Twentynine Palms highlight
Gateway to Joshua Tree National Park
A 794,000-acre National Park established in 1936 and redesignated in 1994, located south of Twentynine Palms, drawing over three million visitors each year.
Joshua Tree National Park sits just south of Twentynine Palms and was designated a National Monument in 1936 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1994 it was redesignated as a National Park, reflecting its significance as a major destination in the California desert. The park's name comes from the distinctive Joshua trees, a type of yucca plant native to the Mojave Desert, which thrive in this region's unique high-elevation environment.
The National Park Service reports that Joshua Tree received 3,058,294 visitors in 2022, making it one of the most visited national parks in the United States. Visitors come to hike among the distinctive rock formations, camp beneath some of California's darkest night skies, and explore the meeting point of two distinct desert ecosystems: the Mojave and the Colorado deserts. The park's 794,000 acres support a surprising variety of wildlife, from bighorn sheep to roadrunners, and offer routes ranging from short walks to multi-day backpacking expeditions.
Families in the Twentynine Palms area often plan weekend trips into the park, making it a part of their annual routine. The memory of those adventures—the first time a child looks through a telescope at a star, or a family standing on a ridge at sunset—is worth protecting. Term life insurance sized to cover the mortgage, education costs and lost income ensures that if something happens to the main wage-earner, the people left behind can keep those traditions alive.