Southern California Close-Ups: Joshua Tree and environs

A pair of climbers boulder around the rocks in Joshua Tree National Park.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Triet Le, 36, of Torrance climbs on Intersection Rock inside Joshua Tree National Park.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Phil Ouellette, 29, of New Brunswick, Canada, seated at bottom, looks through a climbing guidebook with friends who were camped out in Joshua Tree National Park with him.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Pie for the People, a pizzeria in Joshua Tree along State Route 62.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

This gleaming oval, near the edge of the town of Joshua Tree, is part of the High Desert Test Sites artworks.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Pioneertown, up on a plateau about five miles north of Yucca Valley, was built in the 1940s as a TV and movie set.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Pappy & Harriet’s, a bar, restaurant and live music venue in Pioneertown, draws an entertainment cross-section of desert-swellers, city slickers on holiday and musicians.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The Integratron, a white dome in Landers, was built as a tool for contacting space aliens but has become popular lately with musicians and others who like the acoustics within the dome.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Over the last 20 years, the city of Twentynine Palms has built a collection of historic murals on its walls.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Set on 56 acres and shaded by palms and tamarisks, this 52-room resort goes back to the earliest days of Desert Hot Springs.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

A visitor strolls through Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, where boardwalk trails trace paths past riparian brush and desert willows. More than 250 bird species have been recorded in the area.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Set on 56 acres and shaded by palms and tamarisks, this 52-room resort goes back to the earliest days of Desert Hot Springs.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Cabot’s Pueblo Museum in Desert Hot Springs includes a 40-foot wooden Indian head carved by artist Peter Toth in 1978.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

For just $7 on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday -- or $5 on most weekdays -- you buy a day pass at the Desert Hot Springs Spa Hotel (10805 Palm Drive, Desert Hot Springs). There, you meander among eight spring-fed pools, each a different temperature.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)