8 Offbeat & Artsy Things to do in Joshua Tree Town

Joshua Tree National Park offers a fantastic outdoorsy experience, but leave some time in your itinerary for the town itself. Slide down the rabbit hole and explore these eight cool things to do in Joshua Tree, which feature offbeat art, UFOs and remnants of the American West.

As I drove south on state highway 247 into the Morongo Basin, I had to defer my Joshua Tree National Park day trip when I fell hard down that rabbit hole. The tunnel was lined with a series of art installations and museums featuring crocheted poodles, toilet sculptures, metal abstracts, a POW cabin from an alternative dimension, a pioneer junkyard and the ghost of Gene Autry.

I was surprised by all of the artsy things to do in Joshua Tree and was curious about how it all began. I puttered around, asking everyone where Joshua Tree’s artist vibe came from, but was met with shrugs. The bar keeps, gallery artists and motel receptionists seemed to simply accept that the art culture was always there.

From what I’ve been able to piece together, it started with the arrival of mid-century artists who came to the Basin looking for desert landscapes. A gallery scene arose in 29 Palms during the 1960s. Over the next few decades, galleries and studios spread along the highway 62 corridor, ensuring that the arts culture became firmly planted into the sandy soil of the Basin.

Another factor is Joshua Tree’s easy proximity to Los Angeles. Finding a large plot of land to install a studio is far cheaper in Joshua Tree than in metro LA. Where else could Noah Purifoy have gotten the ten acres that he needed to build his toilet sculptures? Artists like Purifoy, and fellow sculpture artist Simi Dabah used the Basin as an inexpensive artistic outpost and open air storage unit for their work.

In addition, the LA movie makers of the ’40’s and ’50’s used the area as a live “wild west” set. The Basin landscape has the requisite color palette and it’s just close enough to LA to avoid paying out-of-area labor union premiums.

Intruiged, I carved some time out of my national park trip see what this particular rabbit hole had on offer.

Are you ready to slide down the rabbit hole? If so, I’ll help you figure out what to do in Joshua tree and why it’s worth taking some time away from the natural beauty of the National Park to explore the town’s quirky artistic charms.

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