Hiked January 19, 2025. I hiked to Samuelson's Rocks once before, from a slightly different starting point. That time, I just parked on the side of the road, off the pavement. This time, I couldn't find that spot, and the Alltrails suggestion didn't have a lot of room from the pavement. So I drove back a bit, and found a spot with an actual paved pullout.
The odd part is, I couldn't find my writeup for my first time here. I searched on this blog and on my personal facebook page. Either I didn't do a write-up, or I misspelled something. So that was part of my impetus for choosing this hike: Let's get a freaking write-up!
My pullout was also a trailhead for the Creosote Trail. This trail does not appear on the www.nps.gov/jotr website, but it will turn up on Alltrails.
It's a fair-sized pullout, with room for about 10 cars. Fully paved, with a curb. You can park further north or south of this pull out, if you can find room to park with your tires completely outside of the whiteline (if there is one) or pavement (if there is no white line), but it's more comfortable to merge back into traffic if your tires are on pavement.
As I noted, this trailhead did not appear on the park website that talks about day hikes. For refererence's sake, it's about .6 miles past (south) of the Maze trailhead, and about 2 miles south of the new West Entrance kiosks, on the right side of the road. Maybe 1/4 of a mile past that, there's another paved pullout, on the left side of the road.
Near the pull out is an informational sign about deserts, in general. Further away from the road is (was) a stand-up board, with a warning about staying cool and hydrated in the desert, and a warning that some trails from this trailhead are long and strenuous. Then there's a trailhead mileage sign.
The first 1/2 mile out is called the Creosote trail, although I saw a lot more juniper than creosote. Lots of rocks and boulder hills and Joshua trees, so a lot of people will park here and just spill out randomly nearby, posing for pictures. Even on my return trip, however, there were very few people going beyond that 1/2 mile.
At the half-mile point is a warning sign, advising that you are leavning the creosote trail, and the other trails form significantly longer loops. I continued forward, eventually turning left when I hit the Bigfoot Trail, heading towards the Samuelson West trail. Later, when the Samuelson West trail headed to the right, I continued on the Bigfoot trail.
Still lots of rocks and Joshua trees, although you are soon walking along a wash. At one of these large rock peaks, I saw what looked a little like a large foot, facing downward. A somewhat closer view of that "foot" is the last shot in this post. The "foot" is a little left and above center. Click on the photo in the post to view a larger verson of that shot.
I assume that's the big foot that gives this trail its name.
Samnuelson's Rocks is not super obvious, from a distance. You'll generally be heading towards some pretty tall peaks in the distance. When you get within a few hundred yards of Samuelson's Rocks, you may start seeing some artifacts (small rusted cans, large fallen water tank, lots of large planks and barbed wire, some standing, some laying on their sides, and a small, enclosed corral -- somewhat interestingly, you may note the grass inside the corral is often significantly greener than the grass outside the fencing). You'll need to veer a bit left, off the Bigfoot trail, to get to Samuelson's Rocks. Be looking for a small rise of rocks, or evidence of the corral, fences, or water tank.
There are a lot of flat rocks, on which the namesake John Samuelson carved or chisled many, many words. He lived here in the 1920s, and apparently had some intent to homestead the area and work a mine. Apparently, by this time, non-citizens could not file for homesteads, and he was later forced out. But he left his thoughts behind, as well as some fences and assorted detritus.
Although well over 50 years old, and, thus, subject to Antiquities Act protection, this phase of Joshua Tree's history does not appear to have been noted on the official sights or hikes to see in the park, and, as noted, is does not have an official spur trail leading to it. In searching the www.nps.gov/jotr site, in fact, I could find only one small reference to this site, in a management plan related to the 1994 change from a national monument to a national park.
Despite that, I think the site is still worth a visit, and a moment or two of contemplation. The grammar and spelling errors in the carvings just make you work harder to figure out the author's intent.
My Alltrails recording showed my distance as 4.88 miles roundtrip, and 394 feet of elevation gain. Most of that is on the slight incline on the return trip, though you'll also do some slightly climbing as you scramble around the rocks, looking for carvings. I'm not sure how many in total there are, or if I found them all, but I found plenty.
Temperatures were in the 60s or 70s when I walked, in the mid-morning of January 19, 2026. In the summer, this would be a hotter, tougher slog. In exteme heat, you probably shouldn't do it, at all.
This is one of at least three reasonable approaches to Samuelson's Rocks. Somewhat shorter is just parking a little further down the road, then heading directly away from the road until you hit Quail Springs Wash, then heading up the wash to Samuelson's Rocks, or starting at Quail Springs Rock Exhibit Area, then heading straight up Quail Springs Wash to Samuelson's Rocks.
Of these four approaches, the second one is the one I took the first time, and is the shortest. But it's just parking on the dirt adjacent to the road, with not a lot of room to slow to park or accelerate to merge back on to Park Blvd. I guess in theory, everyone's supposed to be going about 40mph, but that's not always the case, so merging or turning off of Park Blvd could be risky.
Given that, I'd suggest the route described here as the best balance of distance, scenic interest, and ease of parking.
Neither here nor in option 2 is there any restroom facility. For that (vault), I think you need to go to the Quail Springs exhibit area. There are also restrooms with running water near the old West Entrance, and vault toilets at numerous sites further inside the park.
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