Getting to the dunes is a long walk to a hill and a few hours hike. You need food and water and all necessities if going up to the hill.

Rings loop trail by hole in the wall info center is long and boring until you get to the canyon. You can go the opposite way from parking lot past info center and go down where descriptive sign is. First you go down the rings into canyon and back up. Please be careful that going down the rings is a different experience than going up. A couple of parts were hard either direction because of the spacing of the rings. But it was fun. There might be a different way into the canyon from the road whereby you don't have to do the boring meandering hike.

Barber peak trail is not accessible from hole in the wall campground unless camping. No parking for the hike. Must go from hole in the wall info center. At least we didn't find it.

Teutonia peak trail on Cima road is magnificent with all Joshua trees everywhere.

We drive right through the Mojave Preserve when we go from Palm Desert to Las Vegas. It is mezmorizing the beauty of the desert is apparent to all who travel this route. Just be sure to have a full tank of gas! The sky is blue, the air is clean and if you do get bored you can always pick up route 40!

Drove this on our way from Palm Springs to Vegas, and glad we did it. Being from back east, i'm drawn to the expanse of the west, and this is about as desolate a place as you can possibly be. The wife and I were guzzling water (we did this drive in mid 100s heat in late Sept) to the point where, let's just say we could really have used the facilities. But we're in the middle of nowhere! So parked the car and a short walk into the desert we went.

Anyhow, perfect drive to kill some time and do something more interesting than take the interstate. Grab some old CDs and throw them into your car, as reception is spotty out here. Although we had one of the craziest experiences ever when I kid you not "Where the Streets Have No Name" came onto the radio (one of like 3 channels we got intermittently) as we got out of Cima going north, where all the Joshua Trees are. What a day.

Do yourself a favor and do this drive. From Palm Springs it may actually be faster than the interstate.