Quick Getaways: Day Trip to Pioneertown and Joshua Tree

Kevin’s parents are in town to escape the cold and gross weather of Washington, DC (only to get some cold and gross weather in LA!). Over the weekend, though, the weather cleared up and we hit the road and headed East into the desert to visit Pioneertown, a weird and wonderful Western town that once was the backdrop for TV shows and movies, and Joshua Tree National Park. We stayed in Palm Springs, which makes the perfect base to explore.

Pioneertown

The Pioneertown Motel, an actual place where you could stay

Pioneertown has such a fascinating past. It was founded in 1946 by a group of Hollywood personalities led by cowboy actors Dick Curtis and Russell Hayden as a permanent 1880’s town for filming western movies. Over 200 movies and TV shows were filmed here as were an unknown number of background shots for other productions. In fact, Kevin’s parents thought they recognized many of the spots as we walked around town.

Kevin strolls the empty streets of Pioneertown

TV westerns including the Gene Autry Show, Cisco Kid, Annie Oakley and Adventures of Judge Roy Bean were all filmed here. And you can even climb inside the old jail cell in town.

It didn’t take long before they locked me up!

While there aren’t many businesses open in town, one place that’s worth a stop is MazAmar Art Pottery. The tiny store located right on “Mane Street” (get it?) has beautiful pottery for sale from local artists. It’s also pretty reasonably priced, and had to hold myself back from buying a few bowls. I have some willpower!

Local handmade mugs from MazAmar Art Pottery

I wasn’t expecting us to spend much time in town – it could easily be a 15 minute stop. But we all enjoyed playing around on the sets and snapping photos of the old buildings. The Pioneertown Post Office is said to be the most photographed post office in the entire United States (though, who’s really going around and taking photos of post offices?).

A real-life cowboy wanders around Pioneertown

Hands up! I give myself up to the town sheriff

Figured I’d help contribute to the stat that this is the most photographed post office in the US

Joshua Tree

Lunch stop at Crossroads Cafe in Joshua Tree

After checking out a bunch of restaurants, we decided to grab lunch in downtown Joshua Tree at Crossroads Cafe. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that we were back on the Eastside of Los Angeles full of hipsters and artists. It seemed like there was a requirement to have a beard (if you were a guy) and shop at a vintage shop to eat here. If you have a long wait (like we did), you’re not too far from the Joshua Tree Visitors Center, where you can get information on the best hikes and how to plan out your day from a ranger. The Visitors Center is only 2 blocks away.

I think everyone in the restaurant is reading either their phone (or a book in Kevin’s case)

We ate our brunch (loved the vegan cheesesteak that Kevin got), fueled up at a nearby gas station and were off. We drove out to the North Entrance, located in Twenty Nine Palms, since the main West Entrance in Joshua Tree was backed up for 20 minutes. If it’s a holiday or peak tourist season, we’d recommend doing this since we pretty much had a 2 minute wait at most.

Our first stop was at Skull Rock, located right off the road and just a short walk.

Standing in front of the creepy Skull Rock, one of Joshua Tree’s top spots to visit

How did this rock get into this formation? It began long ago when rain drops accumulated in tiny depressions and started to erode the granite. As more rock eroded, more water accumulated, leading to more erosion until, as time passed, two hollowed-out eye sockets formed and the rock began to resemble a skull. I now have my Halloween Facebook profile picture!

Next up, just a short drive away, we went to Keys View, perched on the crest of the Little San Bernardino Mountains with panoramic views of the Coachella Valley.

Keys View, overlooking the valley and the San Andreas Fault

The infamous San Andreas Fault, which stretches 700 miles from the Gulf of California to the Mendocino Coast north of San Francisco, runs right through the valley and is easily visible from the lookout. Probably not the best place to be when the big one hits.

Joshua Tree is best known for its rock climbing areas and the network of hikes all throughout the park. It was freezing and windy so we wanted to do a pretty short one and selected the Hidden Valley Trail per the ranger’s suggestion. The trail is a 1-mile loop that winds among massive boulders through what was believed to be a legendary cattle rustlers’ hideout.

Kevin and his parents on the Hidden Valley Trail

The area is also a popular rock-climbing area and we saw our share of people swinging high above us.

It’s a long way down! Watching one of the many rock climbers scaling the boulders around the trail

The trail is only 1 mile, but at one point we got completely lost. Though, we weren’t alone. This is an incredibly popular trail and there were at least 10 other people just as confused as us (which actually helped calm me down, knowing we were all lost together!). It is a desert so one trail really looks just the same as, well, a sandy path that just happens to be there! I’m guessing we easily got in 2 miles, but arrived back before darkness set in at least!

Yay! We made it out. Now let’s get back to our hotel in Palm Springs, we are not camping here tonight!