Joshua Tree National Park – Indian Cove Campground – California

One of our favorite and easy rest stops heading west towards Lake Havasu or California is Bouse, Arizona. There is a rest stop along with the Bouse Museum along Hwy 72 in the center of town with a number of artifacts on display. There is plenty of room for large vehicles to park and then make lunch and enjoy the displays. We stopped, had lunch, and walked around a bit. We have visited here many times before but it is still a pleasant way to spend a bit of time and break up the drive.

General Patton established Camp Bouse in 1943 as a training site. Over 5,500 volunteers were trained to use a highly secret weapon called the Canal Defense Light which is a 13-million candlepower searchlight mounted on tanks to help fight the enemy. Today an outdoor museum highlights the event from that time period.

We departed Bouse and continued on west through Parker, Arizona, over the Colorado River, and into California.

Along California Highway 62 near Vidal Junction (where diesel was $6.99 a gallon – YIKES!) the road continues up and down and parallels the railroad track. The area has become very popular over the years with shoe trees, writing names with rocks near the tracks, and signs.

We ventured on to Twentynine Palms and on to Joshua Tree National Park – Indian Cove Campground which sits along the northern part of the park and about 10 miles west of Twentynine Palms.

The campground has 101 campsites and is all dry camping with no dump station on site.

Campground: Indian Cove Campground
Location: Joshua Tree National Park – North Central part of park in Twenty Nine Palms
Site: 52 (back-in)
Cost: $17.50 (half off with Interagency Pass)
Services: Dry camp
Comments: An isolated campground off the beaten track from the crowds. We loved it here due to the quietness and beauty but with only a few trails to hike we still made the best of it.

We had gorgeous weather and we ate outside for all our meals, enjoyed campfires in the evening, hiked a bit, and simply relaxed. Not a sound or soul around even through the campground showed all sites reserved. What’s up with that?

There are plenty of open areas to wander around and enjoy the distant views, the pile of rocks, and the vegetation.

There is a hiking trail called Indian Cove Nature Trail on the west end of the campground which provided some more nice views and a bit of exercise and sunshine.

To the east side of the campground is the day use area and Rattlesnake Canyon. The campground had quite a number of rock climbers going up and down on the steep rocks throughout the area.

We had not stayed at this campground before while at Joshua Tree National Park due to the lack of hiking trails but we ended up loving it and would certainly return. There are plenty of areas you can still walk around even though they are not official trails and the isolation is actually quite a plus.