Joshua Tree National Park is located around 30 miles from Palm Springs. The visitor center of the park is in Twentynine Palms. The entrance fee for the park is $10 per car for a week or $5 for a week if you walk in. You can also buy a Joshua Tree Pass for $25, valid for 12 months. For us and many visitors, the best option is to buy a National Park Pass. The pass costs $50 and gives you and your family or vehicle entrance in any national park where you need to pay an entrance fee.

Because of lack of time, we only spent a few hours in the park, but as U2 fans, we wanted to see the famous Joshua trees. You can only find the Joshua trees in this area, and they can be as high as 9m and 1,000 years old. We entered the park from the west entrance station and followed Park Boulevard to the north entrance station. When you enter the park, you pay your entrance fee to the park ranger (or show your National Park Pass). Then he gives you a nice color map and a park guide with some very useful information about the park and wildlife in the park. In this park you need to drive your own car. There are no shuttle buses like in other larger parks. We stopped a few times along the road to take some pictures and enjoy the views of the park. Because it was so hot, we only made a few very short walks. The most remarkable moment of our visit is when a wild coyote came to our car. When we stopped the car, the coyote came as close as 1 meter. We never saw a wild animal so close.

The park is worth a detour. The nature is great, and the coyote made it unforgettable. If you want to take longer walks through the park, you need plenty of water (always bring plenty of water), because it can be very hot!