Desert Camping Adventure

Driving Directions

We will be camping near the “Cottonwood Springs Road” exit on the 10 freeway (exit 168) near Joshua Tree. The easiest way to get to that off ramp is to use your phone’s map app to navigate to “Pinto Road & Cottonwood Springs Road” (I’ve tested this on Apple Maps and Google Maps). That location should show up as being in either “Mecca, CA” or “Thermal, CA”. I will also provide some direct links below.

If you use your maps app to navigate to Pinto Road & Cottonwood Springs Road, you will end up on Cottonwood Springs Road just south of the 10 freeway. From there, you’re basically going to drive directly south (straight) on dirt roads to get to our camping spot.

Here are specific turn-by-turn directions from the freeway:

• Once you exit the 10 freeway onto Cottonwood Springs Road, turn right (south) at the bottom of the ramp. Note your car’s current mileage, or reset your trip odometer so you know how far you’ve traveled.
• Drive south on Cottonwood Springs Road for 0.25 miles. As Cottonwood Springs Road starts to curve to the right, turn left onto the paved road.
• Drive on the paved road for just 300 feet, and then turn right onto a dirt road to go directly south (toward the small mountain range, directly away from the 10 freeway)
• Drive on the dirt road for 0.8 miles until you come to a 4-way intersection (with another dirt road) directly under the high tension power lines.
  
• Continue to drive directly south (continue straight through the intersection) for 1.1 miles. You should see us at this spot. This last mile of driving is a little more winding and sandy, but you should be able to make it with a car just fine. If you get stuck, we can come get you, but you may need to walk a mile to get us (but you should fine)

If you’d like to see exactly where we intend to camp, the GPS coordinates are 33.629932, -115.811151. You can enter these into Google Maps or Apple Maps and see our spot.

Here’s a link to the start of the dirt road (you will drive directly south from here): https://goo.gl/maps/oCVVSqRxd7arNdYR9

Here's a link to our final camping destination: https://goo.gl/maps/ChtFKMtEe7Aa3sbE6