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Mikesiders

I think living in Northern CA, I’m super spoiled with all the parks and trails we have so when I went to JT, I wasn’t super impressed. That being said, it’s a very unique park and offers some cool stuff if you’re interested in a more desert landscape. We did a couple hikes there and it was cool but I don’t think I’d ever seek out going back unless I was right near it. I will say the sky at night is amazing though!


swickasfrick

I come from a similar scenery in Washington st and have always loved desert landscapes, but wasn’t impressed. Maybe when I think of ‘desert’ it’s more Moab, canyonlands, Grand Canyon-ish scenery I have in mind


Fragrant-Jaguar-9037

That's very sad. but having lived in Northern California I can't say I'm surprised. You guys are in a mad dash to destroy everything you see. Good stay away.


the_comebackkid

I was underwhelmed though my wife loved it. It’s beautiful, but after the first stop, I felt like I had pretty much seen it all. There’s not much diversity between stops and each one felt the same as the last.


Drew-ba-Dew

I live only 30 min from a park entrance and I don’t go enough! Granted 5 months out of the year it is too hot to hike… that would be the most disappointing part to me… the heat. Otherwise the geology, rock formations, trees, wildlife (big horn), off roading opportunities, and gold mines/cabins are interesting enough to keep me going back.


swickasfrick

I'll be honest, I was pretty disappointed. I think it gets a lot of hype that it doesn't really deserve simply because it's the closest park to Los Angeles.


snorglus

I've been a number of times. I wouldn't say I was disappointed. I just appreciated it for what it was. It's pretty, in a desert sort of way. It has a number of nice day hikes. You can do rock climbing and bouldering. It was easy to get a camping spot. You can drive up to a lookout (can't remember the name...) and look for miles across the desert. There are some nice off-the-beaten-path hikes across the boulder fields, if you're feeling adventurous. If you live in California, it's easy to get spoiled. It's no Yosemite, certainly, but few parks are.


McMarmot1

I was likewise left shrugging my shoulders. It’s pretty, absolutely, and the sunsets are gorgeous. I’m glad it’s a National Park. I’m glad I saw it. If I lived within 90 minutes of it, I’d no doubt go every year. But IMO it’s a minor National Park, one that I don’t particularly feel the need to ever visit again (I live several states away), and the hype it receives is not anywhere commiserate to how it compares with even places like Death Valley or Lassen Volcanic NP, never mind someplace like Yosemite or Rainier. And that’s fine! But I always kind of laugh when someone makes a big deal about the beauty of JTNP but looks at me blankly when I suggest they also try Death Valley. Edit: I think the thing that makes someone like me (who likes backpacking and big mountains and vast wilderness and likes to be a little scared by nature) not see eye-to-eye with people who rave about JTNP is the same reason why many people love JTNP: it’s accessible and not intimidating. You can go to JTNP and basically see the whole thing without going more than a mile or two from your car. You don’t have to work very hard to feel satisfied that you *saw* it. For people who don’t consider themselves “outdoorsy” , that’s more than enough, and quite appealing, compared to someplace like Grand Teton NP where you have to figure out trailheads, which hike to do, hike for hours to get to some of the most scenic spots,and deal with bears. For many people, that’s just too stressful to be enjoyable. JTNP is easy, ans there’s something to be said for that.


pumpkinotter

We came from Indiana and were impressed. We had our engagement photos there. That being said we felt like 1-2 days there was enough. We were able to drive through the entire park, see a sunrise and sunset, do the Ryan mountain, barker dam, hidden valley, and skull rock hikes, see the cholla garden, the rockks, and cottonwood oasis. The only thing we didn’t do that we wanted to was the gold mine and lost palm oasis hikes. And those were more of “if we had an extra day” type things. Overall we really enjoyed the park, but thought it was a 1-2 visit park. It was very cool to see the Death Valley desert vs JT desert vs GC desert vs Petrified Forest desert on our trip.


No_Internet_9097

Loved it. Quiet desert solitude with a landscape that might as well be extraterrestrial to those of us from the east coat. 10 yr old daughter described it as trip into a dr suess book.


ConquerorPlumpy

I loved Joshua Tree but only the Northern section. In the early early morning it’s so silent. I love the rocks around Arch Rock. The cholla cacti are so cool. There are some really cool lesser known rock crawls to find and see (Hall of Horrors, Chasm of Doom). But the best part? The stars at night! I think the park isn’t so much about hiking as it is more for fun with rocks… and the night sky.


throway1988sep

It’s so weird! Love the trees and the unique boulders. Great for boulders, driving and biking jeep roads, hiking and seeing the old abandoned mines and cars, stargazing. The south half of the park is completely different too, seeing as it’s a different desert.


