At 5,185 feet, Keys View in Joshua Tree National Park is located at the crest of the Little San Bernardino Mountains. This overlook takes in one of California’s grandest scenes:
Part of Salton Sea as seen from Keys View
To the south glimmers the Salton Sea; to the Southwest spreads the Coachella Valley floor, with the huge escarpment of the San Jacinto Mountains towering almost 10,000 feet above the valley, the high ridges coated with snow; and west lies San Gorgonio Pass, gateway to Los Angeles.
San Jacinto Mountains as seen from Keys View
If you are very lucky, you might be able to see Signal Mountain in Mexico, but the air pollution coming across from Los Angeles put a stop to that most of the time.
The viewpoint is named for pioneer rancher and miner Bill Keys, who lived here from 1910 to his death in 1969 at age eighty-nine.
It is a very short, wheelchair accessible hike from the parking lot to the viewpoint.
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