Travel when the world is at its best

Find a dark viewing site in the park, away from town lights. Bring warm layers and allow time for your eyes to adjust. Check weather and park access closer to departure.

NASA viewing guide · 2026 sky calendar

03 / The journey begins

Palm Springs · Your arrival

Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs · Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Start in
Palm Springs.

Midcentury architecture, palm-lined streets, and mountains rising behind the city.

Settle in by the pool, explore downtown, and leave time for the palm oases at Indian Canyons before heading into the high desert.

Del Marcos Hotel, Palm Springs · Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress

The drive north

Palms to high desert.

49 mi · about 1 hr 10 min

Palm Springs to Twentynine Palms, by the park’s north entrance. Highway 62 takes you around the mountains and into the high desert.

Fly into Palm Springs (PSP). Pick up a car and spend time in the city before heading north.

See driving directions →

Terrain: USGS · Copyright OpenStreetMap contributors

Approximate drive, before traffic and stops. Scroll to follow the road.

04 / Into the high desert

Joshua Tree National Park

Lost Horse Valley, Joshua Tree National Park · NPS / Brad Sutton

Joshua Tree.
Another world.

Forests of twisted Joshua trees stretch between colossal granite boulders. These rock faces draw climbers from around the world. As the sun drops, the desert becomes a landscape of silhouettes beneath an immense sky.

Terrain: USGS · Copyright OpenStreetMap contributors

Inside Joshua Tree

Give the desert
some daylight.

From Twentynine Palms, enter the park from the north. Choose an afternoon among the boulders or at the overlook, then return to rest before the night sky.

01
North entranceFrom Twentynine Palms · 5 mi · ~10 min
02
Skull RockFrom the entrance · 8 mi · ~15 min
03
Keys ViewFrom Skull Rock · 13 mi · ~30 min

Open the full NPS park map →

A daylight route to explore. Drives are approximate, excluding stops and entrance queues. Check park conditions.

Where to stay

Joshua Tree National Park

Sleep among the boulders.

Stay inside the park for the late-night sky. Bring your water and gear.

Check your dates on Recreation.gov. Availability isn’t shown here yet.

Terrain: USGS · Copyright OpenStreetMap contributors

Palm Springs

Make Palm Springs your base.

Keep the hotel, restaurants, and city afternoons. Head into Joshua Tree for the sky.

Plan for the longer drive back after midnight. Twentynine Palms is a closer hotel option by the north entrance.

Explore Palm Springs stays →See the drive to Jumbo Rocks →

Terrain: USGS · Copyright OpenStreetMap contributors

05 / The night you came for

Then the desert
goes quiet.

December 13 into 14.
After midnight, look up.

The Moon has set.
The Geminids are nearing their peak.

Joshua Tree night sky · Hannah Schwalbe / NPS

A moment becomes a plan

Geminids over
Joshua Tree.

The reason to go, the nights to aim for, and the places along the way. Together in one Journey.

Explore this Journey →

California · 4–5 nights

01
Palm SpringsArrive, settle in, explore
02
Indian CanyonsPalm oases and Agua Caliente heritage
03
Twentynine PalmsA gateway by the north entrance
04
Joshua Tree National ParkAfternoon landscapes, late-night Geminids

The world has more in store

What will you
be there for?

CosmosMeteor showers, eclipses, auroras→NatureBlooms, migrations, changing landscapes→CultureCelebrations worth planning around→See the world's calendar →

About the photographs

The destination photographs below the opening show their named locations. The Joshua Tree night photograph shows the park's sky without a promised meteor display.

Palm Springs photographs: Visitor7, Palm Canyon Drive (2013), CC BY-SA 3.0; Carol M. Highsmith, Del Marcos Hotel (2013), public domain. The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Source thumbnails, with layout crops only. NPS photographs are public domain. Photographs describe places, not current conditions.