Chuck Grimmett

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Tag: Travel

  • Taking a Day Trip to Joshua Tree from LA

    Photo courtesy of the National Park Service

    Are you visiting LA for a few days and want to get out to see Joshua Tree? Taking a day trip from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree National Park is completely doable as long as you plan ahead. Here is what you need to know.

    What you’ll need

    • A full day: Joshua Tree is 2–3 hours East of LA and you’ll want at least 5 hours to go through the park. Add in meals and you’ve used a full day.
    • A rental car: A car is the easiest way to get to the park and see things on your own schedule.
    • Water and snacks: The desert is very hot, so water is necessary and salty snacks will help replenish those electrolytes. We purchased a couple gallons for the car and refilled our water bottles before each hike. These things aren’t readily available in the park, so plan ahead.
    • Sunscreen: The sun is intense. Get some good sunscreen and reapply often.
    • Comfortable clothes and shoes: You’ll want to get out and do some hiking. Even if you only take short, established trails, good footwear and breathable clothes will make your day more pleasant. Take a light hat if you don’t want to burn your forehead like I did.
    Click here for a printable version of this map

    Itinerary

    Amanda and I took this trip last weekend. Here is the itinerary we used. Feel free to use it as a base!

    Mid-Morning: LA to Coachella Valley

    Leave LA by 8am. Grab some coffee and a breakfast sandwich on the road, and set your GPS for Palm Springs or Indio. Turn on some tunes and settle in for a 2–3 hour drive. Cross your fingers that LA traffic won’t be too bad.

    When you stop in Palm Springs or Indio, fill up your gas tank, pick up the water, sunscreen, and snacks if you haven’t already done so. Grab a quick sandwich if you are hungry because the park doesn’t have food.

    Make sure to wrap up any cell phone communications before driving into the park. There is pretty much zero reception in the park, so plan accordingly.

    Late-Morning: Cottonwood Spring

    Enter the park from the south entrance at Cottonwood Spring. There are a few cool things to do there:

    • Pick up some park merch at the visitor center.
    • Check out the wildflowers and cacti around the visitor center.
    • Drive down the road off to the right to Cottonwood Spring and do the short Mastodon Loop hike. You see some incredible views and the hike isn’t strenuous.

    Early Afternoon: Ocotillo Patch and Cholla Cactus Garden

    After your hike, hop back in the car and start driving north. Your first stop will be the Ocotillo Patch. These plants aren’t cacti, but deciduous shrubs. We saw hummingbirds visiting the flowers!

    After the Ocotillo Patch, drive a little further north to the Cholla Cactus Garden. This is a dense area of cactus with a nice walking path. Pick up a guide at the trail entrance to learn about all the different Cholla varieties.

    After admiring the Chollas, drive up to the White Tank campground. If you’ve been drinking enough water to stay hydrated, you’ll probably need to hit the restroom. There are primitive restrooms at most camping areas in the park.

    While at White Tank, take a walk around the rock formations. Arch Rock Trail is a short half-mile loop.

    This area is in the middle of where the park starts to transition from the Colorado desert environment to the Mojave desert environment. You’ll spot your first Joshua Trees around here!

    Mid-to-Late Afternoon: Scull Rock, Jumbo Rocks, Desert Queen Mine, Sheep Pass, and Hidden Valley

    After White Tank, drive a little further north, then turn West (left) at the main intersection toward Joshua Tree. There are a variety of things to do along this stretch of road:

    • Climb around Scull Rock and Jumbo Rocks
    • Admire the thousands of Joshua trees
    • Go down a dirt road and hike up to the Desert Queen Mine
    • Take a walk around Sheep Pass
    • Hike around Hidden Valley

    Take your time and take in the scenery. Have a few snacks between stops. This is one of the busiest areas of the park, but as long as you can find parking, you are just a short hike from solitude. We stopped many times along the road to admire cacti and Joshua trees.

    Late Afternoon: Keys View

    After a fun afternoon climbing on rocks and taking photos of Joshua Trees, hop back in the car and drive a few miles south to Keys View. It seems a little bit out of the way, but you get incredible views up here of the entire Coachella Valley. If you’ve timed your day correctly, you can admire the beginnings of a sunset from up here.

    Evening

    After Keys View, you can drive back to the main road and continue heading toward Joshua Tree and the park’s West entrance. Stop at Quail Springs for one last desert romp and then pull over to snap a few more photos of the incredible rocks as the sun is setting.

    As you exit the park from the west entrance, resist the urge to stop at the first restaurant you see in Joshua Tree. Keep driving west for a few more miles to Yucca Valley. There are a ton more food options here and they are less likely to be packed with tourists. You can also drop by the Walmart or Walgreens to pick up some aloe for your sunburn.

    Make sure you get the driver some caffeine for the journey back to LA. We expected it to take roughly two hours like on the way out, but we got caught in unexpected Sunday night traffic and it ended up taking three and a half hours to get back.

