Hi-Desert Nature Museum

What an absolute treat to discover this place on our last trip to JT. Totally unexpected to find an art display with several cool exhibits! The nature side of the museum was awesome, live animals and amazing taxidermy examples too! Cleanup bathrooms also a plus.

This free museum is a must. They have interactive activities for young children. A display of local bugs and wildlife and some history of the valley. You can easily spend over an hour here. The workers are very informative and nice and it's a great place to escape the heat. Definitely make a stop here before you get to Joshua tree. There is a lot more to see here and do here, especially for kids than the Joshua Tree visitor center, but you should still check it out also.

What a wonderful little museum in Yucca! I was pleased to find out that there is no admission fee and they only humbly ask for a donation if you choose to donate. There is a new exhibit on pioneer women, a small exhibit of live animals and insects, and a main room of minerals and animal displays. This is a great place to learn something new and escape the sweltering summer heat!

Wow! A true hidden gem in Yucca Valley. The museum has a wealth of info about the Hi Desert, including taxidermy animals and live reptiles! Kid friendly. They also have a special exhibit about Leonardo DaVinci now until Sept 2025. Check the hours before you visit, as they are open Wed thru Sat. Free admission.

Pleasantly surprised by this museum. While small it’s packed with information and displays of a local animal species. They also had a nice playroom for kids. Would definitely recommend stopping by for a visit especially with young kids.

I love this place! They currently have a beautiful Abuelita's Mexican recipe exhibition. It will be available for viewing for a couple months.

What a gem this place is! Small but excellent little museum with really friendly staff. Our 7 & 4yos loved it and it was a perfect respite from the midday heat. Definitely check it out.

Great little interactive desert museum for families. I loved all things I've learned about the 'rock'. Wish I would have taken some pictures.

Very nice very clean everybody was very friendly and it was a nice little stop to make as we left the city even my 14-year-old son enjoyed it a lot of very interesting. Displays will come back.

Stopped here w my kids (4 and 6) and was so pleasantly surprised! It's small, but so good. Great taxidermy section for all ages, art and history exhibits for adults, play area for kids, and a bunch of live insects and reptiles. They let us hold the Madagascar hissing cockroaches and we learned so much about them!! We all loved it and it was one of the highlights of our visit to JT.

A treasure of a little museum, especially for being free, and away from the big cities. Animal and nature displays, with good explanations. Friendly staff.

I'll do this review as both a visitor and an exhibitor. Either way, they are utterly fantastic by any measure. As a visitor, for a small town to have a museum as nice as this one, with public outreach, found/recycled art exhibitions that showcase local artists, nature exhibits, animals, culture, and more, it's a total gem. The people who work there cannot possibly be friendlier or more attentive. This is the perfect place for parents or schools to bring kids, and a fantastic place altogether, with continually-changing exhibits. I just had my own night onphotography exhibit there, "Abandoned Planes Trains and Automobiles". The entire staff basically bent over backwards to make certain we had the best possible exhibit. They were extremely friendly, professional, and thoughtful. The opening night presentation with food and drink, how the photographs were displayed, responsive communication, suggestions, and more were completely on point. I only hope that all museums are run like this. When you consider that it's a small town, they likely operate on a shoestring budget, and the museum is still this good (and free!), it's all the more impressive. Definitely recommended.

Staff was super friendly! Fun exhibit about transportation. Great way to beat the heat and it's donation based!

This cute little museum worth the visit while in town. It was our first time to Joshua tree and this was a great way to spend some time learning about the area during our trip.

Visit this museum! We visited while we charged our Tesla (just across the parking lot) and it was a great little museum with very friendly & knowledgable staff/volunteers.