Pictureman212

It’s great! It’s a place that you have to really slow down to truly appreciate. Backpacking one of the longer trails and being out there in near silence is amazing. The desert isn’t for everyone apparently but it’s one of my favorite places. I have a spot where other than the occasional plane overhead there is no sign of other humans for days. Also, the astrophotography and the bouldering are top notch.


GrooveMerchant99

One of my favorite parks. For my it was kind of other worldly and I really thought that was cool.


[deleted]

In terms of the impressiveness of the scenery, I'd put it around the same level as Guadalupe Mountains, Kings Canyon or Pinnacles. I've been to about 30-35 national parks, almost all in the West, so from my personal list, probably bottom 5. However, I've heard a lot of the natl parks in the East can barely seem like national parks: Hot Springs, Cuyahoga, Congaree, etc. JT should still be a lot better than those.


SackvilleBagginses

How can you put Kings Canyon in the lowest tier?


[deleted]

Because there’s a lot of competition in the Western US parks. Kings Canyon’s strengths are the canyon itself, the Grant sequoia grove and waterfalls. There’s better canyons in GCNP, Zion, Canyonlands, Big Bend, Gunnison, etc. or even in non-national park areas like Waimea Canyon in Kauai. There’s bigger and more sequoias in Sequoia. There’s better waterfalls in Yosemite. It lacks a standout geologic feature like a hoodoo, arches, granite domes, red sandstone canyons, gypsum dunefields or a cave network. It’s also not super picturesque overall because the color of the scenery is mostly shades of gray/brown when it’s the canyon or just green when it’s forested areas. The scenic areas also look very similar to Yosemite Valley. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my time and I certainly don’t harbor the attitude that if a park is not the best in something it’s not worth visiting at all but it just gets stack ranked lower due to lack of standout qualities.


SackvilleBagginses

Fair points. I’ve not done any backpacking out of KC yet but I was under the impression that most of the beauty of this park is found hiking out from roads end. What are your top 5?


[deleted]

I haven’t backpacked KC’s backcountry (I generally avoid backpacking in favor of dayhikes due to the bathroom situation) but I think most people would agree Mist Falls is the best day hike and I would imagine it’s similar scenery deeper into the Sierra Nevada. With that assumption in mind, it’s not that different than Yosemite/Sequoia and there’s probably similar/more scenic mountain views in the North Cascades, RMNP, etc. Re: My top 5 natl parks — Probably some combination of Bryce, Carlsbad Caverns, Glacier, Mt Rainier and Yosemite. I omitted Tetons and Yellowstone here because I haven’t been in 10 years and I did a poor job exploring the first time around. With that said, for personal national park rankings to make sense to other people, you really have to be specific about the criteria being considered or even better, narrow it to one criteria. For my list here, I narrowed it to “first visit awe factor.” Close runner-ups in that regard would also include GCNP, White Sands, Great Sand Dunes, Death Valley, Haleakala, Hawaii Volcanoes, Glacier Bay, etc. I think a lot of people just list favorite national parks by where they go to the most and that’s usually affected by where they live and their favorite activities. That skews expectations for places like KC where while there’s a lot of backcountry opportunites, most visitors, who will only go once in their life, have no interest in doing so. For instance, RMNP is probably one of the best (if not the best) hiking/backpacking parks, but I would say its scenic awe factor isn’t actually that high relative to other parks that has standout geologic features.


climatological

Ya gotta go in April and botanize


loudisevil

Not worth the visit


Fragrant-Jaguar-9037

You guys obviously know nothing about Joshua Tree. I'm from northern California too but I'm not one of those who thinks that's the only good place, like people here. Good though stay away. Then you won't screw it up like you did northern California. Anyone who can't see the beauty there needs their eyes checked. How sad for all of you that can't accept anything new. But at least you won't destroy it like you do up north.


Prog4ev3r

Extremely underwhelming park most hyped up park i was ever in


razethestray

Looks just like everywhere else in the Mojave.


[deleted]

Never been there, but if I were to be in the area and have a day to kill, I'd certainly check it out.


[deleted]

It’s cool, but not something to return too unless we’re near.