  • The Great American Road Trip

    I got the chance to spend a week driving from coast to coast with my parents last summer. We started just north of Seattle, took Route 2 across Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, then went across the UP and drove down through Michigan, then across Ohio and Pennsylvania on I-80 to NYC.

    The route we planned. We deviated slightly on where we stopped.

    Day 1: Bellingham to Coeur d’Alene

    We left Bellingham after meeting a friend for an early lunch and decided to cross Washington all in one day. It went like this: The Cascades, apple orchards, then endless wheat fields. Somewhere in the middle of apple country we found an awesome burger shack and decided to stop for dinner. The cheeseburger and a banana shake hit the spot.

    We thought we’d drive to Spokane and just Priceline a hotel when we got there. Rookie mistake. Since it was the summer season and there was an unforeseen issue at the airport that grounded all flights, literally every hotel within 50 miles was booked. Even the casinos were booked. Thankfully, some gracious friends from college, the Herseys, offered to let us stay with them an hour away in Coeur d’Alene, ID.

    Days 2–3: Coeur d’Alene to Glacier & Waterton

    The first thing we did the next day was book hotels for the rest of the trip. We weren’t going to get lucky with nearby friends while going across the plains. We then took a leisurely route through the mountains to get over to Glacier National Park. We explored Lake McDonald, the Trail of the Cedars, and Avalanche Creek.

    The next day we got up early, went across Going To The Sun Road, and drove up to Waterton, Glacier’s sister park in Canada.

    The drive took longer than expected, so I had to sprint to buy us tickets for the boat tour of Upper Waterton Lake. It was well worth it. We saw some incredible scenery and caught a glimpse of a momma black bear and her cubs. I got a proper sunburn, got my shoes wet, and took hundreds of photos. A good day, all in all.

    Upper Waterton Lake

    Day 4: Glacier to Minot, ND

    We got up early, drove around the southern edge of Glacier, saw a moose, and settled in for a long drive across the plains. We set Minot, ND, as our destination for the day, which was a 15 hour drive across hot, dry, flat, featureless land. Thank goodness for podcasts! Lunch options were slim, so we found a grocery store and bought stuff for sandwiches, which we assembled and ate in the parking lot.

    Dinner options were slim, too. The plains are an empty place. We had dinner at The Taco Shack in Glasgow, MT, the only town we saw for hours. I got their special, “The Emmet”: a plate of tater tots covered in taco meat and cheese.

    The look on my parents’ faces pretty much sum it up.

    Day 5: Minot, ND, to Marquette, MI

    After a short night of sleep (we arrived late in Minot), we got back on the road and made for Marquette, MI. After about an hour and a half on the road, we cruised through Rugby, ND, and made a quick stop at the geographical center of North America.

    The geographical center of North America is in the middle of a parking lot.

    I had to work for the last four days of the trip, which was challenging. I got up early, stayed up late, took phone calls at rest areas, and answered emails in the back seat when I wasn’t driving.

    We stopped at Duluth TradingArchived Link in Duluth, MN, then kept on trucking. I was exhausted by this point, so all I remember is 1) how many bugs hit our windshield in the UP and 2) how flat the UP is. I expected it to be more hilly for some reason. We rolled in to Marquette around 1:30am and passed out immediately.

    The next morning, we realized that there were so many bugs splattered across the windshield that we had to wash it at the next gas station.

    Day 6: Pictured Rocks to Cleveland, via Zingerman’s

    We had planned on spending the day exploring Pictured Rocks and the Sleeping Bear Dunes, stay the night up there, and drive to Cleveland the next day, but we were so exhausted that we opted to skip the dunes and drive to Cleveland that day. We took our time around Pictured Rocks, then I shot a hyperlapse of going across the Mackinac Bridge and we cruised all the way down to Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor for dinner. After stuffing our faces with fantastic sandwiches, we drove the last two hours back to the Cleveland area.

    The Muffaleo at Zingerman’s

    Days 7–8: Cleveland to Yonkers

    I stayed at my parents’ house for two nights, which was just enough time to visit with family and get my favorite pizza.

    Left: Dad drawing with my goddaughter. Right: Yala’s Pizza.

    I took I-80 across Pennsylvania back to NY by myself on day 8, completing the trip. I’ve taken that 8 hour trip dozens of times over the past 5 years, but after driving 12+ hours a day for the previous week, I was ready to get out of the car. I didn’t even take any photos!

    Tips for planning your own trip

    • If you plan to do a trip like this, Road Trip USA has a great guide that you can use as a starting point.
    • Make sure you build in rest time along the way.
    • Get off work entirely. Juggling deadlines while driving is stressful.
    • Take snacks.
    • Get fuel when you can. The plains are desolate.
    • Book hotels in advance so you don’t get stuck somewhere.
    • To document the trip, make sure you do something fun like shooting little video clips or doing panoselfies (our medium of choice) along the way.