Meaghan Webster | Public Affairs

What to see in Joshua Tree when you only have a few hours to explore the park.

Over the holidays, my husband and I needed to get from California to Phoenix. We decided to make it a road trip, with a quick stop to Joshua Tree National Park along the way.

I had been to the park once before, but my husband had never visited, so I picked some of the top sights for us to prioritize during the half day we spent in the park.

We didn’t have time to do any real hiking, so I picked sights with amazing views we could enjoy with minimal effort. This approach would also be perfect when traveling with anyone who doesn’t enjoy hiking in general.

Read below for how we maximized our half day in this beautiful park:

Getting into the park: Which entrance should you use?

The night before our adventure in the park, we stayed in the town of Joshua Tree. This meant that our closest entry point into the park was the West Entrance Station on Quail Springs Road. Knowing that Joshua Tree gets crowded, we headed there early, around 8:30am.

This option worked great, as it was the most direct route to some of our first stops of the day, which I outline below.

As you can see, it was very foggy when we arrived! This is one of the conditions you might expect to see when visiting Joshua Tree in winter. At other elevations in the park, the fog burns away into sunshine.

First Stop: Cap Rock

We continued along the main park road until we came to our first stop of the morning: Cap Rock. Not only does this spot offer views of beautiful rock formations (so named for the tiny “cap” shaped rock hanging off the larger boulders), but you can also explore a short, flat nature trail here.

The trail, which is less than half a mile in length, takes you up close through Joshua Trees and other desert plants like the cholla cactus, and gets you right up in the space-like rocks reminiscent of a Star Wars movie.

As you can see, we ascended out of the fog to get to this trail, enjoying sunny views. We spent just under a half hour here.

Next Stop: Keys View

Continuing along the main park loop, we took a side road and gained elevation on our way up to Keys View, an overlook that provides awesome views both back into the park from where you came, as well as down into the Palm Springs Valley and toward the San Bernardino mountains.

Because we gained a few hundred feet in elevation, we rose back into the fog, so our views were clouded by that. I can only imagine how much you can see on a clear day – but we still found this spot very beautiful. There’s a haunting beauty to Joshua Trees surrounded by clouds.

It took about 10 minutes to drive here from Cap Rock, and we spent about 20 minutes at the viewpoint.

Last Stop: Skull Rock

Finally, with time running short and our need to get all the way to Phoenix later that day, we continued on to our last stop in the park: the iconic Skull Rock.

This is one of the more well-known and popular sights in the park, and for good reason. Erosion over millennia has sculpted one of Joshua Tree’s giant boulders into the shape of a skull. It’s uncanny, and worth braving the crowds to see with your own eyes.

The drive here from Keys View takes about 15 minutes, and you will enjoy some beautiful views along the way – of Ryan Mountain, Jumbo Rocks Campground, and Joshua Trees filling the Mojave Desert as far as the eye can see!

There is no parking lot at Skull Rock, which means you’ll need to park along the side of the road and walk a little ways to get there.

While you wait your turn to take a photo, you can climb onto the nearby boulders and enjoy the views of the Joshua Trees and mountains around you.

Exiting the Park

From Skull Rock, the most natural way to exit the park is at Twenty-Nine Palms, which you access by continuing along the main park loop.

We exited there around 12pm, and stopped in town for lunch before continuing our road trip east into Arizona.

This was a perfect way to spend half of our day in Joshua Tree National Park!

It’s always nice to have more time to explore, do some hiking, and really get a feel for your surroundings. But when time is limited, I believe that enjoying some of a beautiful place like the Mojave Desert is better than nothing at all. Happy travels!