Three hours west of LA sits Joshua Tree National Park, a magical desert oasis every camper needs to visit at least once.

"It’s a little underwhelming, isn’t it?" I mused to my boyfriend from the passenger seat, as we drove towards Joshua Tree National Park. From the window there wasn’t a Joshua tree in sight, just never-ending brown desert. Within an hour, I’d realised how completely wrong I’d been. The park where we spent the next four nights was anything but underwhelming.

We were halfway through our two-month road trip across the United States when we landed at Joshua Tree. We arrived at the park thinking we would only stay a night, but ended up leaving after four. Those nights ended up being my favourite of our trip.

Joshua Tree sits where the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet. Each desert has its own unique ecosystem of plants and animals, including tortoises, coyotes, rattle snakes, squirrels, and 18 different species of lizard.

However, as you might expect, the most incredible of all flora and fauna within the park is its namesake Joshua tree. Each spikey tree has its own zany personality and I adored every single one I came across. While some trees stand tall with their arms to the sky, another may bend at 90 degrees as though looking at something intriguing on the ground, and the next will have its branches twisted, as if frozen mid-dance move.

If you were extremely short on time, a visit to Joshua Tree could technically be done in a day with a photo at Skull Rock, a stroll through the Cholla cactus garden, and visit to the Keys View lookout. That said, if you want to get to know the real Joshua Tree, you need to camp the night.

While we’d read about the popularity of the park, we still naively thought we might nab a spot arriving at 7pm on a Friday. We were wrong. Luckily, a park ranger directed us to the nearby Joshua Tree Lake RV & Campground, which had plenty of campsites available. The next morning, we woke around 6am and made our way to the Jumbo Rocks campsite, where we slowly circled in our van, waiting for a spot to become vacant.

There are nine campsites within Joshua Tree but only three - Black Rock, Indian Cove, and Sheep Pass - are available to reserve ahead of time. The other six campsites - Belle, Cottonwood, Hidden Valley, Jumbo Rocks, Ryan, and White Tank – operate on a first-come, first-served basis.

With 124 campsites, Jumbo Rocks is the biggest of all the sites and in my extremely-biased opinion, has got to be the best of the lot, simply because I just can’t imagine how a campsite could possibly be any better.

While there’s no running water at Jumbo Rocks (sorry, but Joshua Tree isn’t the place for "glamping") there is a toilet block, and each campsite comes with space for a tent or two, a table, and fire grate.

But the best thing about Jumbo Rocks isn’t its facilities, but its epic sunsets. As its name suggests, some huge rocks surround this campsite. Once the day comes to an end, campers climb to find a spot on a rock, normally with a beer in hand, and settle in to watch a sunset nobody could ever forget.

If the character of the trees, the sweet lizards that bask in the morning sun, or the idea of watching a sunset atop a jumbo-sized rock hasn’t convinced you, rest assured that there’s still so much more to Joshua Tree than what I have mentioned.

There are around 8,000 rock-climbing routes within the park, if that’s your thing. Or if you, like me, prefer staying close to the ground, there are a number of nature trails and longer hikes to choose from.

I’ve taken a few camping trips in my time, and while even the famous Yosemite is no match for my beloved Australian bush, there’s something special about Joshua Tree that’s left me convinced I’ll never find another place quite like it.

Cost starting at: $19.68 per campsite per night. Plus, park entry fee of $32.80AUD per vehicle.

Address: Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA

T +1 760-367-5500

Website