DesertUSA's Guide To Joshua Tree National Park

This field and road guide is designed to help you get the most out of your visit to Joshua Tree National Park. Whether you plan to spend a day or week at the park, this guide holds information that will help you enjoy your time here.
Within the boundaries of eastern California's Joshua Tree National Park, the Sonoran and Mojave deserts meet. In the higher Mojave portion of the national park, a forest of the strange Joshua trees and a number of unique rock formations called Inselbergs are protected. In the lower Colorado portion, the Pinto Basin exhibits the typical plants of this hotter Sonoran Desert.
For all its harshness, the desert is a land of surprising variety and complexity, a land of extreme fragility. Viewed from the roadside, Joshua Tree National Park only hints at its hidden vitality. To the close observer, however, a tiny flower bud or the lizard's frantic dash reveals this desert park as a place of beauty and life.