Cottonwood Visitor Center — Attraction in Coachella

This is a review of our experience, not the park itself. Joshua Tree National Park is a beautiful place. Unfortunately, my friends and I experienced harrasment by campers on the night of 12/20/24 from 11 PM - 12:30 AM. My friends and I occupied the picnic area in the afternoon. We read on every advertisement for the Stargazing on the several sites JT has that we were good to stargaze in any picnic area since they are on a first-come-first serve basis. We set up our chairs and food and had no intention to stay overnight. we communicated this to the group when they asked us in the daytime. They did not say anything else but rather just walked away from us. We didn't think much of it either. Eventually, my friends and I picked up our food and made sure no trash was left behind. After we cleaned up our food, we moved a bit further away from the big group. According to the signpost, we ended up right within the picnic area, but some of the campers aggressively insisted for us to leave the area. We were a group of 4, sitting on camping chairs, Stargazing. We had no overnight camping gear, and we let the group know after they continued to insist. I explained to them that it is too dark to find a new area since it was after 11 PM. This group proceeded to harass us to get us to leave and threatened to hurt us at some point. They were speaking loudly, playing loud ring tones, playing alarm clock sounds, making noises with a glass bottle, singing/yelling, flashing flashlights right at our faces/eyes, held loud conversation right behind our chairs, and all this occured for an hour straight. Myself and my friends were positive we had followed the correct directions as to where to stargaze and never thought we would have to deal with such harassment. I will recognize one of my friends was very upset with the harassment we were experiencing, specially the bright lights being flashed directly at our faces/eyes for an hour, like anyone would be while trying to stargaze, that he used profanity. We did not retaliate otherwise. we did not use flashlights at them. We did not sing loudly, nor played ringtone, nor set off alarm sounds on purpose. We simply wanted to stargaze and thought they would eventually stop and leave us alone. We ended up leaving around 12:30 am. in such bad spirits by the aggressive behavior of these people. We were outnumbered by these mostly yt guys and girls. Their other half of their group did not participate with these 10-15 people. It was obvious they were looking for trouble intentionally, especially the yt guy on the picture provided below. I would like to know what safety protocols are there at JT for these types of situations. Please and thank you. The license plate #'s of the group are listed below: 6WEG434, 8BCB936, 9MFB669, and 6KHT054. I couldn't capture all of their cars, but in total, the group was about 25+ people. I am posting their license plates to spread safety and for anyone going there to stay vigilant of your...

This is a VERY small establishment that is very busy. The parking lot is super small for the traffic it receives as well.

The size doesn’t bother me as much because it would rather have more National park than visitor center. What bothered me was the attitude of the staff. The two women behind the desk, one with reddish pink hair could absolutely not be bothered. I asked for a map because there was only one left in the phamplet stand and she was not thrilled with me bothering her.

At one point there was a massive line and the ranger behind the desk was doing nothing to speed up the line. Many people were upset because they waited in line to purchase a day pass but they were told they needed to go outside to a different window.

No one ever asked for our National Park pass. We could have bypassed the VC completely and went straight in without any identification.

The gear and items to buy at the VC were not good…. I was really excited about a decent sweatshirt that said JOSHUA TREE but they only sweatshirt they carried was one with a big moose on it. The post cards were a good deal at .50 though.

NO WATER FOUNTAINS…. You fill up from the sink…..

The Matadora trail was INSANELY beautiful. It’s a 3 mile trip and definitely worth every moment. The trail markers were not that well marked and I wish there was a better way to finish the loop from the campground to the Cottonwood Springs Parking lot.

Also fun fact that we didn’t know - there are no Joshua Trees in the southern end of Joshua Tree...

not so great: had to park on the side of the road, because the parking lot is too small. so is the visitors center—it was so crammed when i went in (on a monday morning in early april). it’s confusing to navigate, despite the small space. the store and rangers are clumped together, people were confused what lines were for what. you pay for a park pass (if you’re not already a pass holder) outside, but inside you can buy merchandise or talk to a ranger—it’s just not laid out well. they don’t have water spigots— they say to just fill water bottles in the bathroom sink. i wish i had received more interesting park literature, all i got was the classic park map.

positives: the male ranger i spoke to really spent time talking to me and giving information and suggestions— so much so, i definitely recommend written it all down, because i forgot some things. i appreciated his time! they have a small, but cute Junior Ranger book! they looked like they had cute souvenirs— stickers, postcards, etc! it’s very close to the cottonwood springs oasis, which i really recommend checking out— stunning wildflowers & very...