Joshua Tree National Park, about a three-hour drive from the city of Los Angeles, is home to Joshua Trees. If you have a day to spend, I would recommend a hike followed by the viewpoints.

We started from the south entrance and went northwards, here’s what we did

  1. Lost Oasis Trail - An easy ~7.5 miles 3-hour hike close to the south entrance and you see a dead Oasis at the end

  2. Porcupine Wash - A small stop along the way

  3. Ocotillo Patch - Ocotillo is a desert plant with red-colored flowers

  4. Cholla Cactus Garden - A small passage to walk around in the midst of Cactus

  5. White Tank - You can do some nice scrambling here

  6. Twin Tanks - very similar to White tank and is reachable only via a dirt road. Feel free to skip.

  7. Cap Rock - Isn’t something majestic but looks beautiful at night

What we skipped

  1. Hall of Horrors - This is gorgeous but it was already dark. I would highly recommend prioritizing this.
  2. Barker Dam - The view isn’t very different from the Lost Oasis Trail, so, feel free to skip.