Our 8 day family vacation from Philly to California with photos (so many photos!) and favorite tips for doing the trip with 3 kids (ages 12, 10, and 7)

Family hikes through Murray Canyon in Palm Springs California on Winter Trip

First up - Palm Springs. We stayed at The Saguaro, which is almost worth it for the perfectly rainbow everything decor, swimming pool, hot tubs (plural), hammocks, and restaurant that supplied us with all the chicken fingers and fries my picky eaters could want (and tacos for the rest of us 😋).

Our first full Palm Springs day we went to Indian Canyons and hiked the Murray Canyon Trail. It was free because it was Christmas Day, but normally is $12 for adults and $6 for kids, and is a really short drive from downtown Palm Springs. It wasn’t difficult, took a leisurely couple hours, but had plenty of rocks to climb and streams to leap across to satisfy everyone’s hiking desires. There was a waterfall at the end that was more of a “leaky kitchen faucet”, so deemed by our tweens. But if you ever wanted to feel like a dinosaur could easily walk by any moment and not look out of place, this is the hike for you.

The next day was breakfast at Elmer’s (you must get the dutch baby), and the Living Desert Zoo. I’ll be honest that I wasn’t super excited about the zoo, but it kept us busy enough to take up a full day, there were lots of cool zoo keeper talks, and my youngest (7 at the time) especially loved it. We capped the day off with a walk around downtown Palm Springs, checked out the giant Marilyn Monroe statue and, surprising no one, found a book store ☺️

Day 4 was a travel day up to the Yucca Valley. We made a pit stop at the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve to give my car-sick kids a break from the drive. After dropping off our stuff at our rental, we made the drive into Joshua Tree just in time for sunset. Definitely worth it, but definitely bring your patience for the long line to get in.

Which brings me to my number one tip for Joshua Tree National Park: get there early. Both full days we spent at the park we got there before sunrise and had no wait to get in. Both days we were done by early afternoon, when it was getting pretty hot anyway, and there were super long lines of folks waiting to get in. The parking lots around the park are small, but we didn’t have issues in the mornings. It also doesn’t hurt to have the annual America the Beautiful Pass because there was a separate, slightly faster, lane for pass holders once you got to the ranger booths.

Our first full Joshua Tree day we used the West entrance and drove straight through to Arch Rock for sunrise; we all agreed it looked much cooler close up, so take the extra time to climb if you can. (More thoughts on happy climbing down at the bottom.) Then we found Heart Rock and Split Rock.

We did the Skull Rock Nature Trail as a loop (and I climbed into the same hole I found on my first visit a few years ago) and found Face Rock as well. That was plenty for us for one day and, after finding ice cream on the way back to the rental, watched the stars come out from the hot tub.

Our second full Joshua Tree day we got up early again and drove through Twentynine Palms to take the North Entrance, and made it up to the top of Keys View for (a very chilly) sunrise. We had breakfast in the car to warm up, then checked out Barker Dam which was about a mile loop. Then we hiked around Hidden Valley, also about a mile loop, and found the ancient petroglyphs in the rocks.

We stopped at the Hall of Horros to just climb for a while, and that ended up being high on our list of favorite things from the trip. Part of the fun of Joshua Tree is getting to climb on stuff, so I definitely recommend making time to just play with no real goal in mind. And there were lots of “real” rock climbers to watch as well. The only area we couldn’t explore was Cholla Cactus Garden because it was closed for restoration… so I guess we’ll have to come back one day!

We went out of the park for dinner at Sky High Pizza, and then back into the park a few hours after sunset for star gazing. Joshua Tree is a designated “dark sky area”. Yes, I planned which days we would be there around the new moon and prayed for clear night skies. And yes, my kids were exhausted from being up before sunrise and a full day of hiking. So, after the first stop to look at stars (which was worth it, no question) they refused to get out of the car again. We managed one more stop where only mom and dad got out, but we had to cut it short to get them to bed… so I guess we’ll have to come back one day 😉

And that was it! On our last day we said goodbye to our cute airbnb and drove back into Palm Springs. We had just enough time for a little more walking around the cute shops before getting on the plane for (Phoenix and then) home.

Kids pros and cons list feedback after family trip to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree — The biggest complaint we heard was that the trip wasn’t long enough, so I’d definitely count this one a win ✨

Other than that, the kids liked that this trip was a mix of hiking and non-hiking activities. We didn’t spend much time exploring the town around Joshua Tree and our rental wasn’t in walking distance to the “stuff”, so that’s probably what we would’ve done with one more day. But I wouldn’t trade being closer for being able to see the stars from our rental. And if possible, I would’ve planned our star-gazing night for a day when we hadn’t been up before the sun, but there’s only so much you can do!

Quick tips rundown:

LAYERS! We were there at the end of December. Palm Springs was pretty mild the whole time, but Joshua Tree had big swings. Super cold once the sun went down, or hadn’t come up yet 😜, and got pretty hot by mid-day. Everyone wore tshirts, sweatshirts, and puffer coats to begin the day and peeled off layers as we went.
Good hiking shoes. The kids all wore these from Merrell (and in the same color so hopefully we can do some hand-me-down-ing). They’re sturdy but not too heavy, and waterproof, so they didn’t have to worry about hiking through streams and mud. The parents wore these from Lems. I LOVE these shoes; they have wide toe boxes and flexible soles (my preference over stiff boots), are light, but super grippy and made climbing around on the Joshua Tree rocks super fun.
If you want to star-gaze, bring a red flashlight. It will help your eyes to stay adjusted to the dark. And blankets, for cold and cranky kids. I also love apps like Startracker, which are cool whether you can see the stars or not.
Tweezers. We were super careful not to touch any of the plants, and my kiddo still somehow ended up with dozens of super tiny prickles in his hand at one point.
The Guide Along app was a favorite again on this trip. Joshua Tree is so small we had heard about every part of the park several times by the time we were done. But aside from the helpful info, it’s the only map that reliably worked the whole time, so I like having it just for navigating at times.