Joshua Tree is home to world-famous rock formations, funky Joshua trees, and a rich diversity of plants, animals, and human history. With stunning desert vistas and seemingly endless days of sunshine, the park attracts over three million visitors per year. There are a variety of activities and sights to experience. We welcome all people and backgrounds to enjoy this magical place.
OUR TRIP TO JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK (Twenty-nine Palms, CA), ST. GEORGE, UTAH, GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK (Ely, NV) AND SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
GOOD TO KNOW: On this trip, we took a flight to Phoenix, Arizona, to rent a car and then drove to Twenty-Nine Palms, CA (around a 5-hour drive). What we did not know is that Interstate 10 (going West) to Twenty-Nine Palms, CA would be overcrowded with cars, RV’s and huge semi-trucks delivering a ton of stuff to Los Angeles! Needless to say…it was a very stressful drive to our first hotel destination. We finally made it safely to Twenty-Nine Palms, California, but decided we would never do that again! Next time, (if there is a next time), we will fly into Palms Springs, California, even if it is not a “non-stop” flight from our neck of the woods. (Even at this point in our life, we are still learning some things as we continue to travel!) Sometimes, it is best to not take that wonderful “non-stop” flight and then attempt to drive four or five hours to your destination!
What can I say about Twenty-Nine Palms, California?
Well… Okay, just give me a few minutes! (I am trying to be nice here.) I will say that the palm trees are nice! I think they have at least 29 palm trees in town (I did not actually count the palm trees while I was there!) LOL!! Well, here it is…it is a very hot, dry and windy place! It is also a very desolate place to visit! There is not much to see in this town! (Usually, I try to say something nice about each town I have visited.) I will say right now that there are not many restaurants or hotels, and the price of gas is extremely high in this town!! The most we have ever paid for a gallon of gas!! I cannot even say: “It was a nice place to visit, but I would not want to live there”! The truth is…we could not wait to leave this town! We ate at two restaurants in Twenty-Nine Palms that were pretty good: The Rib Co., 72183 29 Palms Highway, and John’s Place, 72132 29 Palms Highway. The hotel we stayed at in town was the Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 72535 29 Palms Highway. I would say that the hotel was nice and probably the best hotel in this town! So, you are wondering why we were even visiting Twenty-nine Palms, California? Well, it does have one thing very close by that we wanted to visit: Joshua Tree National Park!!!
Joshua Tree National Park made our trip to Twenty-Nine Palms, California, tolerable! We arrived at the Joshua Tree Entrance to the Park early (around 8:30 a.m.) because everything I had read about the Park said that the line of cars trying to enter the Park after 10 a.m. can be very, very long. We only had a few cars in front of us when we were trying to enter the Park, so we were very happy. Another (short) travel suggestion: Try to read everything about the National Park you want to visit before you actually visit the Park. The “tip” about arriving early saved us a lot of time (and stress) just sitting in a line of cars trying to enter the Park. (When we left later in the day, the line of cars trying to enter the park entrance was miles long! The longest line of cars we have ever seen trying to enter a National Park! So, the suggestion/tip about when to visit the Park really paid off for us!)
FYI: Before you try to enter the Park, you will need to stop by the Visitor’s Center (in the City of Joshua Tree) to get your park maps and buy those wonderful souvenirs you cannot live without. The Visitor’s Center is not located in the National Park! It is miles away in the town of Joshua Tree. Also, there are other entrances into the Park: Twentynine Palms entrance and Cottonwood Spring entrance. We used the Joshua Tree (West Entrance) in to the Park.
JOSHUA TREES
PINYON PINES
CLICK ON THE MAP TO LEARN ABOUT EACH AREA OF THE PARK
Joshua Tree National Park is known for all the beautiful Joshua Trees (of course), Pinyon Pines, Cholla Cactus, and Yucca! If you only have a day to see the Park (like we did), you will want to cruise along Park Boulevard. You will be able to pick and choose what you want to stop and see in the Park. Park Boulevard is 25 miles long and runs from the park entrance at Joshua Tree to the Twenty-nine Palms entrance.
PARK BOULEVARD
CHOLLA CACTUS
YUCCA
There are so many more hikes available in this National Park and so many wonderful things to see. We loved seeing all the Joshua Trees, the rocks of all different sizes (that looked like mountains in some areas), and the variety of blooming cactus plants. Hopefully, you will have more than one whole day to visit this Park.
