Joshua Tree vs Death Valley: the Better Day Trip from Las Vegas
Joshua Tree or Death Valley from Las Vegas? Distances, drive times, best months, dark skies and fees from the park service, and who should pick which.
From Las Vegas, Death Valley is the better day trip for most people. It is closer: the park service puts Furnace Creek about 120 miles and 2 hours away, while Joshua Tree is around 180 to 195 miles by road. Its best-known sights sit beside paved roads, and guided day tours pick you up at your hotel on the Strip. Joshua Tree wins if you are driving on to Los Angeles or Palm Springs, or staying near the park for a night or two. As a there-and-back day from Las Vegas it means about eight hours in the car.
Our pick for a first visit is the Death Valley Guided Day Tour by Mojave Wave LLC: hotel pickup, the park entrance fee and breakfast are included, from $175 a person (checked October 2026). Its calendar is below.
The drive decides it
The park service gives the Las Vegas route to Death Valley in one line: NV-160 west to Pahrump, Bell Vista Road (it becomes Stateline Road in California) to Death Valley Junction, a right onto CA-127 and a quick left onto CA-190. That is about 120 miles and 2 hours to Furnace Creek.
For Joshua Tree it gives no drive time at all, only a straight distance: the park lies 215 miles southwest of Las Vegas. So we put both through the same route planner, starting on the Strip:
| From the Las Vegas Strip | Road distance | Time on the route planner |
|---|---|---|
| Furnace Creek, Death Valley (via Pahrump) | 121 miles | 2 h 40 min |
| Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center, Twentynine Palms (via Amboy) | 180 miles | 4 h |
| Joshua Tree Visitor Center, town of Joshua Tree | 195 miles | 4 h 20 min |
The route planner is slower than the park service on desert roads, so read its times side by side rather than as a promise. Either way the gap holds: Joshua Tree adds roughly an hour and a half each way. The quickest line runs down I-15, then south on Kelbaker Road and through Amboy to Twentynine Palms.
Inside Joshua Tree there is more driving. The park service times the West Entrance to the North Entrance at about 45 minutes and the West to the South Entrance at about an hour and a half.
Side by side
| Death Valley | Joshua Tree | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | Over 3.4 million acres, the largest national park in the lower 48 states | 795,156 acres |
| Elevation | Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America | 536 feet at the southeast boundary to 5,814 feet on Quail Mountain |
| What you see | Salt flats, badlands, sand dunes, painted hills | Joshua trees, boulder piles, two deserts meeting: the Mojave and the Colorado |
| Summer | Often over 120°F in the shade, with nights in the 90s | Highs over 100°F, lows around 75°F |
| Dark sky | Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park (2013) | Silver Tier International Dark Sky Park (2017) |
| Entrance | $30 per car for 7 days | $30 per car for 7 days |
| Inside the park | Three gas stations, a visitor center with a bookstore that sells snacks and water | No gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores or hotels |
| Guided day trip from Las Vegas on GetYourGuide | Yes, several, with hotel pickup | No round trip in October 2026 |
Neither park is on the 2026 list of 11 parks that charge non-residents an extra $100 per person, so a visitor from abroad pays the same $30 per car as anyone else. On a guided tour the fee is in the ticket.
Why Death Valley makes the better day from Las Vegas
- Less time in the car. About 2 hours each way, against about 4 for Joshua Tree.
- The sights are roadside. For a visit of one to three hours the park service names Badwater Basin, Artists Drive and Devils Golf Course; with half a day it adds Dante’s View and the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. A day tour strings most of them together.
- It can be done without a car. Tours pick you up at your hotel. For Joshua Tree, GetYourGuide’s tours start in Los Angeles or Palm Springs.
- You still get Joshua trees. Death Valley has its own stand at Lee Flat, which the park service calls the finest in the park. It is far off the day-tour loop, on the rough Saline Valley Road, so treat it as a bonus for a long self-drive, not a reason to go.
A word of warning on tour names. In October 2026 the three day trips on GetYourGuide’s Las Vegas page for Joshua Tree were Grand Canyon West tours that stop at a Joshua tree forest in Arizona. That is a roadside stand on the way to the canyon, not Joshua Tree National Park. The only trip into the park itself that we found from the Strip is one-way: it ends in Los Angeles.
