Discover the most magical spots to pitch your tent or park your rig on your next Joshua Tree adventure.
Joshua Tree camping offers access to a desert wonderland of crooked trees and boulders, where hiking and rock climbing sublime.
Joshua Tree National Park feels a little offbeat. And we like it. Maybe it's the cartoonish boulders, beloved by rock climbers and Instagrammers. Or the abandoned mines, lonely oases, and black-tailed jackrabbits that hang around the place like misfits. The namesake trees are a bit fanciful themselves, dotting the California desert with their branches askew like some sort of carefree, silly walkers. Hikers follow trails that twist through boulder clusters, climb scrubby mountains, and beeline to spring-fed oases while rock climbers have their pick of 8,000 established routes. For free-spirited fun, get thee to JT.
Drive east from Los Angeles for a few hours, passing Palm Springs along the way, and you’ll find yourself in Joshua Tree National Park, an otherworldly desert expanse named for the funky little trees that grow here. While you won't find any glampsites inside Joshua Tree National Park (camping options inside the park are limited to RV and tent camping), there are loads of options just outside the park's boundaries, many of which you can reserve on Hipcamp. Take your pick from vintage campervans and trucks, classic canvas bell tents and yurts, geodesic domes, and even shipping containers that have been transformed into tiny homes.
Joshua Tree National Park is open year-round, but the busy season is October through May. Since the park sits at the intersection of two deserts—the Mojave and Colorado—summer is not the best time, with daytime temperatures exceeding 100°F. Spring is busiest, when crowds arrive for wildflower blooms and pleasant weather. Fall temperatures are similarly mild. The thermometer hovers at 60°F during the day in winter, with freezing temperatures at night.