USA Guide
California
Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park ( 
www.nps.gov/jotr ) protects 1250 square miles of grotesquely gnarled plants, which aren't trees at all, but a type of yucca, an agave.
This unearthly landscape is ethereal at sunrise or sunset, when the desert floor is bathed in red light; at noon it can be a furnace, with temperatures sometimes topping 125°F. Still, the park attracts campers, day-trippers, and rock-climbers for its unspoiled beauty, gold-mine ruins, ancient petroglyphs, and incredible rock formations.
One of the easiest hikes (3 miles, foot-travel only) starts one-and-a-half miles from Canyon Road at Fortynine Palms Oasis. West of the oasis, quartz boulders tower around the Indian Cove campground; a trail from the eastern branch of the campground road heads to Rattlesnake Canyon, where, after rainfall, the streams and waterfalls break an otherwise eerie silence among the monoliths.
The Wonderland of Rocks features rounded granite boulders that draw rock-climbers from around the world. One particularly fascinating trail climbs four miles past abandoned mines to Lost Horse Mine, 450ft up – which once produced around $20,000 in gold a week.