President's Weekend in Joshua Tree National Park

We just came back from a 5-day trip to Joshua Tree National Park over President’s Day weekend, and the kids had the best time. First of all, Joshua Tree is like a huge playground – every pile of rocks is an invitation for kids (and adults!) to climb and scramble. Unlike past national park trips, we focused less on the goal of a destination or a view and more on exploring and playing. 

We were lucky to have great weather in mid-February. It was in the mid-60’s during the day with lots of sunshine. Even though I’ve lived in Northern California for 25 years now and have made dozens of trips to Southern California, I have never made it to Joshua Tree. It was an easy flight from San Jose to Palm Springs Airport and from there, just about a 50 to 70 minute drive to the areas surrounding the park.

I started planning this trip 3 months ago, and I always like to book lodging first. With 3 kids and usually family joining us on trips, we just about always book a rental home, so I am a power user on Airbnb and VRBO. I know that you can filter Airbnb search results by a variety of features, like “amazing views” or “chef’s kitchen,” but I had never noticed that “play” was a feature. This was the first time I chose to filter by play and it led me to this quirky, play-filled house in Yucca Valley, about 20 minutes from the west entrance of the park.

The dining room contained not just a spacious dining table but also a foosball table and an indoor basketball game. You can imagine that my kids spent more time at the foosball table than at the dining table but their foosball skills also greatly improved over just 5 days. Outside, there was a homemade miniature golf course (that turned out to be the hardest course any of us had ever tried), some western-themed backdrops, horseshoes, a pool (unheated so it was definitely more of a cold plunge) with lots of pool toys, a hot tub, and a sauna. And the garage had been converted to a theater room so my kids got to watch Netflix on the biggest TV they had ever seen. 

I’ll admit that renting such a playhouse may have been a bit of a mistake because in the battle of fun rental house versus being among the elements, my kids are gonna pick the former. They protested having to leave the games behind every morning but once we got them on some rocks, they were entertained for hours. On the night of our last dinner, we were sharing our roses, buds, and thorns (This is our nightly tradition – a rose = best part of your day; bud = something you hope for; thorn = the toughest part of your day), and basically all the kids said that scrambling on rocks was their rose, they wished they could come back soon as their bud, and they didn’t get enough time to scramble on rocks was their thorn. There’s hope for nature!

Ben and Aaron, my baby cousins, and one of their spouses also joined us for part of the trip. They were just 2 and 4 years old when I moved to California for college, and I’ve been lucky to watch them become young men. It’s hard to believe how quickly time passes and now they play with my kids the way I used to play with them.

So the combo of a truly unique rental house, a playground-like national park, and lots of family time made for a trip we will remember for a long time to come.

Here are some highlights from our time in the park:

We hiked both the Barker Dam Trail and Split Rock Trail, and our kids much preferred Split Rock. The Barker Dam Trail is dotted with Joshua Trees but the dam itself is not that spectacular of a destination. Since it’s one of the more popular trails too, there are just a lot more people along the way. Split Rock had a lot more rocks to climb, and we often had the trail to ourselves, even on a holiday weekend.

Our kids’ favorite stop was at Skull Rock not because of Skull Rock but because of all the rocks to scramble on behind Skull Rock.

I loved stopping at Cholla Cactus Garden, an endless horizon of these mini-cacti with dozens of sharp prickly arms and digits ready for attack. There were no rocks to climb here but we all admired the strange looking cacti and the raspberry-shaped buds of their flowers that were just beginning to sprout.

I’ve been trying to include more art in my life, so I packed up clipboards, drawing paper, and colored pencils for all of us. All the kids and I did a little bit of drawing, for a different way to experience nature. 

On our last day, we hired rock climbing guides from Stone Adventures for our group of 8 to experience what Joshua Tree is known for. While Bowie and Charlie did not enjoy it – the rock faces are quite rough for little hands, plus they were scared of the height, the rest of us enjoyed the adventure and challenge.

Our rock climbing guides also took us on a secret scrambling adventure — we hiked up Sentinel, which is a popular rock formation with rock climbers, but since it’s not a hiking destination, we wouldn’t have known about it. We went up to the top and it provided a spectacular view into the valley below.

Other trip highlights:

The small town of Yucca Valley has no shortage of big grocery stores, but I chose the gigantic Walmart because I have never grocery shopped at one (in fact I’ve somehow only been inside of a Walmart maybe 3 or 4 times in my life). Wow, was it an experience! I was in a state of both wonder and terror walking up and down the endless super-sized aisles and seeing how many products they carried. Luckily I had to get back to the rental for dinner or I still might be wandering in there right now. (There was also an Aldi nearby, which I have also never been to, but two new grocery store experiences just felt way too indulgent.)

After the kids went to bed one night, Tim and I watched the new Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, which goes behind the scenes of how the We Are the World fundraiser song for Africa came together in 1985. As a kid of the 1980’s who loved singing Lionel Richie’s All Night Long and named Charlie after Ray Charles (she was briefly Stevie for Stevie Wonder and Stevie Nicks), this documentary hit all the right spots for me.

The one very minor lowlight:

Our first stop on Day 1 was at a not-named spot on the side of the road because the kids spotted a mountain of rocks they wanted to climb. Of course, 5 minutes in, Charlie peed herself and was sooo upset, and I foolishly had not packed her extra bottoms even though I know I have a kid who likes to wait until the last minute to use the bathroom. Luckily Neko had an extra bottom that somehow fit her sister’s much smaller waist.

Have you been to Joshua Tree? Do you have a favorite national park?

Our family uses this scratch-off poster to keep track of all the ones we’ve been to as a family of five. So far we’ve made it to Pinnacles, Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Acadia, Arches, Canyonlands, and now Joshua Tree!

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