I love museums. I especially love small, local museums. And most of all I love small, local museums featuring nature and history. Unfortunately, I'm being generous with two stars on this one. Because of covid, entry is by reservation only. They give you 45 minutes for your slot and you get the whole museum to your party. Normally, that wouldn't be enough time, but it's plenty. There's a dinosaur in the cactus garden out front which doesn't make sense, and no signage explaining it. In fact, that's probably the biggest complaint I have for the museum. (The women mentioned at the start that unless you read every sign, we'd probably have enough time. I always read signs and I still had enough time!) There are some great "diagrams" displays of native plants and animals. Unfortunately, I didn't learn anything because nothing was labeled or signed. I did ask about the brown balls that looked like galls in a bush which we'd seen in Joshua Tree NP, the woman said they were galls but didn't know if they were from fly or wasps. (She looked it up for me and indeed they were flies). So speaking of insects, there are several large display cases of cool bugs. Except broad labels as to it being a beetle, for example, there's no explanation if these are found locally, what are the common names for the most common are, some important facts about their place in the ecosystem... or perhaps this is just a big collection someone donated. Most of the minerals are like cut pieces you'd buy, not like ones found. Again, no explanation of which are local or what significance they have. The most written explanation is in the cultural section. There was a good basket display (with signage), and a little about the native people, but not a lot else that was educational. The rotating exhibit about the Salton Sea was interesting, especially when we went to see Bombay Beach a couple say later. The exhibit should have been named after Helen Burns since it really was about her. When I asked the woman about the salt in the Salton Sea (and if it's caused by evaporation or what), she said it's from the agricultural runoff. (I know that's a main factor of why it's toxic and polluted, but not how it became saline.) So, unless you have time to kill, don't give up time in Joshua Tree or even a nap. You won't be missing much by skipping this museum, unfortunately. I hope the museum reads this because I am not trying to be mean. This could be an awesome museum right outside JT. They need to look at it as a chance to educate, and ask themselves what people would or should learn and understand after visiting their beautiful facility.

Great spot to take your kiddos! Right behind the local park so you can let them run around and then settle down inside the AC. Lots of things for them to see and play with.

Love this place. Fun play area for toddlers Friendly staff. Great indoor place to visit with kids in high desert!

What a wonderful little treasure. My family and I were staying nearby and I saw this place on googlemaps. They suggest a 2 per adult donation but give you nice post cards in exchange. It had great examples of local wild life in both live and museum piece animals. There was also a great exhibit with repurposed materials art. It wont take you long to go through the museum but for just a small suggested donation and wonderful air conditioning it was well worth the stop.

This is a nice little museum! If you'd like to get an introduction to the wildlife of Joshua Tree, this is a great place. Mounted examples of bobcats, foxes and red tailed hawks are in the display cases and live specimens of area snakes and tortoises are available for viewing. The museum also dedicates space for local history and artists.

Took my 3 year old here today and I was pleasantly surprised. It's a small museum, but it's FREE. There's a great little section just for kids... has things like nature books, puzzle boards, cooking dishes, old furnace oven, old washing board, train sets, building blocks, etc. Definitely saw a lot of pre k kids who seemed to be in their very own world playing there. Kind of a Montessori environment. Also, an exhibit on how toys are made- breaks down the mechanics for the kids. Very neat! There are lots of artifacts from the area and collections of insects and minerals, crystals, etc. I will be coming in more frequently! As well as donating.

This was a neat find in the middle of the desert! Exhibits, live desert animals and collections. They had things for my kids to do as well as plenty of educational material. The staff was friendly as well.

The staff is always friendly and helpful and the play area is kept clean. My kids enjoy going here often.

Adorable little museum and it's FREE! A great place to take the kids when it's 100+ degrees outside. Lots of activities to do for them and live snakes and other local desert creatures. They have a kids room full of toys and little tables to color and play.

The Hi-Desert Nature Museum is a jewel. The staff is very knowledgeable. The brown bag lectures are perfect for young and old. Out standing guest exhibitors. The Quest for Fire was something I would expect to see in a major city museum. Thanks for all you do!

A real good place to take the kids to learn something other than playing video games and texting they're friends. Can be improved upon though.

This is a great family place! Makes education fun for kids with various free activities put on by the community as well as live desert bugs and reptiles on exhibit. I was also very pleased with how clean and well kempt it was. I take my children as often as possible!

The city council attempted to close the museum but due to public outrage it was left open with reduced hours. I took my children here often when they were young, we used it as a cool space when using the playground during summer. A great place for kids to learn about the high desert with interactive learning displays and a rock room with a black light is always a favorite.