U2's Joshua Tree

The Joshua tree that appears on the cover of U2's 1987 album The Joshua Tree stood on the south side of Highway 190 in the Panamint Valley near Death Valley, approximately 14 miles west of Father Crowley Lookout. It was photographed by Anton Corbijn during a shoot in the Mojave Desert — a stark, wind-twisted silhouette against a vast pale sky that became one of the most iconic album cover images in rock history. The album it graced sold over 25 million copies and made U2 one of the biggest bands in the world.

The tree itself died and fell in 2000, twenty years before it would have been eligible to become a California Heritage Tree. What remains is a dead stump at the roadside. But the site has become a genuine place of pilgrimage — fans leave guitar picks, ticket stubs, handwritten notes, bottles of Irish whiskey, broken instruments, and every manner of tribute at the spot. The pilgrimage continues regardless of the tree's condition; if anything, the fact of its death makes the visit more poignant.

To reach the site, park on Highway 190 about 8 miles east of the 136/190 intersection near Keeler and walk south from the road. The stump is about a quarter mile in. There is no marker, no signage — just the landscape and whatever the fans have left behind.