Wonder Valley (Twenty Nine Palms)
December 12th – 14th, 2020
About a 3-hour drive from San Diego and close to Palm Springs, Wonder Valley is a desert oasis in Twenty Nine Palms, California boasting wide open views and dark skies filled with billions of stars. It’s located very close to Joshua Tree National Park, which borders the Colorado and Mojave deserts. The main features of the park are the magnificent Joshua Trees which stand over 20 feet tall and the massive boulder formations which take many shapes. This is one of the few, if only, places Joshua Trees are found (some say they are also found in Jerusalem).
Although the overnight campgrounds were closed at the time of our visit due to the mandatory pandemic California shut down, the park was still open for day use. We really wanted to go not only to see Joshua Tree National Park for the first time, but also to witness the peak of the Gemenid meteor showers. Fortunately, there is a Boondockers Welcome location very close to the park entrance in Wonder Valley and the owner was very nice in accommodating us for a couple of nights! The boondocking campsite we stayed at is a very large flat paved 2 acre area butting up to the desert. There was one other travel trailer on this site when we arrived, but the area is large enough to fit 10 rigs, so we had plenty of space!
When we arrived it was very windy, but still clear and sunny. We were careful to position our Scamp 13’ small travel trailer directly into the wind to minimize buffeting of the trailer. The wind was very strong, but just blew right over us from the front of the trailer and we didn’t feel or hear much of it. Since there are no hookups at this location, we made sure to fully charge our Scamp’s batteries the day before leaving, fill our Scamp’s freshwater tank with 12 gallons of fresh water and the hot water heater with 6 gallons of fresh water, bring one full 4 gallon jug of drinking water and 2 x 6 gallon water jugs to refill our freshwater tank, bring our Jackery 500 auxiliary power bank, as well as pack our refrigerator and storage box with enough food for a few days. We found out later there is a free water spigot to supply campers’ water jugs at the Visitor’s Center at the entrance of the park on Utah Trail road. We also made sure to bring our solar panels since we would need a little help from the sun to keep our Scamp 13’ batteries charged.
We had a nice late lunch in the Scamp after arriving (some pasta cooked up on the stove) and decided to check out the Visitor’s Center. We found some really cool Joshua Tree t-shirts and spoke to some park rangers a bit. They told us the park would be closed from 10 p.m. – 5 a.m. in honor of the coronavirus curfew now in effect. Darkness falls early in December in the desert and we decided to wait until the next day (Sunday) to go into the park. It was very cold and windy in the evening (early 30’s at night), so we decided to watch a movie hoping the wind would settle (see how to watch movies in the wild). Our Scamp furnace kept us nice and toasty. The wind did quiet eventually and we were able to see some meteors! The sky at night here is very dark and the stars sparkle! The location feels very remote.
The next morning we took a little walk around our campsite in the desert. There are many interesting dilapidated shacks that dot the landscape – our Boondockers Welcome host explained to us that they are the byproduct of the Small Tract Act of 1938, a federal homestead act that deeded mostly 5-acre plots of land to distribute 457,000 acres of desert that the Bureau of Land Management deemed useless (the act was repealed in 1979). Under the guidelines, homesteaders were granted the land if they built homes no smaller than 12 x 16 feet (192 square feet). Most of these structures are tiny, currently in terrible condition, and many still have original old furnishings – we saw one with an old oven and a tea kettle still on the stove! However, some of these shacks have been renovated and we also saw the new construction of a mini-home (supposedly by a man from Texas building his “dream” home)!
After a decadent pancake breakfast in our Scamp, we headed back to the Visitor’s Center to purchase an America the Beautiful Annual Pass ($80) which allows unlimited entry into National Parks for a year as well as other government lands. We are planning on going to Death Valley National Park, Pinnacles National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, as well as other National Parks this year, so having the pass will save a lot on entrance fees (currently $30 per car at Joshua Tree National Park). Driving into the park was easy and there are places to stop along the roads. Based on the time of year and the strict pandemic orders, there were hardly any visitors during our trip. There are a lot of very interesting trails, plants (including Joshua Trees), and rock formations to keep one busy for days. We saw Skull Rock which looks like it sounds and completed an easy 2 mile hike to Split Rock. We really didn’t have enough time to see everything and, in turn, we plan to come back in April with friends and will stay inside the park at Jumbo Rocks campground. Joshua Tree National Park is definitely a must visit if only to see the curiously interesting and one-of-a-kind Joshua trees!
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