Wide-open spaces

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. – It’s a dry heat – a boulder-studded, wind-raked Mojave heat in which rock stars lie low, artists think big, Marines train, weird plants jut toward the sun like beseeching biblical figures and climbers cling to granite walls like insects stuck to flypaper, except the climbers are way happier.

That’s a notable thing about Joshua Tree National Park and the towns around it. While legions of Californians keep their faces toward the beach no matter the season, a certain stripe of traveler is powerless to resist the desert, especially in cooler months. They come for the wide-open spaces and quirky lodgings you see in Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms. They come for the bands at Pappy & Harriet’s, for the steaming pools of lithium-rich water at Desert Hot Springs or for a sound bath (to be explained soon) at the Integratron in Landers.

Here are some micro-itineraries for Joshua Tree and environs, a sprawling area that begins north of Interstate 10 about 110 miles east of Los Angeles City Hall.

BIG ROCKS, BIGGER SKY

Joshua Tree National Park covers nearly 800,000 acres. No matter the time of year, you’ll enjoy it most in the day’s first and last hours of light, when the shadows get interesting and temperatures change quickly. The Mojave and Colorado deserts collide here, and a few billion rocks demand climbing or observation. There are almost as many cartoonish Joshua trees, which are better admired than climbed.

From the park’s west entrance (near the town of Joshua Tree), head to Hidden Valley, a haven for tent-camping, hiking, climbing and scrambling. There’s a 1.1-mile looping nature trail to Barker Dam that’s great for photography (still water, stacked boulders), and the neighboring Gunsmoke area is beloved by boulderers. Not far from there is Cap Rock. Back in 1973, a few days after 26-year-old Gram Parsons died of a drug overdose in Room 8 of the Joshua Tree Inn, his friend Phil Kaufman stole the body from authorities and brought it to Cap Rock for a DIY cremation. It didn’t go well, and rangers continue to discourage this practice. For a healthier interaction with the landscape, try a class offered by the Desert Institute (joshuatree.org). Wherever you go, bring water.

DOWNTOWN JOSHUA TREE

Get your first meal at the Crossroads Café, where postings on its bulletin board are liable to mention rock climbers’ chalk bags for sale, mercenaries for hire and upcoming drum circles. (At least, it did in February.) For a date shake, walk down to Ricochet. For gear or a guide, stop at Joshua Tree Outfitters. There’s also a pottery shop, a couple of thrift stores and the Joshua Tree Saloon, which plays a key role during the Joshua Tree Music Festival in May and the Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival in October. Across the street, there’s the Instant Karma Yoga Studio, the Mount Fuji General Store (a hipster boutique) and a pizzeria called Pie for the People. If you like a lodging with a little style and don’t need a pool, head for the five-room Spin & Margie’s Desert Hide-a-way. If you want higher style (and have more money), there’s the Mojave Sands Motel, where owner Blake Simpson has turned a roadside hole-in-the-wall into a five-room compound with vintage vinyl and a manual typewriter in every room. Though he opened in 2011 and his bottom price is $200, Simpson hopes to add a pool and bump up prices before the year is over. Bear in mind that dozens of Joshua Tree properties are listed on vacation-rental sites such as Vrbo.com, with widely varying descriptions and prices.

THE EGG IN THE BOULDERS

There’s a growing art scene in Joshua Tree, and not just within the walls of the Red Arrow Gallery and Joshua Tree Art Gallery on the main drag. Check out the artists of High Desert Test Sites, who make outdoor works that the desert will transform and reclaim. Like the galleries, the headquarters opens on weekends (11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays), and one work is always accessible. It’s along Twentynine Palms Highway, one mile east of Park Drive, on the boulder-strewn slopes at the end of meandering, unpaved Neptune Road. Up close, you may see that “untitled,” by Sarah Vanderlip, is made of welded aluminum, but from a distance, it gleams like a silvery egg, possibly dropped by a titanium dinosaur.

