Featured Events & Tours

The City of Twentynine Palms, home of Joshua Tree National Park Headquarters and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, has exciting events happening year-round. From art receptions, open studio tours, parades, and car shows to birdwatching, wildflower walks, and camping, there is always something to do in 29! We invite you to enjoy our Mojave Desert vistas as you enter the great California Outback. See our current Featured Events below, or click here for a list of our Annual events.

Stop by the new Twentynine Palms Visitor Center and Chamber of Commerce office downtown for maps, brochures, and visitor information: 73484 29 Palms Hwy. at Desert Queen Ave., Twentynine Palms, CA 92277 - 760-367-6197. Open 9-5 Mon.-Fri., 10-4 Sat./Sun.

Theatre 29 - The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

AUGUST 27 TO SEPTEMBER  25, 2010

The Tony-award winning musical comedy "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" by Rachel Sheinkin, with music and lyrics by William Finn, garnered two Tony Awards in 2005 and became an international sensation. The musical centers on six young spellers (played by adults) in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, who learn that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't make you a loser.

Directed by Kathryn Ferguson, with Assistant Directors John Wright and Marty Neider, and Choreography by Derik Shopinski.

Performances are 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays from August 25 through Sept. 25, plus one Thursday performance at 7 p.m. Sept. 9, and one Sunday performance at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 19.  Tickets are $12 regular, $10 seniors and military, $8 children under 12 and students with I.D. Call the Box Office: (760)361-4151 or visit: www.theatre29.com.

Art Exhibits in Twentynine Palms

29 PALMS ART GALLERY, 74055 Cottonwood Dr. off National Park Dr., 29 Palms, (760)367-7819. Open Fri.-Sat.-Sun. 12-3 p.m. Monthly exhibits, art receptions, and art classes Sept. through May (open weekends only June-Aug.) Through August: The Summer Show, desert art by Twentynine Palms Artists Guild members.

29 PALMS CREATIVE CENTER & GALLERY, 6847 Adobe Road, 29 Palms, (760)361-1805. Open Mon.-Sat. 10-5 or by appointment. Artist studios, art classes, monthly exhibits and art receptions with live music and art performances Sept. through June. Reopen Sept. The Creative Center will be closed for summer hiatus from July 1 to Sept. 1, 2010.

29 PALMS INN, 73950 Inn Avenue, off National Park Drive, 29 Palms, (760)367-3505. Open 7 days a week. Bi-monthly art shows on the historic Inn's dining room gallery walls, sponsored by the Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council. Through Sept. 13: Penelope Krebbs watercolors and Tami Wood acrylic on wood.

ART IN PUBLIC PLACES AT CITY HALL, 6136 Adobe Road, 29 Palms, (760)367-6799. Open Mon.-Thurs. 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Bi-monthly exhibits in the City Hall gallery foyer, sponsored by the Public Arts Advisory Committee. Through August: Desert art and photography by Rocky Arnold and Pat Quandel.

A ROADSIDE ATTRACTION GALLERY, 69197 29 Palms Highway, Indian Cove area, 29 Palms, (760)362-4100. Open Mon.-Sat. Periodic art exhibits and receptions. Through August: Art by Mae Fox of Chaparral Artists. Info: Bruce Miller, (760)820-4933.

THE GLASS OUTHOUSE GALLERY, 77575 Hwy. 62 at Thunder Road, Wonder Valley, located off 29 Palms Highway 5 miles east of downtown 29 Palms, (760)367-3807. Open Tues.-Sat. 1-5 p.m. Seasonal exhibits and receptions featuring desert artists. Call for schedule.

THE SILK PURSE, Art & Antiques, 73519 29 Palms Highway, downtown 29 Palms, (760)367-2999. Open Tues.-Wed. 10-5, Thurs.-Sat. 10-6. Ongoing: Artist Robert Arnett's series of desert oil paintings, featuring Mojave Desert landscapes and Wonder Valley cabins.

TWENTYNINE PALMS VISITOR CENTER & GALLERY, 73484 29 Palms Hwy., 29 Palms, (760)367-6197. Open Mon.-Fri. 9-5 and Sat./Sun. 10-4. Gallery wall sponsored by the Public Arts Advisory Committee. Ongoing: 11 desert artists of Twentynine Palms exhibit oil paintings, watercolors, collage, mixed media, photography, assemblage and sculpture.

Keys Ranch Tours

Enjoy a "Living History" tour of the historic Desert Queen Ranch in Joshua Tree National Park and experience life in the early 1900s world of desert pioneers Bill and Frances Keys. Tours: Tues., Thurs., Sat., Sun. at 1 p.m. $5/$2.50. Read more below...

Press release 3-10-2010 - JTNP Living History Tours - Keys "Desert Queen" Ranch

Explore Twentynine Palms!

Weekly tours are offered of historic and cultural sites in Twentynine Palms. Contact the Chamber of Commerce for more information, (760)367-3445.

Wildflower Update - Spring 2010

Ample winter rains and gradually warming temperatures are stimulating growth of annual desert wildflowers at Joshua Tree National Park and surrounding areas in Twentynine Palms, CA, this Spring 2010.

Click here for WILDFLOWER information and UPDATES...

Desert Wildflowers in the Spring

	Verbena Dunes- Jim Bagley 2008

During the wildflower season each spring, more than 60 species of wildflowers can be seen in Joshua Tree National Park and in the surrounding desert areas of Twentynine Palms.

Bill Truesdell, retired chief of interpretation at Joshua Tree National Park, says not all species are visible from the road. When tourists find a good patch of flowers, they should stop, get out of their cars, and walk around. “They’re likely to find more than they really realize is there,” said Truesdell, who volunteers at the park.

Wildflower blooming varies from year to year, but generally occurs from February through May in the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree National Park, and Mojave National Preserve areas. Wildflower information is available at the Oasis Visitor Center in Joshua Tree National Park and the Kelso Depot Visitor Center at Mojave National Preserve.

Joshua Tree National Park offers wildflower walks. Visitors should call the park for dates and times. Joshua Tree National Park, 74485 National Park Drive, Twentynine Palms, CA 92277. (760)367-5500.  Visitors can also get wildflower updates at Joshua Tree National Park’s website: www.nps.gov/jotr or at Mojave National Preserve: www.nps.gov/moja.

Jackrabbit Homestead audio tours

"Jackrabbit Homestead: Tracing the Small Tract Act in the Southern California Landscape, 1938-2008" is a forthcoming book by Kim Stringfellow, available Fall 2009 from Center for American Places, and a Web-based multimedia presentation (available now!) featuring a downloadable car audio tour. The audio tour explores the cultural legacy of the Small Tract Act in Southern California's Morongo Basin region near Joshua Tree National Park. Stories from this regional history are told through voices of local residents, historians, and area artists -- many of whom reside in reclaimed historic cabins and use the structures as inspiration for their creative work.

The self-guided car audio tour and driving map of Wonder Valley -- a jackrabbit homesteading settlement located east of Twentynine Palms -- can be downloaded for free at www.jackrabbithomestead.com

The Jackrabbit Homestead project is made possible by a grant from the California Council for the Humanities as part of the Council's statewide California Stories Initiative.