Joshua Tree National Park

140mi east of Los Angeles via 1-10 & Rte 62. The park's three visitor centers are open daily year-round 8am-4pm (Oasis Visitor Center open until 5pm). $10 per vehicle (for 7 days). Campsites are the only accommodations in the park; bring your own food and plenty of water.

Joshua Tree

The huge national park is a natural arid haven from the commercial concentration that winds its way up and down the coast. Rock climbers, campers and day trippers are as attracted to the park's remoteness - it covers 558,000 acres - as they are to the distinctive twisted form of the tree that devout Mormons named Joshua after the Biblical prophet.

Keys View - At 5,185ft, this perch on the crest of the Little San Bernardino Mountains offers a sweeping view of Coachella Valley.

Cholla Cactus Garden - Cholla grows here in great abundance, thanks to favorable ground-water conditions.

Geology Tour Road - The rugged and scenic 18mi dirt road is marked with 16 stops that highlight evidence of the geological forces present. A four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended.

Hidden Valley Nature Trail - An easy 1mi loop trail winds through a natural enclosure formed by hills of monzogranite where cattle rustlers allegedly hid stolen cattle in the 1880s. Today the area is a mecca for rock climbers.

Walks Among the Rocks - These short nature trails, several with interpretive signs identifying desert plants, provide easy access to mysteriously attractive quartz monzogranite formations.

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