Joshua Tree National Park California

Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act, it had previously been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It is named for the Joshua tree forests native to the park. It covers a land area of 790,636 acres an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island.

A large part of the park, some 429,690 is a designated wilderness area. Straddling the San Bernardino County Riverside County border, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation the higher Mojave Desert and lower Colorado Desert. The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of the park.