Hiking Cap Rock Trail in Joshua Tree National Park

Cap Rock Trail in Joshua Tree National Park is a very easy .4 mile loop. It is a well maintained, mostly flat, trail that meanders past rock formations as well as groves of Joshua Trees.

Cap Rock Trail

There are not as many rock formations on this trail as there are on the Hidden Valley Picnic Area Trail.

Cap Rock Trail

Instead, you will be treated to landscapes filled with Joshua Trees. Of all the hikes that we went on, this one offers the most views of the infamous Joshua Trees.

Joshua Trees on Cap Rock Trail

Most of the trees grow on their own, but once in a while you will come across a clump of trees growing together.  

Cap Rock Trail

This is one of the more interesting formations that we came across on the trail. You may notice that there is not a cloud in the sky. We had zero clouds the entire day. Had we been able to stay to watch the stars come out, we would have been treated to an amazing sight! However, during the day, the lack of clouds was grueling.

Joshua Tree National Park is located in both the Mojave and the Colorado Deserts. On our visit it was 103 degrees with no wind and no clouds. There were several ways that we dealt with the extreme temperature. The first was to drink a lot of water. We had water on every trail, no matter how short the trail was. We applied sunscreen multiple times throughout the day. We now own t-shirts that help the body to cool itself down and have sunscreen protection built in. I wish we would have had them for this visit. We did have cooling towels, which is a similar material, but you need to wet it for it to work. We soaked them and then draped them over our shoulders to help cool down. I don’t recommend them, as they dried out so quickly that the relief they offered was very minimal. It felt really good for about 3 minutes. If we had brought a lot more water to continually soak them, it may have been worth it.  We also opted for short hikes. We did not take any hike that was over a mile and a half, so we could get back into our car and cool ourselves down while we drove to the next hike. Some words of caution, the park’s website warns against cooling down in your car if you are not driving to a different location. Apparently bees will be very attracted to the condensation that will be produced by the car when using the air conditioner, this will be worse at some times of the year than others. Also, the shady areas provided by the rock formations will not only offer you relief from the intense sun, but will also offer it to wildlife. You must be mindful of what creatures might be resting behind the rocks. The park’s website suggests avoiding stepping or reaching into any areas that you can not see.

We finished this short hike in less than 30 minutes. The heat was starting to make its presence felt and we were glad that it was a 20 minute drive in the park to get to Keys View, which was our next stop. By the time we arrived, we were nice and cool and were ready to get a peak at the San Andreas Fault.

If you are interested in some more desert adventures, check out the links below. As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life.

Desert Botanical Garden ~ Arizona

Saguaro National Park

Hidden Valley Picnic Area Trail

Hiking Skull Rock Nature Trail

Cottonwood Spring Trail – An Oasis in the Desert

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Hiking Cap Rock Trail