Looking up at the night sky and seeing all the stars with very little light pollution is a great way to unwind. I remember being a kid and stargazing at Astro Camp out in Idyllwild, CA when I was in 5th grade. Before that, my family had gone on various camping trips or visiting my mom’s side of the family in the rural town of Dunlap, IA. I always marveled at the amount of stars you can see when far away from the city lights. It’s what inspired this trip I took in May 2025.

During one of my many doom-scrolling sessions on Instagram, I came across a post advertising night sky viewing in Joshua Tree National Park and the best times to go so you can see the Milky Way. Instantly I wanted to go and I had a friend (Blain) that was interested in night photography as well, so we made our plans. We didn’t actually go into the park at night, but the place he found at an Airbnb was the next best thing. It was a little 3 wall shack with a floor and ceiling out in Twentynine Palms that was far enough away from the city lights to get a really good view of the stars.

We started our day by making a spur of the moment side trip to White Water Preserve on our way out there. I hadn’t been before and Blain made the suggestion. It was really pretty and peaceful once we got out to the river part. We had fun hopping across the rocks to explore different parts of the river. I managed to stay dry… until our way back to the car when my foot slipped into the river. Luckily I had a second pair of socks and shoes in the car.

Continuing our journey, we stopped at various spots along the way to our place for the night. One of the  things I enjoyed was exploring the towns we passed through. We ended up stumbling across a farmer’s market where I found a booth with lots of gluten-free goodies.

One stop I insisted on was a place I looked up and wanted to go to, the World Famous Crochet Museum. It’s a tiny little booth that really only has room for 2 people at a time filled with lots of handmade items that have been donated over the years. It actually sits inside a sculpture garden that also has a little UFO museum and a bookstore on the same lot. 

The UFO museum also ended up being an art gallery as well with lots of amazing work from the local artists. That was not the only artwork though, in addition to the things listed there were other artists selling their wares in little shops that we discovered as we explored other little buildings.

After this, because the weather was still good, we decided to head into the park as we were too early to check in at our Airbnb. With only a little bit of time, we decided to only hit one of the places recommended by the park rangers due to the heat. Our first stop was Arch Rock. It was about a mile or so hike, but definitely worth it. Originally, I decided to stay on the ground while Blain was the mountain goat the went up to get a picture underneath it. There were quite a few people there as well, so it was a little bit of a wait to get a photo. Some kind people I took a photo for, offered to take ours and waited for me to climb up the side to get there. Getting the photo was worth the climb. 

On our hike back to the car, we ended up finding a boulder that looked like it was straight out of the opening scene for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. I happened to bring to my Indiana Jones style hat with me, so of course we had to get pictures that made it look like we were running away from it. 

If we had continued along the trail, we would’ve found ourselves at heart rock, but it was a bit further out than we were willing to travel at the time with the heat.

A few dozen pictures later, we decided it was time to go check in to our place. It was a little place in the desert called The Frida House and the drive to get there was a little out of the way down a dirt road. The property had a couple of old airstream type trailers that were available to rent out as well. Not only was there the little shelter where we were going to be sleeping, but it also had a makeshift kitchen, an outdoor shower, a tub for soaking, a firepit, comfy camping chairs, a little bench, a compost toilet, and a second mattress outside. That last feature that we ended up using at night to lay down and gaze up at the stars. As a bonus, inside the little shelter was a fireplace to be used during the winter to help keep warm. 

As night fell, we lit the firepit to cook our dinner, hot dogs and s’mores. It was also time to set up our cameras to get some good shots of the Milky Way. Here’s where we both goofed and ended up laughing about it later. Blain had brought a tripod for us to use for our DSLR cameras, however we couldn’t find it while trying to set up during the night. We both remembered him putting it in the car and pretty sure he unpacked it when we got there as well. We gave up looking and used a different tripod he had for our phones. The part that I find funny is that the best picture I got ended up being on my cell phone and not my DSLR.  However, the next morning we did find it buried under another bag while we were packing up to leave. 

Given that this second day was meant to be hotter, we decided to get an early start to our exploring. Our first stop of the day was climbing around Split Rock Trail Loop. Unfortunately we didn’t get too far as the sole started detaching from one of the hiking boots I was wearing. We did find lots of spots to sit and enjoy the scenery and quietness of being so far away from the cities though.

After we made it back to the car, we went to our next stop, Skull Rock! This was an easier hike to get to. Parking is really bad the closer you get. Luckily, the ranger gave us the heads up that when we start seeing cars parked along the road, grab the first spot, so we did. We spent some time exploring around before heading back to the car and our next to last stop in the park.

Our next stop was Keys View. It was a long drive with parts of the road being lined with a forest of Joshua Trees that made it all the better. The view point is on top of a mountain and you can see the fault line along with parts of Palm Springs and Indio along the 10 freeway. If you do visit, be careful as there are quite a large amount of bees in the area. I’m not allergic, but I do have a fear. Thankfully my friend helped me through the bees and back into the car. 

Our last stop on the trip was when we headed out the south side of the park to get to the 10 freeway. This wasn’t an intended stop, but then again we had no itinerary and were just rolling with it. The Cholla Cactus Garden was beautiful. Also a bit scary when you realize one slip on the path and you’d be picking 2-3 inch cacti needles out of your body. It still did not take away from the beauty of being out there and see all the different ways the cacti grew and how unique they are. We even saw a lizard that was chilling while we took photos.

With the sun getting lower in the sky, we decided it was time to drive back home. We both had a wonderful time on this trip and have thought about doing it again in 2026, but that is up to our schedules and if I want to endure that amount of heat again. Hope you enjoyed this little travel story. Until next time, safe exploring everyone!

P.S. – Want to see more photos? Keep scrolling!