Day Trip to Joshua Tree National Park (45 Mins): Best One-Day Driving Loop (West to South Entrance)

Located 60 kilometres (38 miles, a 45-minute drive northeast of Downtown Palm Springs via Highway 62 or Interstate 10), Joshua Tree National Park (vehicle entry fee applies, or free with an America the Beautiful Pass) sits at the ecological crossroads where two deserts meet: the higher, cooler Mojave Desert in the northwest (above 900 metres, home to spiky Joshua Trees, Yucca brevifolia, and 100-million-year-old monzogranite boulder piles) and the lower Colorado Desert in the southeast.

The Smartest 1-Day Driving Loop From Palm Springs (West Entrance to Cottonwood South)

Before leaving your Palm Springs hotel, remember that there is no mobile signal, no petrol stations, no water taps and no food sold inside Joshua Tree National Park. Download offline maps, fill your tank, pack a picnic lunch and 4 litres of water in the boot, and drive this clockwise 6-hour loop:

1. Early Morning, Highway 62 to the 'West Entrance Station': drive 45 minutes up Morongo Valley (Highway 62), grab coffee in Joshua Tree Village (with an extra 30 minutes, detour 4 miles up Mane Street to 1946 Pioneertown, an 1880s-style Wild West film set built by Roy Rogers and Gene Autry with saloons and Pappy & Harriet's), then turn south into the West Entrance, where dense Joshua Tree forests begin immediately.
2. Stop 1, 'Hidden Valley Nature Trail' (1.6 km Flat Loop, 45 Mins): step through a rock gap into an enclosed amphitheatre of towering boulder stacks, climbers and Joshua trees.
3. Stop 2, 'Keys View' (1,581m / 5,185 Feet): drive 10 minutes down the spur road to a mountain crest overlooking the San Andreas Fault line, the Salton Sea (72m below sea level), Palm Springs and Mount San Jacinto.

4. Stop 3, 'Barker Dam' (1.8 km Loop), 'Skull Rock' & 'Arch Rock' (White Tank): snap a photo at roadside Skull Rock and walk 20 minutes through a granite maze at White Tank to natural Arch Rock and Heart Rock.
5. Stop 4 (Golden Hour), 'Cholla Cactus Garden' (0.4 km Flat Boardwalk): as the road drops into the Pinto Basin, walk among 10 acres of glowing golden 'Teddybear Cholla' cacti (stay on the boardwalk away from their barbed spines), then exit the South (Cottonwood) Entrance onto Interstate 10 West for a 45-minute drive back to Palm Springs.