The Cholla Cactus Garden appears out of nowhere on Pinto Basin Road, a dense patch of thousands of teddy-bear cholla cacti covering a gentle slope. From a distance they look soft and fuzzy, glowing silver in the sunlight, but up close their spines are sharp, barbed and notoriously eager to attach themselves to anything that brushes past. A short loop trail winds through the garden, and the rule is simple: look, but do not touch, and watch where you put your feet.
This part of the park is a transition zone. As you ride south from the high, boulder-strewn Mojave Desert, the Joshua trees thin out and disappear, and you enter the lower, hotter Colorado Desert, which is part of the larger Sonoran Desert. The vegetation changes to creosote bush, ocotillo and palo verde, and the land opens up into wide basins and rugged mountains. The cholla garden sits right in the middle of this transition, and a little further south there is a patch of ocotillo, the spindly cacti-like plants that burst into red flowers in spring.
The road from here is a joy for riders who like space. Pinto Basin Road descends gradually through empty desert, with long straights and gentle curves, and the views stretch for kilometres in every direction. Traffic is lighter here than in the northern part of the park, and you can often ride for long stretches without seeing another vehicle. The surface is good, but watch out for sand blown across the road and for wildlife, especially jackrabbits and coyotes at dawn and dusk.
The cholla garden is most beautiful at sunrise or sunset, when the light catches the spines and makes the whole slope glow. In the middle of the day the light is harsh and the heat can be intense, especially in summer. Spring is a good time to visit, when the ocotillo is flowering and the temperatures are mild.
There are no services here, just a small car park and the trail. The nearest fuel is in Twentynine Palms to the north or in the Coachella Valley to the southwest, and both are a good distance away. Carry water, and do not linger too long in the heat.