Idyllwild-Pine Cove, California

On Saturday morning I set out to hike Mt. San Jacinto with a bunch of new friends. It’s a 12 mile walk with 4,500 ft of elevation gain—an all day affair for us. The night before, I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with a different group of friends and tried their two hottest wings: Mango Habanero and B...

Presented by Visit Native California.  You can explore California lands, paddle along its coasts, or try locally brewed coffee and beer with the help of these local Indigenous businesses. Their foods, drinks, stories, and lessons are unique to the Tribes that call this place home. Blue corn m...

The Visit Native California content series aims to shine a spotlight on the many different ways visitors can learn about, and learn from, the state’s 100+ tribes. From museums to guided tours to attractions at state and national parks, there are countless ways to experience Native American cultur...

Joshua Tree is one of our all-time favorite national parks. It took me awhile to come to love desert parks in general, but the beauty, unique setting, incredible sunrises and sunsets, along with its world-class climbing changed my mind. We are a rock climbing family and travel each November from ...

So, when I had the opportunity to make the two and a half hour journey east from Marina Del Ray to Joshua Tree National Park...it was one I couldn't pass up. I didn't make it in time for sunrise, but it was one of the most rewarding days I can remember.  I met a sojourning Australian making his w...

I’ve done some big hikes. Mt. Whitney, Catalina, and Mauna Kea are the biggest ones I’ve written about here, and I’ve even done some big hikes that I haven’t written about (Sand Gorgonio, San Jacinto, and down-and-up the Grand Canyon). With this kind of history and success can come an eery degr...

It all started with a simple Google search. My buddy, Cameron, and I were procrastinating studying for our law school finals when we started daydreaming about a getaway. We both love to camp, and we have always wanted to check out the Pacific Northwest, but a quick look at flights and weather...

Joshua Tree is a place to get lost in and leave feeling sun soaked and renewed, stepping out of the dusty golden tinged landscape. The sunrise and sunset are framed by outlines of the contorted spiky Joshua Trees and boulder studded rock formations. The park isn't all sleeping boulder giants, the...

Neither Nikki nor I had ever been down to Joshua Tree before. It had been a super dry winter so far, so I decided to go ahead and book a super cool little AirBnb in the desert just outside of the park. We ended up leaving home a day early, and not having booked anywhere, we were going to cross ov...

If you’re anything like me, when you venture out on a new road trip, you want to see everything there possibly is to see in the amount of time you have. This last spring we were on our drive back to Colorado from Mexico, and wanted to stop in Joshua Tree for a night to break up the drive. We came...