Wonderland of Rocks & Astro Domes
Joshua Tree National Park (backcountry) · near Twentynine Palms · California Desert
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- advanced
- Grade range
- 5.7-5.13a
- Best season
- October-May (summer dangerously hot)
Permits and booking
- Permit
- Joshua Tree NP entrance fee (~$30/vehicle, 7 days); no climbing permit required for day climbing. Watch for seasonal raptor closures (typically Feb-June) on some formations - check the NPS Joshua Tree climbing page. Remote, roadless, with 30-45+ minute approaches - carry water, a map, and a self-rescue mindset.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Rock Climbing detail
- Climb types
- trad · sport · multi-pitch
- Rock type
- Quartz monzonite
- Route count
- ~50 at the Astro Domes; hundreds across the Wonderland
- Nickname
- J-Tree's Backcountry Maze
- Signature routes
- Figures on a Landscape · Rubicon · Gunslinger
- Intl tip
- J-Tree's remote adventure maze - long approaches through a roadless labyrinth to the park's tallest, most alpine stone. Bring navigation skills, water, and a self-rescue mindset. For confident, experienced parties; fall-spring only.
The guide
The Wonderland of Rocks is Joshua Tree's great backcountry maze - twelve square miles of roadless, domed granite where the clim…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Wonderland of Rocks & Astro Domes — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.0387, -116.1472