Getting Oriented

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• Park Boulevard. Drive the paved loop road between the west and north entrances to explore many of the park's main sights. Crawl between the big rocks at Hidden Valley, and you'll understand why this boulder-strewn area near the park's west entrance was once a cattle rustlers' hideout.
• Keys View Road. Keys View is the park's most dramatic overlook—on clear days you can see Signal Mountain in Mexico.
• Highway 62. Spot wildlife at Black Rock and Indian Cove (you might spy a desert tortoise). Near the park's north entrance, walk the nature trail around Oasis of Mara, which the first settlers, the Serrano, dubbed "the place of little springs and much grass."
• Pinto Basin Road. Pull out binoculars at Cottonwood Spring, one of the best birding spots in the park. Come to Cholla Cactus Garden in the late afternoon, when the spiky stalks of the bigelow (jumping) cholla cactus are backlit against an intense blue sky.