Joshua Tree National Park (with Kids)

My kids love to jump and climb. On everything. That means I spend a large portion of my days telling them to stop climbing up my walls.  It was so nice to take a weekend trip to a place where they were free to climb to their hearts content.

This is a Joshua Tree. I think it looks like it's straight out of Dr. Seuss.

Last week we took a little family getaway to Joshua Tree National Park. It's only 2 1/2 hours away from our home in SoCal.  We drove down on Friday, and settled into our hotel. If you happen to be military, definitely check out the Sleepy Tortoise Lodge on base in Twentynine Palms. It looked to have been recently renovated and had big rooms with a kitchen.  As an added bonus for the kids, the front desk had kids' movies to borrow, and there was a playground right outside our room!

We woke Saturday morning, had breakfast (courtesy of the Sleepy Tortoise) and then headed into the park via the North entrance gate (FYI...If you're military, you can get in for free via the Military Annual Pass available at the gate.). Our first stop was Skull Rock.  We climbed out of the car, and the kids immediately started scrambling (Bruce says that's the official term) over the rocks.  Mind you, they're 2 and 4, and we were still able to make it over some decent sized boulders without getting ourselves in any precarious situations.

Apparently this is what is known as "scrambling" in the rock climbing world.

From Skull Rock, we went to Keys View to check out (obviously) the view.  That was just a short walk around a paved sidewalk to see the sights.  Supposedly on a clear day, you can see San Andreas fault in the valley.

Keys View

The next stop was Hidden Valley to do a 1 mile nature trail around, as the name suggests, a Hidden Valley.  Dancing Girl hiked it on her own, and (much to his dismay) Messy Boy got to ride on Daddy's back in the baby backpack.  It was an easy little hike, but that didn't stop Dancing Girl from stopping to whine every few minutes. Luckily, there were more rocks to climb around every corner so that would get her going again.  There were also rock climbers dangling from rocks and crazy people doing insane yoga poses on big boulders, so obviously there was plenty to see.  

The Hidden Valley

 The Cholla Cactus Garden was about a 1/4 mile walk through the cacti.  It was very neat to see and easy enough for the kids to walk through themselves. We just had to make sure that Messy Boy didn't trip and fall into a cactus.  There were signs cautioning you of how painful the needles of the cactus are to remove. Thankfully, we all made it through unscathed.

Cholla Cactus Garden

We had also heard good things about the 1.1 mile Barker Dam hike, so we talked Dancing Girl into one more hike and strapped Messy Boy into the backpack again.  There were some more rocks to climb along the way, but Dancing Girl was very disappointed that the dam was dried up.  We gave her a Larabar, and she let that slide.

This is how we do it in our family. 

We spotted some hieroglyphics near the end of the trail .  That started a lively discussion between Bruce and I about how hieroglyphics are really just ancient graffiti. Seriously, how do we know the ancients were trying to record their history and not just doodling to pass the time? In a few hundred years, people will probably will be marveling at the huge rock we signed our senior year of high school.  

Really old graffiti

We headed back on Park Boulevard towards the West entrance of the park.  Our last stop was for a picnic lunch before driving home. That was an awesome spot that would be great if you have an avid climber like Bruce who's itching to do some sport climbing but need a place for littles to hang out while they wait on Daddy.  There were picnic tables right there by the rock, and the really smart people set up canopies for shade.  Just take some snacks and a shovel, and your little ones could be entertained for hours while the grown-ups do some climbing.

We would definitely recommend Joshua Tree for a nice family weekend!  We came away with a few scrapes, but a lot of fun family memories!

Have you been to Joshua Tree? What were your favorite spots? Planning a trip? Let me know how it goes!