The area of desert covered by Joshua Tree National Park's nearly 800,000 acres has been inhabited by humans for at least 5,000 years. The first group known to inhabit the area was the Pinto Culture, followed by the Serrano, the Chemehuevi, and the Cahuilla. In the 1800s cattlemen drove their cows into the area for grass and water, and later miners dug tunnels through the earth looking for gold and made tracks across the desert with their trucks. Homesteaders began filing claims in the 1900s. They built cabins, dug wells, and planted crops.
Each of these diverse groups left its mark upon the area and contributed to the rich cultural history of Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree National Park protects 501 archeological sites, 88 historic structures, 19 cultural landscapes, and houses 123,253 items in its museum collection.
The area became a national monument in 1936, local and regional residents were the primary park visitors to the park. As a teenager living in Yucca Valley I used to make frequent visits to the monument, and hiked several of the trails, including 49 Palms Oasis and Mastodon Peak.
As Southern California, especially the Yucca Valley and high desert area, as well as Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley grew so did park visitation; Joshua Tree now lies within a three-hour drive of more than 18 million people. In 1994, Joshua Tree was elevated from national monument to national park status, and now even greater numbers of visitors from around the nation and the world come to experience Joshua Tree National Park. It is a beautiful area to visit and spend time in, and a place that you should not miss if visiting Southern California, or the Palm Springs area.
Joshua Tree National Park is one of the most popular rock climbing areas in the world. More than 4,500 established routes offering a wide range of difficulty are concentrated within the park. For more detailed information on rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park click here.
Directions: Joshua Tree National Park lies 140 miles east of Los Angeles. You can approach it from the west via Interstate 10 and Hwy 62 (Twentynine Palms Highway). The north entrances to the park are located at Joshua Tree Village and the city of Twentynine Palms. The south entrance at Cottonwood Spring, which lies 25 miles east of Indio, can be approached from the east or west, also via Interstate 10. You can view a map of the park and roads leading to it here. You can also download a high quality map of the pare here (PDF 349KB).
Things to do at Joshua Tree National Park (these links will open a new window at the official Joshua Tree National Park website)
Joshua Tree National Park is famous for rock climbing, there are many places to climb with different levels of difficulty.
(left) formation of rocks in the Hidden Valley section of Joshua Tree National Park, and a view from Cholla cactus garden.
A close up view of a Cholla and its many stick needles...