PAPPY & HARRIET’S

Pioneertown, on a plateau about five miles north of Yucca Valley, was built in the 1940s as a TV and movie set. Some decades later, along came Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, a roadhouse with live music that has become a desert institution. Pappy’s gently blends desert-rat locals with escaped city slickers and lures performers you would never expect in the middle of nowhere. The Pioneertown Motel is next door. If you’re OK to drive back to Joshua Tree, there’s the 10-room Joshua Tree Inn, where you can have Room 8 (the Gram Parsons death room) for $109. It has a pool and a shrine to Parsons.

MARINES, MURALS AND AN INN

The city of Twentynine Palms stands at the northern entrance to the national park, its population of 30,000 dominated by the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, which readies Marines for service overseas. Since the early 1990s, town boosters have bankrolled the painting of about two dozen murals, so as you roll past all the barbershops in town (Marine cuts are a specialty), you’ll notice a lot of history in living color. For another sort of color, the 29 Palms Inn is a prime haven. The family-run inn, whose rooms, bungalows and cabins are scattered over 70 acres near the park entrance, dates to the 1920s. If you can swing it, rent Irene’s Historic Adobe, which went up in the ’30s and has a master bedroom, a bunk room, kitchen, living room with a fireplace and a big private courtyard.

STONY HAVEN

In a territory dominated by stray boulders, why is it so surprising to find a house with stone walls? Maybe it’s because Roughley Manor, which dates to 1928, is three stories high and surrounded by equally tall trees. This is a good spot for families, its 25 acres set apart from the rest of town; the grounds include a pool, grassy areas, two suites in the main house and five cottages. While the J-Tree hoteliers court the young and trendy, Roughley Manor’s resident owners cater to scrapbooking groups. When your book is done, it’s a short drive to Smith’s Ranch Drive-In Movie Theater, which screens movies Thursday-Sunday nights.

DAMP AND SHADY AT LAST

After you’ve zoomed down the hill from Joshua Tree but before you reach the windmill forest at the entrance to the Coachella Valley, you reach Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, where boardwalk trails trace paths past riparian brush and desert willows. More than 250 bird species have been recorded in the area.

THE PUEBLO AND THE SPAS

First, you’ll see the head – a 40-foot Indian head with a feather, carved from a Sequoia redwood log by artist Peter Toth in 1978. Then you’ll notice the rest of Cabot’s Pueblo Museum in Desert Hot Springs), a four-level, 35-room mansion built in ersatz Hopi style by Cabot Yerxa, one of the pioneering eccentrics of Desert Hot Springs. To get a good look inside, sign up for the hourlong tour and learn how Yerxa built the home from recycled materials between 1941 and his death in 1965. Then it’s time for cocooning in a little spa hotel, of which there are several. The seven-room Sagewater Spa (built in 1954, redone in 2001) gives you mid century minimalism. El Morocco Inn & Spa is a 2005 revival project with 10 rooms, many veils, three round beds and sparkling TripAdvisor ratings for its service. The six-room Hacienda Hot Springs Inn delivers an Old California feel, including an outdoor kitchen, enormous common table and plenty of books and desert memorabilia. None of these places is good for children or outdoor cellphone chats.

SOAKED FOR A PITTANCE

You’re done with the national park, your muscles are sore and your wallet is thin. And so, for just $7 on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday – or $5 on most weekdays – you can buy a day pass at the Desert Hot Springs Spa Hotel. There, you meander among eight spring-fed pools, each a different temperature. (On Tuesdays, the price drops to $3.) The spa menu is long, and families are welcome. You can rent a poolside room for the day (9 a.m.-4 p.m.) for $45 or spend a night for a little more than $100. To go with your cheap soak, grab some hearty, affordable Mexican food a few blocks away at Casa Blanca Restaurant.

IF YOU GO

WHERE TO STAY

Mojave Sands Motel: 62121 Twentynine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree; 760-799-1603, mojavesands.com. Doubles $200-$300.

