Joshua Tree National Park

A park in southeastern California straddling north-central Riverside County and part of southern San Bernardino County, some 130 miles east of Los Angeles and roughly 78 miles east of San Bernardino, with Indio, Palm Desert and Palm Springs among the nearest cities. It is named after the Joshua tree, Yucca brevifolia, which is endemic to the park and the surrounding area. Declared a national monument in 1936, it was redesignated a national park in 1994 when Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act. Its 795,156 acres – slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island – include 429,690 acres of designated wilderness and span portions of two different deserts.