Under the Stars in Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree had been on our list of must-sees for as long as I can remember, so when we found out we’d be in Vegas for two consecutive conferences, we decided the weekend between was the perfect opportunity to finally check out this magical place.

And because it’d be the first weekend of November, we’d probably have the place to ourselves, right?

Right?!
Riiiiiiiiight.

Here’s the thing.

Unlike the parks in Montana, the end of October / beginning of November can be one of the busiest times of year for Joshua Tree.

In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that those living in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix would choose to visit one of their closest parks long after the sweltering summer heat had subsided, but being neighbors from the north, we kind of assumed the majority of people had already hung their camping hats for the season.

Boy were we wrong.

Setting out to camp in the park on the last Thursday of October (aka Halloween), we showed up at the North Entrance in 29 Palms shortly before dark and headed straight to Jumbo Rocks, our number one choice.

As we rolled into Jumbo Rocks, we both oohed and awed like a coupla kiddos holding brightly lit sparklers for the very first time.

The rocks were, well... jumbo.
Like, seriously huge.

With individual camp sites tucked in closely where they could fit among the boulders.
It was neat.

Like, really neat.

And because it was a Thursday night, there happened to be quite a few spots open that said ‘one night only’.
But just one night?
That definitely wouldn’t do.

I mean, our goal had been to find a longer term site to make our basecamp for the next few days. One where we could drop the Sherpa while we explored everything Joshua Tree had to offer.

So rather than jump on one of the single night sites, we continued on in search of something more permanent.

Rolling through Ryan Mountain and Hidden Valley, we started realizing that we reeeeeally probably should’ve taken one of those coveted Jumbo Rock sites as it was becoming clear that everything else was booked – but we continued on thinking that if there were single nights available in Jumbo Rocks, there had to be something else out there.

That is until we found ourselves pulling into the town of Joshua Tree after driving through the entire park.
By now it was dark and we fully understood that we’d left ourselves with the option of hoping (more like praying) that we’d find a spot in the very last campground located on the edge of town.

After passing a car full of costumed and mulleted merrymakers, we pulled into the Black Rock Campground where we were relieved to find another handful of single night campsites available.

Heck, we even managed to find the only site in the entire park that didn’t say ’one night only’.

(Turns out the whole ‘one night only’ thing was a mistake, but we can talk more about that later...)

Actually, let’s go ahead and talk about that now.

So what had happened was, once we landed a spot, we called up recreation.gov to make sure we could keep it for the rest of the weekend. That’s when we learned that the reason everything was ‘one night only’ was because these were all ‘reservable sites’. This means that if you’re a walk-up camper, you’re never going to be able to stay at one of those sites longer than one night at a time.

Period.

Now this doesn’t mean you won’t ever be able to walk up anywhere in the park and stay for days, but apparently there are only a couple of campgrounds where this is an option. While I’d love to tell you exactly which ones those are, there seemed to be a bit of confusion about that from everyone we spoke to as it’s an ever-changing thing. So instead I’d recommend you visit nps.gov to get the skinny prior to your own visit.

That being said, it’s good to know that these walk-up sites fill up for the weekend pretty darn early on a Thursday during the busier times of year, so try to plan ahead or you’ll end up getting creative like we did.

But before talking about where we went from there, I’d love to tell you how Black Rock Campground was.

Basically, it was gorgeous.

While the sites were pretty open and didn’t offer a lot of privacy from our neighbors, they were quite large and came with a fire ring, picnic table and views for days. Oh, and with several facilities throughout the campground, you were never too far from a well-lit bathroom with flushable toilets and running water.

Just be sure to watch what follows you into the bathroom as there are signs everywhere warning that snakes and large spiders are equally fond of the facilities.

Now for the rest of the weekend...

After doing a bit of research, we found the famous Pioneertown and planned to stay there. Not only was it walking distance from the crazy popular Pappy and Harriet’s, but it’s only $10 per person per night and you’re pretty much guaranteed a spot – at least that was the impression I got. I also got the impression that they don’t really have ‘spots’ as much as they kind of just put you wherever they can fit ya.

But hey, we’d take it.

Or at least we had planned to until the park staff pointed us in the direction of some highly coveted spots on BLM land right inside the town of Joshua Tree.
Free of charge and centrally located, we decided to see if we could get ourselves a spot there – and we were successful.

But that doesn’t mean it didn’t feel a bit sketchy.

When we pulled onto the BLM land located on old dry lake bed, we were some of the only campers – so we definitely had our doubts about whether this move was legit or not. I mean, the lake bed had obviously hosted some pretty great keggers and longer-term residents, but there was no indication that we’d be surrounded by like-minded campers rather than teenagers trying to have a good time - or that our little teardrop would still have wheels when we returned after a day of exploring.

But by the time we made it back to camp later that night, our Sherpa was still intact and the place had filled up with other teardrops, camper vans and rooftop tents – so we felt pretty dang lucky to have found the spot.

Also struggling to find a place to camp in Joshua Tree and wanna set up on the lake bed?
Below is the map we got from the Joshua Tree park volunteers.

In summary, Joshua Tree is AMAZING, but camping can be difficult to come by.
Like, REALLY difficult to come by.

So if you happen to find a spot, take it.
And if you don’t, I hope this little bit of intel comes in handy for those of you who forgot to plan.

But, like, who in their right mind would ever do a thing like that?

IMPORTANT: Always do your own research (and a gut check) prior to parking your rig somewhere to sleep.
Policies, pricing and safety situations may change, and oftentimes do.