When Joshua Tree is the better choice
- You are driving on to Los Angeles or Palm Springs. Joshua Tree sits on the way, and the long drive is no longer a detour.
- You will stay nearby. The park itself has no hotels, so a night means Twentynine Palms, the town of Joshua Tree or another town outside the gates, where two of the park’s four visitor centers are too. With a night there, the boulder fields and trails get the time they deserve.
- You came to climb or scramble. The park lists rock climbing among its activities, and Jumbo Rocks Campground sits right in its bouldered landscape.
Stargazing: Gold Tier against Silver Tier
Both parks are certified International Dark Sky Parks. Death Valley holds the top rating, Gold Tier, since 2013; Joshua Tree was certified at Silver Tier in 2017. For a night sky from Las Vegas, Death Valley is the better bet, and the easier one, because two tours run the whole evening for you.
The Sunset and Starry Night Tour by Mytourstory LLC ends the day with sunset at Zabriskie Point, and its stargazing starts about an hour and a half after sunset, somewhere free of light pollution. The Sunset and Stargazing Day Tour by EMOTION TRIP watches the sunset at Zabriskie Point too, then stargazes in Amargosa Valley, just over the Nevada line.
The best months for each
| Death Valley | Joshua Tree | |
|---|---|---|
| Most comfortable | Spring is the busiest season; October averages 93°F, November 77°F | Spring and fall, with highs of 70 to 85°F and lows near 50°F |
| Winter | Average highs of 77°F in November, 65°F in December and 67°F in January | Highs near 60°F, nights near or below freezing |
| Summer | July averages 116°F; afternoons often pass 120°F | Highs over 100°F |
From December to February, Death Valley’s days are mild while Joshua Tree’s nights drop to freezing. November suits both: Death Valley averages 77°F by day, and Joshua Tree’s autumn highs run 70 to 85°F. In summer neither is an easy day out: Death Valley’s afternoons often pass 120°F and Joshua Tree’s pass 100°F.
Which to book
Book the Death Valley day that fits you:
From Las Vegas: Death Valley Guided Day Tour
The Mesquite Flat dunes, Artist's Palette, Furnace Creek and the Rhyolite ghost town, with hotel pickup, the park fee and breakfast.
Check dates →From Las Vegas: Death Valley Sunset and Starry Night Tour
Dante's View, Badwater and Artists Drive, sunset at Zabriskie Point, then the night sky.
See the tour →From Las Vegas: Death Valley & Rhyolite Ghost Town Day Trip
English, Chinese, Japanese or Spanish, as listed. Zabriskie Point, Harmony Borax Works and the streets of Rhyolite, with hotel pickup and the park permit.
See the tour →Prices, ratings and review counts are GetYourGuide’s, checked October 2026; operators use seasonal pricing, so treat them as the shape of the market, not a quote.
Heading for Joshua Tree after all? Plan it as a stop on the way to the coast, or a night in Twentynine Palms, rather than a day out of Las Vegas. For more on the Death Valley side, see how far Death Valley is and how to get there, what to see in Death Valley and our guide to Death Valley tours from Las Vegas.
Quick answers
Which is better, Joshua Tree or Death Valley? From Las Vegas, Death Valley: it is about half the drive and its sights are beside the road. From Los Angeles or Palm Springs, Joshua Tree is the closer park, and it suits climbers and anyone staying a night.
Is Death Valley or Joshua Tree better for stargazing? Death Valley. It is a Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park, the highest level; Joshua Tree is Silver Tier. From Las Vegas, two sunset-and-stars tours make it a single evening.
Are there Joshua trees in Death Valley? Yes. The park service points to Lee Flat, reached by the paved but rough Saline Valley Road, for the finest stands in the park.
Do the two parks cost the same? Yes: $30 per car for seven days at both, and neither charges the 2026 non-resident surcharge.
How these facts were checked
Written 30 October 2026. Distances, routes, sizes, elevations, fees, closures, weather and visitor services are from the National Park Service’s own pages for Death Valley (nps.gov/deva) and Joshua Tree (nps.gov/jotr), and its 2026 non-resident fee list; dark-sky tiers from the parks and DarkSky International. Road distances and times from the Las Vegas Strip are computed with a public route planner on 30 October 2026. Tour stops, inclusions and stargazing places are from each tour’s GetYourGuide listing, read in October 2026.
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