Jumbo Boulder Parkour and Skull Rock!

We are on a 7,000 mile Great American Road trip. You can catch up on our last post: Grand Canyon South Rim, Newspaper Rock & Navajo National Monument! here.

Coming from the Grand Canyon, the drive crosses the Colorado river and skirts through the hot Mojave Desert to arrive at Joshua Tree National Park.

We stayed only one night. Arriving in the late afternoon, the weather is warm and very bearable (85-90 degrees). As the sun sets, the weather cools and makes for dark sky viewing of the Milky Way.

Jumbo Rocks Campground

According to the staff at the Visitor center the Jumbo Rocks campground is “Prime Real Estate” in the park. The campground is among a huge field of round boulders. Campsites are tucked between, behind and all around them.

Skull Rock Trail

We took an evening hike from our campground to Skull Rock. The entire hike is about 1 mile round trip. The trail head starts from Jumbo Rocks Campground. Hiking after 5 pm or before 10 am is recommended during Summer in Joshua Tree especially with Kids.

At Skull Rock, you can decide to continue on to another segment called the discovery trail “Made by Kids 4 Kids” which is .7 miles. A local high school designed the trail with 14 points of interest. We hit the Discovery Trail the next morning.

Joshua Trees

Joshua Tree is home to numerous, well, Joshua Trees. The tree is not actually a tree at all and comes from the Agave Family. Each tree grows only 1.5 inches per year. To determine the age of a tree you simply need to divide it’s height by 1.5.

Joshua Tree was a great stop. I think Spring or Fall when the temps are cooler would be ideal times to come back. On to Lake Skinner to see family!

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