It will take you to many beautiful hiking trails, such as Hidden Valley Nature Trail, Discovery Trail, Barker Dam Trail, and Cap Rock Trail. The Hidden Valley Nature Trail passes through huge granite boulders before you get to the very beautiful and scenic Hidden Valley area. (Make sure you take plenty of water with you and use plenty of sunscreen before hiking this trail). This hike is in full sun (not shaded at all), and it gets hot while you are out on this trail. While you are hiking the Hidden Valley Trail make sure you look for rock climbers. We saw a few while we were hiking this trail!
As we made our way back to our hotel in Twenty-nine Palms (about 7 miles away), we realized that Joshua Tree National Park really made our time in Twenty-nine Palms worthwhile. The pictures we took of the Park were totally amazing!
As we left Twenty-nine Palms, we decided to take some less traveled roads to our next destination: St. George, Utah. We took Amboy Road (I’ll never forget that name), making our way to Interstate 40. To say this road is “a road less traveled” is an understatement! We saw only 3 cars in 90 miles!! Yep, you heard me right! It was quite nice driving a deserted road for a change! We kept wondering when we would see more cars or trucks on the road! They never showed up! The drive was filled with beautiful scenery, and we enjoyed every minute on the very relaxing drive all the way to Interstate 40! We knew we would encounter more traffic eventually, but really did not care at the time. When do you get to drive 90 miles and only see 3 cars?
We only had a 3 hr. 30-minute drive to Las Vegas, Nevada, where we planned to stop to eat some lunch. After all, it was Cinco de Mayo (May 5th for all of those out there who have no clue about May 5th and do not know Spanish!), and, we were definitely not going to miss eating Mexican Food that day (if I had any say in the matter whatsoever…I love Mexican Food)!! So, we drove to Las Vegas (and, yes, we finally encountered some traffic, especially near Las Vegas!) and stopped to eat some Mexican food at the first restaurant I could find that looked good! After lunch, we headed back on Interstate 40 to St. George, Utah.
So, you are wondering why we did not stay a day or two in Las Vegas? Well, we’ve been to “Vegas” many times! (And, no, it is not because we have a gambling problem!) Las Vegas happens to be a place we fly into often because it is a great place to rent a car and head out to many terrific National Parks out West!!
We really were interested in staying in St. George, Utah for a few days. St. George is only about 90 minutes North of Las Vegas and it was a town we have never had a chance to visit. St. George also has many wonderful State Parks we were interested in visiting and hiking. So, we stayed in St. George for two nights so we could check out the town and some of those State Parks! We stayed at a very nice hotel (Best Western Plus Abbey Inn, located at 1129 S. Bluff Street, St. George, Utah) that was located right in the middle of town, near many restaurants and shops.
PIONEER PARK
The next day we drove 3hrs. 30 min. (VIA I-15, US 50/6) to Ely, Nevada, and stayed two nights at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 1505 E. Aultman Street, Ely, Nevada. It was a really nice hotel in a good location! On the way to Ely, we encountered many miles of “no one else on the road” (to our delight)! No cars or trucks in sight for many, many miles! Maybe not 90 miles with only 3 cars (like in California), but close to it! Why Ely, Nevada, you ask? Well, it happens to be the closest (bigger sized town) near our 43rd National Park we planned to visit: Great Basin National Park!
The next day, we drove only a few miles to visit Pioneer Park and the Red Hills Desert Gardens. Both are free to the public and they are well worth your time to stop and visit each one. Pioneer Park is up on a bluff at the edge of town and it overlooks St. George! It has a slot canyon, red hills, and beautiful scenery all around the Park. We hiked the area for a few hours and then headed to the Red Hills Desert Gardens. The Gardens were beautiful! We saw wonderful displays of blooming cacti, trees, desert plants, and flowers. There were many trails with ponds and unique paths that took you over some bridges. There were also some topiaries (my favorite being a topiary of a Bison), and it also had views of Pioneer Park (which was right next to the Gardens area)! We walked around the large Desert Gardens for a few hours and then decided it was time to go because we were getting quite hungry! We went to the Black Bear Diner near our hotel for lunch. We have eaten at a Black Bear Diner before in Colorado Springs, Colorado! We happen to love the cute restaurant. Who can resist all those black bear decorations and the great “down home” country food they serve? After lunch, we drove around St. George to shop at some unique shops and see more of the town. We were so full from our lunch at the Black Bear Diner that we just had ice cream for dinner. The ice cream shop was located out our hotel back door, across the street! Not too far to walk for ice cream!!
