GUYS! I am so excited to share this post with you all. Over the weekend I disconnected from my phone for a day and it was pretty freeing to not think, “oh I should post this to instastory”. I am all for social media, but Kevin has always wanted to do a trip where we disconnect and I decided to do that for his birthday! As you may know by now, I took Kevin on a trip to Joshua Tree National Park for his twenty-eighth birthday and it was probably one of the top trips we’ve taken together so far.
How to get to Joshua Tree
The closest airport to Joshua Tree is the Palm Springs airport. Unfortunately the weekend of his birthday Splash House was also going on so the flights were insane and overpriced. A good alternative to flying into PS is to book a flight into Burbank – it’s the closest airport in LA to Palm Springs/ Joshua Tree and a reasonable price. Once you fly in to Palm Springs or Burbank, you’ll need to rent a car. I suggest a pickup truck or SUV as the park has cool places you can drive to but it requires driving over sandy unpaved roads. We rented a truck because I wanted to do a picnic under the stars in the truck bed and it was just as fun as I hoped it would be. It’ll be about a 2-3 hour drive from Burbank to Palm Springs and then on to Joshua Tree.
What to bring to Joshua Tree
- Sunblock (especially in the summer, it gets hot)
- Cooler if you have a small one, we brought one as a carryon
- Water packs if you plan on hiking
- Hat
- Hiking shoes
- Flashlight since it gets super dark in the park at night
- Camera Gear
Where to stay in Joshua Tree
I booked a pretty cool Airbnb near Joshua Tree – it’s a renovated Airstream on this property that has about 4 different ones and each is a different theme. We booked this one and it was perfect for the two of us. They have common areas for cooking and relaxing, hammocks and even a salt water pool! Check out all the airstreams here. Each airstream comes with A/C although it can be loud so if you’re a light sleeper bring ear plugs. While we were there the other couples were all quiet, super nice and everyone pretty much kept to themselves.
Additional perks – it’s a super instagrammable location haha. Check out their instagram here. Note: There is no microwave so don’t bring microwave food. We picked up Cubanos from Portos in Burbank so we toasted them and it was delicious. Other things to note is that the drive from this Airbnb to the park will be about 30 mins and on the way you’ll pass through 29 Palms where you can grab food/ snacks on your way in.
What to do in Joshua Tree
We were only there from Friday – Sunday so I feel like I haven’t even seen most of the park but for first timers I recommend:
- Skull Rock – this is literally by the side of the road and will likely be crowded, but if you’re patient it’ll clear out
- Arch Rock – a short hike and funny thing about this hike but when we got there I was confused because it didn’t look anything like the photos I had seen, but turns out I was just looking at it from the wrong angle.
- Cholla Garden – Cool fuzzy looking, but not soft at all cacti. Be careful because theres small parts that fall off and roll around in the ground and its still spiky if you step on it!
- Jumbo Rocks – A bunch of big rocks that are cool to climb onto. If you don’t have a truck I recommend coming here early to snag a rock to sit on for sunset. It’s a popular campground so you’ll have to get there early.
- Stargazing – I read somewhere that some of the darkest places in the park is near Arch Rock. However, since Kevin and I had a truck we drove off road and made our own cool spot which I cannot recommend enough.
If this post has made you plan a trip to Joshua Tree, let me know below or if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments!
Kevin and I loved it so much we’re thinking about making it an annual thing, but we’ll see haha. We both just love experiencing new places together.
Happy Traveling!
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