Pioneertown Motel: 5040 Curtis Road, Pioneertown; 760-365-7001, pitowninn.com. Doubles usually $100 on weekends, $70 on weeknights.

Joshua Tree Inn: 61259 Twentynine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree; 760-366-1188, joshuatreeinn.com. Doubles $89-$159.

Harmony Motel: 71161 Twentynine Palms Highway, Twentynine Palms; 760-367-3351, harmonymotel.com. Doubles $65-$120.

29 Palms Inn: 73950 Inn Ave., Twentynine Palms; 760-367-3505, 29palmsinn.com. Bungalows, cabins, pool. Most units $111-$258, less in summer.

Roughley Manor: 74744 Joe Davis Drive (off Utah Trail), Twentynine Palms; 760-367-3238, roughleymanor.com. Doubles $135-$160, breakfast included.

Two Bunch Palms: 67425 Two Bunch Palms Trail, Desert Hot Springs; 760-329-8791, twobunchpalms.com. Most rooms $239-$399 in high season, $159-$319 in summer. At resort’s Casino restaurant, dinner main dishes $18-$32.

Sagewater Spa: 12689 Eliseo Road, Desert Hot Springs; 760-220-1554, sagewaterspa.com. Doubles usually $175-$265.

El Morocco Inn: 66810 4th St., Desert Hot Springs; 888-288-9905, elmoroccoinn.com. Rates $169-$229 in high season, summer about $80 less.

Desert Hot Springs Spa Hotel: 10805 Palm Drive, Desert Hot Springs; 760-329-6000, dhsspa.com. Doubles $89-$139. Next door is the fancier 110-room Miracle Springs Resort & Spa, 10625 Palm Drive; 760-251-6000, miraclesprings.com. Doubles $99-$159.

Spin & Margie’s Desert Hide-a-way: 64491 Twentynine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree; 760-366-9124, deserthideaway.com. Doubles $135-$175.

WHERE TO EAT

Crossroads Café: 61715 Twenty-nine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree; 760-366-5414, crossroadscafejtree.com. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. All less than $10.

Ricochet Gourmet:61705 Twentynine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree; 760-366-1898, ricochetjoshuatree.com. Main dishes $8-$10.

Natural Sisters Café: 61695B Twentynine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree; 760-366-3600. Up to $11.95.

Pie for the People: 61740B Twentynine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree; 760-366-0400, pieforthepeople.net. Pizzas, calzones, etc. Pizzas $11-$25.

Willie Boy’s Saloon & Dance Hall: 50048 Twentynine Palms Highway, Morongo Valley; 760-363-3343, willieboys.com. Main dishes about $12-$29.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO

The Integratron: 2477 Belfield, Blvd., Landers; 760-364-3126, integratron.com. Wednesdays-Sundays by appointment. Open to the public two weekends a month. $15 sound baths, $5 self-guided tours.

Joshua Tree National Park: 74485 National Park Drive, Twentynine Palms; 760-367-5500, nps.gov/jotr. Entrance fee $15 per car for up to seven days.

High Desert Test Sites: 6470 Veteran’s Way, Joshua Tree; highdeserttestsites.com. Open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

Smith’s Ranch Drive-In Movie Theater: 4584 Adobe Road, Twentynine Palms; 760-367-7713, 29drive-in.com. Shows at 7 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays. Admission $5 a person.

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve: 11055 East Drive, Morongo Valley; 760-363-7190, bigmorongo.org. Open 7:30 a.m.-sunset, free.

Cabot’s Pueblo Museum, 67616 E. Desert View Ave., Desert Hot Springs; 760-329-7610, cabotsmuseum.org. Six tours daily, $11 per adult.

TO LEARN MORE

Joshua Tree Chamber of Commerce: joshuatreechamber.org.

29 Palms Convention & Visitors Center: visit29.org.

Desert Hot Springs tourism: deserthotsprings.com.