Joshua Tree · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Free desert camping just outside the boundary, cheap entry inside, and no water anywhere.
Free BLM camping
Dispersed sites off Sunfair Road north of the park and at Joshua Tree South near the Cottonwood entrance cost nothing. No water, no toilets, no shade, fourteen-day limit.
What a day costs
About $35–70 a day: free BLM ground or a $20–25 park campsite, groceries from the Yucca Valley supermarkets, and $30 a vehicle for a week's entry.
Showers and resupply
Coyote Corner in Joshua Tree village sells hot showers by the token and stocks the gear people forget. Full supermarkets and laundromats are in Yucca Valley.
Getting around
The park has no shuttle. A basin bus line links Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms cheaply but does not enter the park, so a car is effectively required.
Where travellers meet
The Joshua Tree Saloon after dark, and Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown, a former film-set bar with live music that regularly punches above its size.