RED HILLS DESERT GARDENS
When we arrived in Ely, Nevada, we noticed a big change in the temperature outside! It was getting cold very fast! A cold front had hit Ely and we actually ran from our car to the hotel entrance because it was cold and very windy outside. Darn, the wind had picked up to over 30 mph! When we checked our phones for the actual temperature outside, it said 32 degrees!! The weatherman on the news had said that a “fluke cold front” was due to arrive in Ely that night. Yikes, we’re from Florida, and when we left for our trip out West, it was 94 degrees and very hot & humid! Great, we thought, we did not bring heavy jackets, hats, or gloves with us on this trip!! Well, I thought, maybe I will wear ALL of the clothes I had brought in my luggage the next day when we planned to visit Great Basin National Park? LOL!!
Well, the news got worse! The weather forecast for the next day (in the morning) was 18 degrees with a constant 35 mph wind! Now, that, to me, is extremely COLD!! I thought (only for a brief second or two) that we will just have to miss visiting our 43rd National Park!! No, if you know me at all, that is not an option!! I thought, maybe I will actually wear ALL of the clothes I packed in my luggage under my sweatshirt tomorrow? (Another one of Alma’s (quick and desperate) Travel Suggestions: Make sure you always take quite a few extra shirts, some heavy socks, jeans, and hiking shoes or closed-toed shoes with you when you travel for “layering” in case you get a cold front that you did not plan for.
The next day (after a hearty, warm breakfast), we both pushed on the back door of the hotel in order to get outside to run to our car and head to Great Basin National Park! And, yes, it took both of us pushing very hard on the back door to get out of the hotel that morning!! The weatherman was right…our vehicle and cell phones indicated 18 degrees…winds 35 mph!! Which was kind of weird because it looked quite nice outside; the sun was shining brightly in a clear and beautiful blue sky! Oh well, I thought (as I felt warmer in all of the extra layered clothing I wore in the car), at least our pictures will come out perfect! And, really, I do not think you would ever know that it was absolutely freezing outside from the pictures we took later in the day at Great Basin National Park!
We drove 55 miles to reach the Visitor’s Center at Great Basin National Park. It took about 45 minutes to get there because no one else was brave enough to be on the road that day! We had booked a Lehman Cave Tour and had to get there about one hour ahead of the tour time to check in with the Park Rangers. So, we bought what we needed at the Great Basin Visitor’s Center and then drove a few miles to the Lehman Cave Visitor’s Center. We watched a great film about Great Basin and the old bristlecone pine trees on Wheeler’s Peak. It was too bad that we did not get to see the actual bristlecone pine trees because Wheeler’s Peak was closed due to 4 feet of snowfall! Another couple wanted to drive up to Wheeler’s Peak that day, but they were told by the Park Rangers that the roads were closed and would stay closed until the middle of July! (We were visiting Great Basin in early May!!) That is two more months of ice and snow on Wheeler’s Peak!
So, after our wonderful Lehman Cave Tour, which was very informative and another great cave adventure, we headed back to Ely, NV because we could not hike any additional trails at Great Basin National Park! We did, however, take a bunch of beautiful pictures of Wheeler’s Peak and the surrounding mountains that were covered in snow in the Park!
The next day we drove 3 hours and 30 minutes to Salt Lake City, Utah. We saw the Bonneville Salt Flats and the Great Salt Lake on the way to our hotel near the airport. We ate at a little restaurant by our hotel and then packed for our flight back home. It was our first time visiting Salt Lake City, and we thought it was a really pretty place to see. The mountains around Salt Lake City had also received a bunch of snow in the “fluke” snowstorm and they looked beautiful. The news reported that the ski resorts in the mountains around Salt Lake City were planning to stay open for at least another month because of all the late-season snowfall. We only stayed in Salt Lake City for a night before we flew back home. However, we think we might like to revisit Salt Lake City again. It looks like a very scenic and fun place to visit!
ALMA'S PHOTO ALBUM
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