Backcountry Camping in Mojave National Preserve
Our first camping trip together was at Mojave National Preserve. It was a cold, cozy weekend spent at Hole-in-the-Wall Campground, and it completely hooked us on camping. For our second trip back, we decided to experience a different side of the preserve by spending a long weekend at one of its backcountry campsites.
One of the things that makes Mojave National Preserve so special is the opportunity for dispersed backcountry camping. With a little planning, you can find quiet campsites surrounded by Joshua trees, giant boulders, and wide-open desert. Before heading out, it's always worth checking the current camping regulations and fire restrictions, since conditions and rules can change throughout the year.
We entered the preserve from Interstate 15 on the northwest side, which sits at a slightly higher elevation than much of the park. That makes for cooler temperatures, especially during the winter months, so we packed plenty of warm layers for our January trip.
After exploring a few options, we settled on a campsite surrounded by Joshua trees and massive granite boulders, with plenty of flat ground for pitching our tent. It even had a well-established fire ring.
One of the reasons we were drawn to this area was the incredible Joshua tree forest that surrounds it. Some of the densest Joshua tree forests in California can be found here, and it's an amazing sight to look across the landscape and see these iconic trees stretching toward the horizon in every direction. There are several great day hikes nearby, but honestly, we were just as happy wandering around the rocks and soaking in the scenery.
Our timing could have been a little better. The entire weekend was cold and rainy. We try not to complain about rain in California, but spending a weekend in a tent while puddles form beneath you and temperatures struggle to reach 40 degrees definitely tests that philosophy. At times, the rain hammered the tent so hard that we lay awake listening to it roar across the rainfly, wondering if our little tent was going to survive the night.
Thankfully, every morning greeted us with blue skies, giving us time to dry out our gear, make another cup of coffee, and enjoy exploring before the next storm rolled through.
The wildlife added a few memorable moments of its own.
Shortly after sunset, a chorus of coyotes erupted somewhere out in the darkness. We're used to hearing one or two coyotes while camping, but this sounded like a very large pack calling back and forth across the desert for hours. It was an incredible sound... and, if I'm being honest, just a little intimidating.
The following day, while exploring the area, we stumbled across a large skeleton with several ribs and vertebrae still attached. Curious what it had once been, we later contacted some desert experts familiar with Joshua Tree, who believed it was probably a mule deer. Suddenly those nighttime coyote choruses seemed a little more believable.
The overnight rainstorm became part of the adventure, too. We'd camped in the rain before, but never through such loud, heavy downpours. Fortunately, the desert sun always seemed to return by morning, giving us a chance to spread everything out, dry our gear, and linger over another cup of coffee before heading out for the day.
This was only our second visit to Mojave National Preserve, but it certainly won't be our last. Every trip here has been completely different from the one before, and that's part of what makes this place so special. Between the endless Joshua tree forests, quiet backcountry campsites, dramatic weather, and beautiful desert scenery, Mojave always seems to have another surprise waiting around the next bend.
Note: A devastating wildfire swept through this area of the park in 2020. Dome Fire burned more than a quarter of the Cima Dome Joshua Tree forest, one of the largest and densest populations of Joshua trees known in the world. The fire killed as many as 1.3 million Joshua trees. Please respect this land as it tries to come back from this.
