The night before our exploration of the park, we stayed in the town of Joshua Tree at Joshua Tree RV & Campground, which ended up being super convenient (and with bonus access to a park with a playground right next door).

We checked out the Joshua Tree Visitor Center (not to be confused with the Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center in Twentynine Palms) and picked up our junior ranger book before heading out on Park Blvd/Quail Springs Rd. After backtracking to refuel our car, we entered the park.

Our first stop on Day 1 was the Hidden Valley Nature Trail, a 1 mile loop trail around some really cool rock formations. Next, we made the drive out to Keys View, which overlooks the Coachella Valley. We should have stopped for lunch at Cap Rock since they had at least one picnic table, but we had decided to skip it and instead check out Hall of Horrors. This was nontrivial to figure out where to go, but we luckily crossed paths with someone who had just come from the scramble and was happy to impart his knowledge after trying to figure it out for two days! This blog seems to give a good overview of how to find it. We ran into a group that was able to make it all the w

ay through, but we gave up at section that involved pressing your feet on one side of the slot with your hands on the other side and slowly shimmying up the side. It was still fun to explore! Finally, we headed off to Jumbo Rocks Campground, which would serve as our home for the night and saw a coyote prowling our campsite! There's a trail from that leads to Skull Rock from the end of the campground and connects with the Discovery Trail.

Some Joshua Trees

We woke up early on Day 2 to meet our guide from Stone Adventures at the Quail Springs Picnic Area for a 4-hour rock climbing/scrambling adventure. This was a ton of fun and really made our time at Joshua Tree memorable. The guide was excellent and well-equipped to handle a 5-year old newbie and the adults of the group who had very little rock climbing experience as well. Matt did three climbs from the picnic area while Wesley and Katie did two. Then we went back to the Hidden Valley area and got to experience it from a different angle: rock scrambling through the "Chasm of Doom". Afterwards, we pressed onto to hike out to Arch Rock. Be warned: there are no toilets in the official parking area for this hike, but there are some at the campground that is nearby (but there is no parking there). We ended our Joshua Tree National Park experience driving through the transition zone from the Mojave to Colorado desert, where Joshua trees were replaced with cholla cactus (stopping briefly at the cholla cactus garden).

Arch Rock