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It’s embarrassing to admit, but ten years ago, when I first started going to Joshua Tree National Park, I got lost. I’d been shuffling along, marveling at the sheer magnitude of the fractured monzogranite towers, when I realized that the trail had vanished. I clambered atop the nearest pile of boulders��and took stock of the situation: an endless, undulating desert sparkling in the midday heat—and thankfully, a familiar beige ribbon in the not too far distance.

I offer this anecdote not to dissuade a visit, but to say that Joshua Tree is so mesmerizing that it’s pretty easy to get turned around out there. It’s also pretty��damn vast. Originally home to the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mojave,��Serrano, and Western Shoshone peoples, the park contains nearly 800,000 acres, more than a third of them designated wilderness, and many of those trail-free, a siren call to anyone who might enjoy a little desert solitaire.

But this is no lonely swath of sand. The whole place is riddled with snaking canyons, hidden oases, and bulbous rocks��hosting a variety of wildlife, including bobcats, coyotes, jackrabbits, and the threatened Mojave desert tortoise. In addition, the Southern California park receives nearly three million visitors a year who fan across its dual regions—the more arid and remote Colorado Desert, to the east, and the higher-elevation and more heavily developed��Mojave Desert, to the west. The latter is where you’ll find the highest concentration��of the park’s Seussian namesake, which is not a tree at all��but a monocot, a flowering plant that’s related to yucca.

What You Need to Know Before Visiting Joshua Tree National Park

Beware the spiky chollas.

During one of my earliest Joshua Tree hikes, a spindly segment of pencil cholla pierced through the thick rubber of my boot soles. Not long after plucking it out, I accidentally kicked a hefty wad of Teddybear��Cholla into my tender calf. This is to say: pay attention to your surroundings. Long sleeves and pants hel