Please share your Joshua Tree NP – Palm Springs wildflowers pictures, including the date and location. We will post your photos on our Wildflower Reports page, so others can learn where and when to view the spectacular displays.
- E-mail your digital photos and reports to Jim@desertusa.com. Use Wildflower Report as the subject of your e-mail. Let us know where you took the image, the date, and how you would like us to give you photo credit (first name, etc.)
Note: Spring is one of the most beautiful times of the year in the desert, but it can also be a time for caution. Rattlesnakes lie dormant during the cold fall and winter months and awaken from hibernation in the warm months of March and April. Another reason to stay on the trails. More…
2026 Joshua Tree NP and Coachella Valley Region reports
March 9, 2026, Tricia Reports: Fun photos from Whitewater Preserve, CA taken March 8, 2026
Feb 27, 2026, Harry Reports: Joshua tree on Feb 23, 2026. Great variety of flowers: orange globe-mallow, California bluebells, creosote, desert dandelion, lupin, brittle bush, different pachylias, some Joshua trees, bladderpods, chia, white layia, and many more. The south gate area is carpeted, but it’s not difficult to find flowers throughout the park. Amazing.
Feb 24, 2026, Mark H Reports: A good bloom but not yet a super bloom near the south entrance. Great floral views as you drive from I-10 through the south entrance and up to the Cottonwood Visitor Center with prominent brittlebush flowers. Arizona lupine, brittlebush, and desert dandelion formed a good view at the Bajada Nature Trail – a lovely desert spring meadow. Worth the detour if you are passing on the I-10 freeway! Very few flowers along Pinto Basin Road. We parked at Porcupine Wash and walked about twenty-five minutes up the trail. Desert bluebells and desert dandelion dominated the flowers in the wash. A rainstorm caught us as we got back to the car! Cool, windy, and wet, but showers bring flowers and rainbows close to the ground.
Feb 17, 2026, Leslie L Reports: We set out 14 February and saw quite a few flowers along the Utah Trail while waiting in line to get into Joshua Tree in 29 Palms. Emory’s rockdaisy, Phacelia campanularia, distant phacelia, creosotes and bladderpods blooming. We saw some lovely flowers southeast of skull rocks as well. So many Phaceila campanularia, desert poppy.
On the 15th, we hiked up to Indian Head. Again, the flowers were glorious, many of the same cast of characters. The Phacelia campanularia was truly unbelievable, notch-leaf scorpian weed, Mojave desert star, multiple evening primroses, coyote melon, blazing star, lupine, desert lavender.
Feb 15, 2026, Sharon Reports: There is A LOT of lacy phacelia in bloom right now and a fair amount of desert bluebells. I’m seeing Wallace’s Woolly Daisy and Desert Parsley appear more frequently. There isn’t much Joshua Tree flowering either. A fair amount of Little Yellow Suncup also makes an appearance. Shrubby Deervetch and Parish’s Goldeneye are also flowering. Here are some photos.
Jan 28, 2026, Paul Reports – Sand Blazing Star photo taken in the wash west of Cottonwood Springs Road near the rock formation about a mile and a half above the south entrance. The poppies were about 30 yards to the west of that formation, along with lots of brittle bush in bloom and sporadic Arizona lupin. The poppies continue southward for a hundred yards or so. A treat to see this early in the year!
Jan 22, 2026 Teri Reports: Yellow Nightshade – Joshua Tree National Park (in the wash along Mastodon Trail) January 18, 2026 – Canterbury Bell – Joshua Tree National Park (in the wash along the Mastodon Trail) January 18, 2026
Jan 15, 2026 Sharin Reports: I lead guided walks in Desert View Conservation Area and wanted to let you know about the flowers I’m seeing. I’m seeing a healthy amount of Lacy Phacelia and Desert Blue Bells. Little Yellow Sun Cups are starting to come up. All of chinchweed from the first rains in October are gone. Amaranth is wavering. I’ll try to get photos next time I’m out. I have not sees JT or Mojave Yucca flowers there yet. However, I live in Flamingo Heights on Flat Top Mesa and JTs are starting to flower in my neighborhood.
Jan 12, 2026 Pat Reports: Joshua Tree were pushing blooms in Joshua Tree NP
Jan 10, 2026 Pat Reports: These photos were taken in Cottonwood Canyon on Tuesday, January 6
Jan 04, 2026 The desert interior of Joshua Tree has also received measurable rain from the recent systems, improving soil moisture beyond what we saw earlier in the season.
Jan 1, 2026 Eric Reports: Chuparosa, Justicia Californica, has lots of leaves and flowers on the Bear Creek and Boo Hoff Loop Trail in La Quinta Cove.
Photos tips: Most digital point-and-shoot cameras have a macro function – usually symbolized by the icon of a little flower. When you turn on that function, you allow your camera to get closer to the subject, looking into a flower for example. Or getting up close and personal with a bug. More on desert photography.
Mojave Desert Wildflowers – This book is the standard by which all other wildflower books are measured. The author, Jon Mark Stewart, has combined super photography with concise information. This book has an entire color page for each wildflower covered, with a discussion of the wildflower. 210 pages with 200 color photos. More…
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