Where are the biggest Joshua Trees? Some of them are here in Joshua Tree National Park, in Lost Horse
Valley and Queen Valley.
In today’s climate, they grow best between about 3000-5500 feet elevation, and they are only found in
the Mojave Desert. The Mojave includes parts of Southern California, Western Arizona, and Southern
Nevada and Southwest Utah.
But the official biggest Joshua Tree alive today, according to the official “bigness” scoring metric which
takes into account the height of the tree, the breadth of the crown of branches, and the diameter of the
trunk, is an Eastern Joshua Tree in the Wee Thump Wilderness area, which is a small wilderness area
southwest of Las Vegas (north of the Mojave National Preserve, and northeast of Joshua Tree National
Park).
There are two species of Joshuas: in the Park, which is in the western portion of the Mojave Desert, we
have Western Joshua Trees. In the Eastern Mojave, the Joshuas tend to have more branches, and will
sprout new branches at random times more frequently than the Western Joshuas who generally only
branch after a flowering. Otherwise they look pretty similar.
There are a few famous big Joshuas. The biggest of all—the aforementioned Eastern Joshua that lives in
the Wee Thump—is not that famous. Famous trees include Elmer and the Barber Pole in Queen Valley
here in Joshua Tree National Park. They’re not hard to find; we can show them to you if you’d like to see
them. Some other big trees, like that pictured in the photo with this article, are less well known and
harder to find.
There is also a huge Western Joshua called the Desert Giant which grows near California City. Until
recently, there was also the Champion up by Big Bear, until it died and fell over due to too many people
shooting at its trunk for target practice. There were also a couple real big trees up in the Covington Flats
area of the Park; there are still some big trees up there.
But the biggest reported tree by far that I know of was almost unbelievable sounding. The 1932 New
York Botanic Gardens Journal reported on an 80 foot tall Joshua in Antelope Valley. It had been set on
fire two years prior, which destruction led to greater public awareness of the desert landscapes and
growing support for the creation of preserved areas. Joshua Tree National Monument was established
in 1936.
There used to be other big trees too, which have disappeared for unknown reasons: perhaps other big
trees were set on fire. Some of them appear in old photographs, with no trace of them known today,
and their original location not exactly clear.
Deserts didn’t used to be respected by early Westward Expansion settlers: for example, John Fremont in
1844 called the Joshua, “the most repulsive tree in the vegetable kingdom.”