Joshua Tree National Park

Driving from Sawtooth Canyon to Joshua Tree, CA | Hiking in Joshua Tree National Park | Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum | Hiking in Desert View Conservation Area | January 2025

I don’t know if you’ve figured this out yet, but I really love to travel. I love our lifestyle of living in a van and getting to experience life all around the country. I especially love the desert and being warm. Maybe you’ve noticed this if you’ve been reading this blog for the last decade or so. But the one thing I wish I could change is that I wish I could share some of this lifestyle that I love with my family. Everywhere that we’ve lived, I’ve always looked forward to the times when my family would visit and I could show them around my home. And now in the van, everywhere we go I’m always thinking about how much I’d love to share these beautiful places with people I love. So whenever I’m back at home, I’m always trying to convince people to come visit me, wherever I might be heading next. This meant I was trying to convince everyone that they needed a Southwestern vacation to escape the Iowa winter while at home in December. One of my sisters seemed interested in the idea, but no plans were made.

Then on our last day in the Alabama Hills, I got a text from my sister Sarah that said “I just booked a trip to see you!!!” Which surprised me a little because we had texted a few times since I left, but never about anything official, and Curtis and I had only just made up our minds to head towards Joshua Tree next. Luckily, that’s where she thought we were going, so that’s where she meant! She had a few days off from work, so she booked herself a flight, car, and a small rental house, so we made plans to meet up there and spend a few days with her. (Sarah is also the sister that came out to Hawaii and lived with me for a month back in 2019, so I could’ve guessed that she would be the one to spontaneously come meet me somewhere while on the road!)

We left Sawtooth Canyon in the morning and made the drive over to Joshua Tree. We met Sarah at her rental and had a happy little reunion in the driveway, with Charlotte losing her mind over her bestie being here. We quickly discussed options for what to do, and decided to head straight over to Joshua Tree National Park.

Curtis and I had visited this national park back in 2014 for our 1st wedding anniversary, but it was during the month of July so it was too hot to do much, and we were foolishly more interested in letterboxing than we were in exploring the park at the time. Today, Curtis graciously watched Charlotte so that Sarah and I could do a little hiking in the park. We entered the park at the West entrance and made our way to a trailhead. To start our visit, we chose to hike the Hidden Valley Trail, which is a mile long loop trail that showcases the two main features of this park: Joshua trees and big rocks! There were also a variety of other desert plants along the way, and plenty of interpretive signs that gave more information about the area. The trailhead was also right next to a picnic area where Charlotte and Curtis could hang out and also enjoy the beautiful views.

Next, we drove up to Keys View for the great views of the San Jacinto Mountains, Coachella Valley, and the San Andreas Fault. Curtis and I had visited this spot during our anniversary trip here, but looking back at my pictures from that trip I was reminded of how clouds were obscuring the view. The skies were completely clear today, though the Santa Ana winds were strong and made it hard to stand outside. There wasn’t even a hint of haziness in the air despite the LA fires raging to the West, since the winds were blowing the smoke out into the ocean.

We continued driving East through the park, and made one more stop at another picnic area to rock hop and enjoy views to the West. Since it was now early afternoon, we decided to grab food in Twentynine Palms. However, after leaving the park and entering the town, we quickly learned from a gas station that the power was out for the whole area in order to prevent any more fires from starting. We still weren’t in a red flag area, but the winds were strong and the area was dry enough that these precautions were necessary. So we instead returned to the rental house, which was also without power, and snacked on food we had in the van.

After some time resting and catching up, we decided to venture back out for some activities that wouldn’t be affected by the power outages. Our first stop was at the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum — I had heard about it randomly right before coming to Joshua Tree, and thought it would be an appropriate activity right now given that it was outdoors, free, unlikely to be affected by power outages, and dog friendly. It turned out to be rather eccentric with lots of interesting sculptures made out of recycled items – including lots of toilets – and Curtis and Sarah were a little confused at how I found this place and why I thought we’d all love it, but it was definitely entertaining and kept us occupied for at least a half hour.

After that, we drove over to the Desert View Conservation Area for a little more hiking among the rocks and Joshua Trees at sunset. By that point, power was restored in the town so we stopped to grab some Mexican for dinner, then returned to the rental house for the evening. Since the house wasn’t dog friendly, Curtis, Charlie and I slept in the van in the driveway. We were very thankful to have this option because the public land space for free camping nearby was a dry sandy lake bed, which currently looked like the apocalypse because of the winds blowing the sand everywhere.