Hikes in Joshua Tree National Park

Yaqui Well Trail is one of the free self-guided nature trails in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Pair a trail guide (that you can pick up at the trailhead) with numbered markers along the way to learn about the history and botany of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park as you enjoy the surrounding scenery. The 1.6-mile round trip trail with 100 feet of elevation gain ends at Yaqui Well, a vital year-round water source that stands out from its arid desert surrounding. ...Read more.

Looks can be deceiving. Kenyon Overlook Trail doesn't impress at the start - a dirt single track leaving the most primitive campground in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The trail crosses pleasant but generic desert landscape at Yaqui Pass. Stick with this hike because the payoff is massive - a huge view across Mescal Bajada toward Sunset Mountain (which puts on a colorful display from the overlook at sunset). ...Read more.

The Anza-Borrego Desert is a beautiful place to visit, but a tough place to live. The areas inhabitants usually built homes near water, trees, and roads, but not Marshal South, who traded utility for scenery when he built a homestead in the 1930s atop Ghost Mountain (Yaquitepec) near Blair Valley in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The trail to the ruins of the South's adobe cabin is 1. ...Read more.

Grab your hiking boots and your camera for this short hike to 360-degree views. Panoramic Overlook Trail is a vista-filled one-mile out and back hike with 275 feet of elevation gain. The brief steep effort is rewarded by sweeping views over Borrego Valley from a ridge flanking Borrego Palm Canyon at the base of San Ysidro Mountains, the towering western boundary of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. ...Read more.

Driving around Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, you will pass quite a few unnamed or unmarked footpaths heading off somewhere into the desert. If you are curious enough to venture down one of these mysterious trails, make your way to Tubb Canyon. Located near Culp Valley Primitive Campground in the San Ysidro Mountains on the west side of the park, Tubb Canyon Trail offers an easy 1. ...Read more.