Willow Hole

April 24, 2018 tarannosaurus

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → South Central Desert → Joshua Tree → Willow Hole

Location: Central Park Blvd, Joshua Tree

Time Required: 3 – 4 hours

Distance: 7 miles roundtrip

Elevation Gain/Loss: 400 feet

Red Tape/Notes: Entrance fee is $25 per vehicle and the park is open 24 hours. For more information on the park, including available hikes, visit the Joshua Tree NPS website. For additional information on the hike (plus some interesting history/geology), you can read the post on Modern Hiker. For beta on available climbing sites and routes in the area, the Mountain Project website has an extensive list.

What’s Nearby?: Hidden Valley, Desert Queen Mine, Skull Rock, Eagle Cliff Miner’s Cabin, Wonderland of Rocks Traverse, Rattlesnake Canyon

You’ll visit this site as a “freebie” if you do the Wonderland of Rocks Traverse, but if you don’t have that kind of time or energy, this an easier hike that will allow you to see some of the fabulous terrain of the Wonderland of Rocks, and also visit an usual site: a grove of willows in the desert. Before you start this hike, please understand that water is seasonal here, so you have a good chance of not finding a pool – the willows are always here, though! There’s also more wildlife in the area because of the frequency of water and the protection afforded by the trees and brush. To get to the site, you’ll follow the wide, flat Boy Scout Trail (located just west of Hidden Valley on Park Blvd) north/northeast, then take a branch on the right heading to Wonderland of Rocks after 1.2 miles. This trail eventually morphs into a sandy wash, which you’ll continue to follow all the way to Willow Hole. It should be fairly obvious from the profusion of greenery when you’ve reached the spot. The trail past Willow Hole, continuing on the Wonderland of Rocks Traverse, is substantially more difficult and less obvious, so it would be really difficult to accidentally pass Willow Hole. If you’re concerned, the Modern Hiker post noted above includes a gps track that you can download. There are literally hundreds of climbs in the Wonderland of Rocks area, so you could spend a long time here and not run out of climbing.