, we highly recommend it! We personally camped at the Indian Cove Campground. We loved it because of how spacious, quiet and beautiful it is, but it is quite secluded from the rest of the national park.

If you do choose to camp, check out our list of recommended camping gear.

What To Do Near Joshua Tree

There’s lots to do in the Joshua Tree area outside of the national park.

The Joshua Tree area is well known for its quirky and artsy vibe, with attractions including:

• Pioneertown
• Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum
• The Integratron
• Giant Rock
• Daniel Popper’s Transmission Sculpture
• Sky Village Swap Meet in Yucca Valley
• Desert Christ Park
• The World Famous Crochet Museum
• Simi Dabah Sculptures

Joshua Tree Itinerary: Final Thoughts

There you have it, our tips on how to spend one day in Joshua Tree National Park. Even though it’s such a huge park, it is possible to have an awesome day trip to Joshua Tree National Park. From Skull Rock to Arch Rock and everywhere in between, we’ve got you covered for your Joshua Tree Itinerary!

Heading to LA next?  Check out out 5-day LA itinerary, the best places to eat in LA, the top scenic drives in LA, the best dog-friendly hikes in LA, tips and tricks for Universal Studios Hollywood, and consider decorating your own cake at the Ace of Cakes chef’s studio.

Also, learn about the epic West Hollywood Carnaval, and why we think LA is freaking awesome.

Or perhaps you’re heading to Orange County next? You can check out the new Rise of the Resistance ride at Disneyland, stay at the best hotel walking distance to Disneyland, and try luxury bowling at Downtown Disney.

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Did we miss anything essential from our Joshua Tree itinerary?

Let us know in a comment below!