Joshua Tree North Dispersed Camping

There seem to be fewer people here than when we've stayed at the south Entrance, PLUS you have to drive to to the North half of the park to see Joshua Trees anyway.

Yucca Valley just a few minutes west means you'll have quick access to gas and groceries from this location.

TIP: Take "Broadway Road" (one road before you GPS tells you to turn) to get paved access most of the way out to the public land.

Nice location for a free spot next to the park. Would recommend accessing via E Broadway for more pavement driving (google mapped us via Sunflower Rd which is washboard dirt). Plenty of spots, you can be however close or far from others that you desire. We pulled our 32ft fifth wheel without issue, but there are some good ruts to avoid. Seemed like the further out you go the more OHV. We were there Fri-Sun, didn’t have any issues and felt safe leaving the trailer to go explore in the park. Is it the most picturesque spot, no, but is it free and convenient, yes.

This place leaves a lot to be desired. It has the potential to be nice but has sadly not been taken care of. There are several (5-10) obvious squattters living here full time. It wouldn't be a problem except there are mountains of trash outside their campers. The rigs are all very run down and many likely do not have the ability to be moved in their current state. I can only imagine they are dumping their tanks out here as well (they have livestock water tanks at their rigs but no poop wagons). Sadly, their trash mountains end up blowing away in the wind leaving trash all over this location (worst amount of trasg we have even seen while full timing).

Pros:
Large amount of flat land
Big rig friendly
Decent internet speeds (had congestion issues at times)
Close to JTNP
Free

Cons:
Tons of trash
Can be very windy
Squatters not taking care of area
Plenty of dog and coyote poop

Neutral: Quiet other than the weekends when move OHVs come out (of course YMMV on how respectful they are around your site).

Used starlink and Verizon to work during the week. Some congestion at times. Tmobile claimed to have great connection but would not actually run a speed test.

Not Sure If This would Always Be True But Right Now Lots Of Muddy Spots And Huge Ruts Even Where It Is Dry right now.

We went further back than we should have but we’re able to correct and come back closer to the front and find a drier and flatter spot. Overall good spot but need higher clearance, AWD or 4WD just in case and lots of caution to avoid everything inside your vehicle flying about and breaking. We drove literally 5 mph tops

Verizon speeds were excellent at 55 Mbps download and 16 upload with a roof mounted Pepwave antenna. At&T speeds were okay at 4/2 with my phone.

This is a wide open dry lake bed with all that entails. It's a great option if you can't get into any of the park campgrounds.

The view of the surrounding mountains is good and it actually snowed while we were here. The dirt access road in is in rough shape but passable. There are a lot of squatters by the solar farm at the entrance, but they thin out the farther in you go. I wish BLM would enforce stay limits.

There was a fair bit of broken glass and nails/screws. People burn pallets and scrap wood and it leaves behind pits of fasteners. The weather was horrible when we were here with 75mph wind, so there was a lot of trash in general. The person behind us had their bathroom shelter blow away and they left all the toilet paper stuck in the shrubs.

The squatters and the trash bring it down from 5 stars.

I was not intending to stop at Joshua tree but happened to arrive in town after dark. I found this location through this app and hoped for the best.
The gps took me straight to it. It’s a bumpy dirt road but not too bad. I found a open grass area and parked, nervous because I couldn’t see my surroundings. The stars were magnificent and it was quiet all night. In the morning I woke to a beautiful sunrise over the mountains and tons of campers and vans! Some vans were grouped together and the rest spread out with plenty of room. There’s no foliage or grass, you’re in a desert between the mountains. But it was a great free place to stay.