Following a day exploring southern California’s Mojave National Preserve and overnight stays in Barstow and Twentynine Palms, we headed for Joshua Tree National Park. While the preserve and the national park are only 70 miles apart and somewhat similar in much of their terrain, each deserves a full day of exploration.

This wasn’t our first visit to Joshua Tree National Park, but this early December day, while a little windy, was sunny and seemed the perfect time to return to a park we enjoyed. During a drive through the park, we visited several campgrounds, took a stroll through a garden of jumping cacti, and watched rock climbers scale the park’s granite boulders.

Part of our attraction is the contrast in landscape and environment with South Georgia where we reside. The park’s landscape exhibits considerable changes as the higher elevations exhibit a mountainous ecosystem and, from the east to the west, the Mojave Desert descends into the hotter and drier Colorado Desert.

The western part of the park is filled with Joshua Trees that stimulate a visitor’s imagination with shapes resembling stick figures. The trees (actually yuccas) are pollinated only by yucca moths that lay eggs in the flowers. The larva feed on seeds as the fruit matures. The average lifespan of the plants is approximately 150 years although there is concern a warming climate is resulting in much shorter lives at lower elevations.

The park was established in 1936 as a national monument and upgraded in 1994 to national park status at the same time 234,000 acres of land were added. The 1994 expansion resulted in new boundaries with elevations that range from 900 feet to over 5,000 feet and cover three major ecosystems. Approximately 75 percent of the park’s nearly 800,000 acres are designated as wilderness.

Despite annually welcoming nearly 1.6 million visitors to a park one third the size of Yellowstone, Joshua Tree National Park never seems to be crowded, at least during our visits. The lack of congestion is in part due to visitation being more evenly spread throughout the year. The park enjoys an extended season that runs from early fall through late spring. Only the hot summers deter visitation to the southern California desert.

The park’s main roads are laid out in a wiggly Y-shape with entrances in the northwest, north and south with visitor centers near each entrance. Based on our visit, we recommend spending the majority of time in the northern and western sections of the park. These are scenic areas that serve as home for the Joshua Trees that prefer the cooler climate of the Mojave Desert.

We entered through the north entrance near the town of Twentynine Palms, where we stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center to gather information and plot an itinerary. The visitor center is small but the exhibits provide a good overview of the park and we found the National Park Service staff to be helpful. We then headed southeast to Hidden Valley, in our opinion, the most beautiful area of the park. Here we watched rock climbers scale large boulders. Hidden Valley includes a picnic area and one-mile hiking trail.

From Hidden Valley, we continued southeast to explore several unique campgrounds where campers pitched tents and parked vans amid boulders. Then it was on to Cholla Cactus Garden where we took a short walk amid glistening cacti.

This is where we encountered the infamous “jumping cacti” that appear harmless and can be quite beautiful as they shine in the sunlight. Don’t touch one! These are bad dudes with spines that harbor microscopic barbs that penetrate shirts, pants, jackets, shoes and, unfortunately, skin. We walked carefully so as to avoid another painful encounter with a cactus. During the last visit, we weren’t so cautious and paid the price.

The previous visit included taking a dead-end road to Keys View, a splendid overlook with views of the valley, mountains and desert. On a clear day, the San Andreas Fault that parallels the southwest border of the park can be observed. Wind at the overlook can be daunting.

We skipped the overlook and descended further to the park’s southern exit and Interstate 10 before heading east to Yuma. The park’s lower elevation appears virtually lifeless, especially from a distance. The Colorado Desert is hotter and drier than the western section of the park that lies in the southern part of the Mojave Desert.

Joshua Tree National Park offers more than we can describe here, but suffice to say it should be included on your bucket list of national parks to visit.

David and Kay Scott are authors of “Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges” (Globe Pequot). Visit them at mypages.valdosta.edu/dlscott/Scott.html. They live in Valdosta, Ga.