Joshua Tree National Park has seven backcountry roads. That is the whole list the Park Service publishes rather than a pick of the best ones, and it comes to just under 100 miles of dirt inside a boundary most visitors only cross on pavement.
Every one of the seven now has an Ordealist guide, and all seven were open as of September 16, 2026, with nothing posted against them on the park's alerts feed or on its backcountry roads page. The same rules cover the whole list: ATVs, UTVs, and dirt bikes are prohibited park-wide, every vehicle and dual-sport motorcycle has to be registered and street-legal under California law, and nothing leaves the designated roadway. What follows runs easiest to hardest.
Queen Valley Roads
Photo: NPS / Brad Sutton, Joshua Tree National Park (public domain)
"Suitable for most 2-wheel-drive vehicles" is the Park Service's own wording for Queen Valley Roads, and it is the only road here that gets that line. The other six are all marked high-clearance, four-wheel drive. Three connected roads cross the valley floor beneath Queen Mountain at around 4,300 feet, through boulder piles and Joshua tree stands among the densest in the park. This is the one to drive when the rig is stock, or when the point of the day is the country rather than the driving.
Covington Flats
Photo: NPS / Emily Hassell (public domain)
The park's largest Joshua trees grow in the northwest corner, mixed into juniper and pinyon along the dirt of Covington Flats. On a page otherwise full of pinch points and washouts, the Park Service describes this one as relatively easy access to higher, cooler ground. The climb to Eureka Peak steepens near the top and finishes on an overlook above Palm Springs and the Morongo Basin. Past that junction the dirt keeps going to the backcountry trailhead at Upper Covington Flat.
Geology Tour Road
Photo: NPS / Emily Hassell (public domain)
Two miles west of Jumbo Rocks Campground, Park Boulevard gives up its pavement to Geology Tour Road, which drops into Pleasant Valley and loops across the floor past Malapai Hill, a dark volcanic rise in a park built almost entirely out of monzogranite. High clearance and four-wheel drive are required, same as everywhere except Queen Valley, but the Park Service names no bedrock pinch, no boulder pinch, and no washout on this road, and posts no warning about vehicle size. The three hardest roads below each have at least one of those. That, plus a start on one of the busiest paved stretches in the park, is why it is the road most people drive first.
Black Eagle Mine Road
Photo: NPS / Emily Hassell, Joshua Tree National Park (public domain)
Black Eagle Mine Road leaves Pinto Basin Road north of the Cottonwood Visitor Center, runs east along the edge of the basin, and climbs into the canyons of the Eagle Mountains. Then it quits. Nine miles of it sit inside the park; past the boundary it crosses BLM ground and then runs into private mining property, so the end of the drive is set by who owns the dirt rather than by how far a vehicle will go. The middle stretch holds some of the deepest sand in the park, deep enough that the Park Service tells drivers they may need to air down before continuing.
Berdoo Canyon Road
Photo: NPS / Emily Hassell, Joshua Tree National Park (public domain)
Where the Pleasant Valley loop reaches its south end, Berdoo Canyon Road drops southwest out of the park toward Dillon Road and the Coachella Valley, walled in by steep canyon sides for most of its length. The park flags two chokepoints on it, a bedrock pinch in the northern canyon and a boulder pinch farther down, and says either can deny passage to a full-size truck. Deep sand and sharp bedrock fill the ground between them. The ruins of Berdoo Camp, a 1930s work camp the park attributes to Colorado River Aqueduct construction crews, sit in the last few miles above Dillon Road.
Pinkham Canyon Road
Photo: NPS / Emily Hassell (public domain)
The Park Service calls exactly one of these seven roads challenging, and it is Pinkham Canyon Road. The route starts at the Cottonwood Visitor Center, crosses Smoke Tree Wash on compacted dirt cut by frequent washes and sharp road cuts, then turns south into the canyon, where the surface becomes stone cobble and sandy wash. A boulder pinch in the upper canyon can stop a larger vehicle outright. Thermal Canyon Road branches west and adds a winding wash, a short eroded climb, and more loose sand. The agency does not recommend the network without high clearance, four-wheel drive, and emergency supplies in the vehicle.
Old Dale Road
Photo: NPS / Emily Hassell, Joshua Tree National Park (public domain)
The first 11 miles of Old Dale Road cross flat, sandy dry lakebed on the floor of Pinto Basin. What comes after is eroded rock with steep drop-offs. By the park's account, the climb out of the basin and the miles past it are some of the most technical and rough four-wheel driving in the greater area. At 23 miles it is the longest of the seven, running north from Pinto Basin Road to Highway 62 through old mining country. A washout on the last climb to the park boundary can stop anything without a short wheelbase. That is a condition, not a closure, so the washout may not match the last trip report.
Before driving any of them
Joshua Tree closes its dirt roads temporarily after significant rain, and the park says flood damage makes that common enough to plan around. Check the closure map linked from the park's current conditions page along with the backcountry roads page, then call the visitor center at 760-367-5500 if one particular road is the reason for the trip. All seven run best from fall through spring. Summer highs on the basin floor push past 100°F, with no shade, no water, and little to no cell service on any of them.